what was your scariest experience surfing?

[LegendByDay]

1) Mine was getting sucked out to sea about 2 miles from shore, got stuck in a heavy rip.

Lucky there where dudes out with Jet ski's!! Waited 15min though, I got really paranoid and scared like a little bitch because of the intense shark population around Cape Town! This happened just about 6 weeks ago

2) I had a 2.5 Great White bump me just a little over a year ago we saw the fin 20m away but within seconds it bumped me obviously out of curiosity, still have the board with the ding the size of a soccer ball in it! Lucky I was on a 7ft board! Beach was evacuated and shark was spotted about 3miles away by shark spotter in a chopper.

Yes we actually have shark spotters here in sunny South Africa!

[twerked]

yeah, i'd say getting bumped by something. i was out right around sunset, by myself, on pea island (nobody around for miles). just off the edge of the sandbar, water was murky. i felt something rough slam into my leg. might have just been a big fish, might have just been something else, but i got out damn quick.

[isaluteyou]

well the one that takes the cake is almost drowning when i got held under for an excrutiating lenght of time to this day i have never experienced anything like it and im no stranger to surfing powerfull waves and long hold downs. Thats the closest i have ever come to drowning almost didnt make it out of that one alive

Another situation that springs to mind that could have potentially been really really bad was when i caught a sizable wave which actually was my ride of the day and one of the longest rides i have ever caught - pulled it right to the inside where it bowled up into this mutant 6ft style tube and the reef below sucked out and went completely dry i couldnt pull out the wave but had to launch myself over the first few rocks into this heavy closeout tube and ended up getting slammed on the reef . eventually after getting dragged for ages over the rocks i came to without a scratch and to my amazement no ding to my board - to this day i surf that particular break with a lot more respect and caution when i pull into the inside section.

[HJ236]

I was attacked by seaweed

[LegendByDay]

well the one that takes the cake is almost drowning when i got held under for an excrutiating lenght of time to this day i have never experienced anything like it and im no stranger to surfing powerfull waves and long hold downs. Thats the closest i have ever come to drowning almost didnt make it out of that one alive

Another situation that springs to mind that could have potentially been really really bad was when i caught a sizable wave which actually was my ride of the day and one of the longest rides i have ever caught - pulled it right to the inside where it bowled up into this mutant 6ft style tube and the reef below sucked out and went completely dry i couldnt pull out the wave but had to launch myself over the first few rocks into this heavy closeout tube and ended up getting slammed on the reef . eventually after getting dragged for ages over the rocks i came to without a scratch and to my amazement no ding to my board - to this day i surf that particular break with a lot more respect and caution when i pull into the inside section.

dude that is crazy!! reef is my second biggest fear in surfing!! luck man you are!! I SALUTE YOU!

[LegendByDay]

I was attacked by seaweed

wait till the Kelp comes alive, the you are fuct

[paul.harper]

I was surfing in gans bay (south africa) caught a good 5ft right hander turned at the bottom railed the lip as the board swung down again i just saw a row of white teeth took the nose off the board put my hand down as i fell forward and ripped my finger to bits in its mouth got the scar to prove it as well ive never xxxxx my slef so much in my life took me 2 months to get back in the swell.

gotta love the those great whites awesome animals even if he thought i was dinner lol

[Kristof]

You guys are putting me off of surfing outside of Europe, hehe

[esonscar]

I stubbed my toe once !!!!!!!!! ( ^^^^^ omg )

[raekwon chef]

Paddling out at pipe. It wasn't a big day, but the waves were nothing to laugh at. Just paddling out there you have this sense that youre going to die. I had the same feeling when I was out in kaneohe on a big day. For those who havent surfed pyramid rock, on good days the water is extremely bumpy yet the waves are relatively clean. I saw this 20 foot sneaker come out of nowhere and needless to say I wiped out and was held under for longer than I should have. When I hit the surface I couldn't believe I was alive.

[garbarrage]

1) very similar to isaluteyou... DOH day at a pretty heavy reef. well out of my league but couldn't find anywhere good that day that was in my league. sitting wide petrified of the mental waves rolling through when an even bigger one broke way out back. tried to duckdive and ended up going backwards and upside down over the falls. when i clipped the bottom my board was stuck to my chest. finally got it off me before being rag dolled for another little while. when i finally came up i was blue. a couple of surfers where off their boards looking for me as my board had been tombstoning and they thought i was stuck to the bottom. paddled in puked up a load of water and was a bit more careful about choosing what breaks to surf.... for a while at least. that was about a year ago now and only just getting the cahones to surf big waves again in the last couple of months.

2) out on my own on a pretty remote beach on a mellow enough day. was sitting out back when a seal popped it's head up about 5 feet away. nearly pooped. something about being out on my own always leaves me a bit more jittery than normal. know full well we have nearly no dangerous sharks (or anything else for that matter) in our waters. but scared the hell out of me.

[IB_Surfer]

I was surfing small jetty at OB on a good big day, made the inside connector and was ripping and wipped out, right on top of the jetty. Got a knock on the head and was kind of groggy , but was still on the jetty! The next wave hit and it rolled me on the jetty even more. Finally I started scampering and got away from the jetty. When I got out I was bleeding from my forehead and had bruises up and down my legs and arms, my wetsuit was shredded on the arms and legs and my board had a bunch of dings. I hit the jetty so hard that the bruises on my shins never healed right, I have black spots, sort of like dead meat under my skin, that just never healed right.

[Young blood]

When i first started surfing i got my first " real wave " on the open face, so it was about 6 ft and just roaring through i told myself i had to catch this XD, although i did , I wiped out onto my board and my leesh wrapped around my leggs 3 times entwining them together and catching the reef i took like 30 secs trying to get out of it and i somehow got out of it eventually......i couldnt wait for my next wave

[bitness]

Years ago I kicked something firm when out with another guy in fairly thick red tide (gross). It was a panicky few moments when a sea turtle popped-up. We got a good laugh and the turtle kind of just hung out with us. The guy I was surfing with was then the deputy harbor master (now harbor master) and shot back to shore when it went back under, to call it in to some wildlife agency (with the hopes of tagging it), but it was long gone by the time they got there. (This is why I wood burned a turtle on the Alaia I made over the winter).

I've been bitten on the toes by crabs too - takes a second to realize a pinch isn't the same as losing your legs

[bitness]

If you want to come out of the water looking like you just got worked by a shark, check this out... http://bit.ly/TrmXK

[TReMoR]

id have to say hold downs are scary. But the scariest was last week when my board rebounded from my leash and smacked me in the mouth... it was scary, because of an incident i was involved in late last year wehre i almost had to get 4 root canals when my surfboard smashed into my jaw .. thought it might be a repeat :0!! SO SCARRYY

[Beachbum]

haha I have a funny experience, and luckily I didn't get hurt. A surfer caught a wave and was pumping down the line and I thought I could paddle over the wave before he reached me, but I didn't make it in time. The surfer decided to do a cutback right on top of me, as I duck dived but his fins still sliced down my back. I thought I was a goner and my back was shredded to pieces, but luckily he had rubber fins .

Now, I'll just take the white-wash to avoid ruining a surfer's ride, or paddle in overdrive to make it over the wave in time.

[crepuscular]

had couple of scary situations, like leash got tangled in the reef, etc... but the worst probably was when I decided to go out to tackle 5-7ft waves after recovering from an arm injury, which was a stupid thing to do, because the current was so strong and my arms were so weak that it took me to a place where there's a lot of reef. I was so freaked out so I started to keep on paddling out and called out for help, because was totally think I'm a gonner if I get caught by a wave and throw me onto the reef. Luckily another surfer was around, so he helped me to got onto the otherside of the reef so I can get out. I did end up with quite a few cuts to my legs, and dinged my board quite badly, but thank goodness I was able to get out alive...

[dougirwin13]

Being in the water with a Great White.

Never saw it but I felt it! I now know the difference between instinct and paranoia.

It was over 4 meters long within 20 meters of me. Shark chopper chased it off.

Freaky.

[vandangos]

squished myself into an old wetsuit (too small for me) paddled out with limited movement lol was 3-4 ft but took about 10-15mins to get out due to one hell of a long paddle out, first wave i caught leash snapped and waited for someone to give me a lift in (about 30mins), luckily my board was washed up on the beach.