Your most frightening experience

[BoMan]

Have you ever been really scared? Did it change the way you ride?



I was 19 and [url=Steamer]surfing Steamer's Lane[/url] during winter break. In 1970 most boards didn't have leashes and I rode my new 6'11" fish very carefully to avoid getting the first ding. I couldn't keep up with a heavy, fast wave and got pounded while the board sped into shore. When I came up for air, the first thing I heard was the crunch of my board striking the sides of a rocky inlet. Aaargh! I swam after it and found myself struggling with a hard object, surrounded by rocks and facing an incoming set. The first wave slammed me into the board but the second pitched me near an outcrop that I was able to climb and safely wait. When the water finally calmed, I grabbed what was left of my board and paddled away.

Before that experience, I thought I was bullet proof. Afterward, I decided to use my brain as well as my strength and began learning how to stay safe.

[oldmansurfer]

I had my board go up on the rocks at Pokemoes quite a few times. It was before the use of leashes and it breaks in front of a cliff so if you wipeout on the takeoff or shortly after which I didn't do every time that I surfed there but often enough then it's almost certain that you will have to go retrieve your board off the boulders at the bottom of the cliff. I had paipo boarded there before surfing so I was familiar with the currents and the waves so wasn't too scared but it was scary going up on the boulders to get your board. It was all about timing and being quick and maybe a little luck too because I never got dashed into the rocks retrieving my boards as I heard happened to others. I almost drowned once but i wasn't scared. I went paipo boarding and came face to face with a huge tiger shark. THAT WAS SCARY!!! I fell on my board on the sand with the fin pointing up THAT WAS SCARY!!!! didn't really change anything

[Big H]

I went out back about two months after I first started....slightly overhead hollow and barrelling....was on a mini mal and was thrown like I hadn't to that point and experienced my first real ride in the washing machine.....the board hit me twice apparently as I was bleeding and there were two big dings, one on each side of the board.....top it off when I finally caught my breath I realised I was in my first rip and getting pulled out.....well with all my two months of paddle fitness and still in shock from getting bucked so hard, I thought for sure I was a goner and on my way to a watery death somewhere between there and China.

I've since surfed that break in more difficult conditions and look back fondly on the memory as it highlights the importance of experience in terms of being able to manage a stressful situation. At the time it was beyond my abilities to manage effectively, but with continued development and experiences, it isn't a very difficult spot anymore.

[oldmansurfer]

I forgot to mention that probably a big factor in my success retrieving my board from the boulders at Pokemoes is that I used to do an activity that I call rock hopping. I would go with a friend or by myself and find a stream bed that was lined with boulders. Then hop from boulder to boulder. We used to play a game similar to follow the leader hopping from boulder to boulder. I became so accustomed to it that I could run full tilt across an expanse of boulders. I did this on days when I didn't go surfing. Just by chance I was very familiar with climbing over boulder quickly so maybe that's why it wasn't so scary to me just a little.
I guess as far as changing my behavior the time I fell on my fin was when I was surfing at Kealia beach and there was a group of girls spocking the surfers so I thought I would ride a wave all the way to the beach and maybe that would impress them. I rode this wave and actually had a pretty good ride and kept going till it was breaking onto dry sand. I intended to jump off onto the sand but the wave jumped up and flipped me up in the air and my board landed on the beach with the fin pointing up and I was going to land on the up pointed fin with my rear end and did land on it since I could not change trajectory once airborne. I did manage to use my legs to lessen the impact and it just so happened to hit me in the least harmful area. I mean an inch one way and I would be talking in a higher voice for the rest of my life and an inch the other way and I would have lost my virginity. I did make a decision right then to never do that again no mater how many pretty girls are spocking me on the beach.. As far as the rest of scares I knew the risks and so be it.

[icetime]

I've never really been frightened by anything in the water like big waves, nothing so far.
But what has changed the way I surf is my first time surfing a shallow reef, during my first session at a shallow reef spot I got washed on the reef and was basically in knee high water while decently sized waves 4ft or so came for me, the reef was mossy so I wasn't worried of getting cut but it made me more cautious when surfing shallow breaks, now I avoid messing up in the critical parts of the wave and only try stupid things on the shoulder

[Oldie]

It was frightening to me but probably normal to more experienced surfers. I went during a lesson with our coach into very powerful 4-6ft 16s waves. According to surf forecast 1500kj energy. The waves looked fine from the beach, but as you got closer it was obvious how strong they where. I got out without issues, but then for the first time in my life had a wipeout in which i was held down for some time , lost orientation and when i came up, immediately got the next one one the head. This feeling of being held down and compeletely without control was completely new and unexpected and i did panic.While I got used to it during more poundings over the next days, it was a scary experience at first and also showed me my limits.

This was the day, but that is another surfer, not me...

[icetime]

It was frightening to me but probably normal to more experienced surfers. I went during a lesson with our coach into very powerful 4-6ft 16s waves. According to surf forecast 1500kj energy. The waves looked fine from the beach, but as you got closer it was obvious how strong they where. I got out without issues, but then for the first time in my life had a wipeout in which i was held down for some time , lost orientation and when i came up, immediately got the next one one the head. This feeling of being held down and compeletely without control was completely new and unexpected and i did panic.While I got used to it during more poundings over the next days, it was a scary experience at first and also showed me my limits.

This was the day, but that is another surfer, not me...

Wave looks a bit hollow, is it a reef break or just a sandy beach break?
reef breaks aren't common where I live
Same thing happened to me, I prepared a lot for dealing with overhead surf like breath holding and being calm but I realized that during my first day out in OH conditions being tossed in cart wheels and losing orientation is a bit unnerving and basically spooked me out for a minute while I was getting pounded from then on I figured out that you can't really prepare for a situation unless you live through it, nowadays when I'm getting my butt handed to me I go back to shore with a smile

[oldmansurfer]

It was frightening to me but probably normal to more experienced surfers.

I realized recently that perhaps my whole life was set up to make me a surfer. As a very young child I almost drowned which made me want to learn to swim really well. I took swimming lessons and by the time I was in the fourth grade I was one of the fastest swimmers around. As a very young child I used to manipulate my parents by holding my breath so I actually got really good at holding my breath. Add that to swimming and I was challenging myself to hold my breath underwater at a very young age. I joined the swim team and was the fastest swimmer my age for a while. Then slowly others started passing me up. I realize now it is because I was growing rapidly during that time but back then it was so disappointing that I quit and channeled that energy to bodysurfing. I bodysurfed bigger and bigger waves and that got me to not be afraid of bigger waves or taking a pounding. Still to this day the wipeouts I endured numerous times on a single day of bodysurfing bigger waves were far worse than 99.99% of the wipeouts I had surfing. IN 10 foot plus waves I used to get held under 30 seconds on bodysurfing wipeouts and I almost never get held under that long surfing 10 foot waves and since I could easily hold my breath for over a minute it wasn't too challenging to hold it for 30 seconds. The violence of the wipeouts was much greater in bodysurfing too. I almost never get pounded like that surfing. Bodysurfing also taught me to keep track of the bottom and prepare for contact. So perhaps I am not like most surfers because as a beginner surfer I was never scared of bigger waves or getting pounded.

[Oldie]

Wave looks a bit hollow, is it a reef break or just a sandy beach break

It is just a sandy beach break not too far from you - Conil de la Frontera in Andalusia. Usually it is more mellow in April ( when this happened)

[BoMan]

Now in retirement, I have the luxury of surfing 7 days/week and using Magic Seaweed to go when the waves are 5 feet or less. Safer and FUN.

[oldmansurfer]

One of the problems you run into surfing (at a more advanced level than I am currently at) is trying to get speed while in the tube. On your front side it is relatively easy just do little speed turns but the shape of the wave is wrong on backside and if you try speed turns you will often hit your head on the lip or at least I do and this makes you wipe out or at least me. Anyway I tried to figure out a way to overcome this problem and finally I found that instead of a little speed turn which raises your head a hard speed turn that puts your head down the wave since you assume an upside down position might work. Anyway this worked so good that eventually I thought I wonder if I can do this frontside? So one day I went out at Hanalei which is a right that breaks huge and tubing on the north shore of Kauai. It was about 5 or 6 feet so maybe 10 to 12 foot faces and I gave it a try but instead of trying it while I am completely tubed I thought maybe try it under the lip. So the very first time I did it the lip smacked me in the chest and it was quite powerful and to my surprise I stayed on my board and completed the turn back down the face. After thinking about it I decided that was fun I want to do that again so I preceded to do this same maneuver multiple times. I think I did it a couple times on more than a couple waves and lots more I did it once on the wave and a variety of other stuff. Then I turned under the lip on a section where the lip wasn't pitching over real fast and the lip just kind of grabbed me and held me there. My board fell down the wave as I dangled there and I could see it was still below me as the wave let me go. I was really scared. I had heard about other surfers such as Gerry Lopez who fell on their boards and got serious injuries. Any way I fell and landed on my board only to find it was still right side up and I was riding on my back and that was scary too. I could see the wave was walled up and going to tube out in front of me and grabbed the rails and tilted the board to guide it into a better position for the tube. then it suddenly became not scary, I got totally tubed with the lip hitting in front of the tip of my board and my laying on my back with me feet forward position gave me a very unique and beautiful perspective on the wave. I was just stoked and thinking if I get pounded this was worth it. It seemed pretty much assured I would wipe out since I couldn't do much laying on my back but then I came out of the tube and I could see it was lining up to tube again so I decide it would be awesome to stand and do the second tube standing so I stood up and wiped out. I was paddling back out and a surfer who was paddling out come up to me and said "That was awesome man. What do you call that?" I answered "wiping out". He said "no man the trick you did is called something.....the coffin? yeah it's the coffin" I asked him "did you see how I ended up like that?" He said "no". So I told him about how I was doing this maneuver and got held by the lip and fell on my board. And he said "I wish I could do that" I said "Do which the turning under the lip or the riding on my back?" He said "yeah the back thing. That was awesome I would have just wiped out." Anyway one of the themes I see over and over is if you don't fall off your board then people think you know how to surf. But I was also quite scared and never tried to do that trick frontside again.

[RinkyDink]

Watching the following video clip.

https://www.instagram.com/p/8eomU5KF2p/

(The clip is better with the sound off, in my opinion.) The question I wonder about is if the unfortunate surfer who took off on that wave could have seen the danger of the bottom of the wave dropping out before he even paddled out. I'm not sure where that break is, but I wonder if the waves regularly turn into vertical walls there. Anyway, it gives me something to look for when I watch waves from the beach before going out. It almost looks like that's a double wave where there is a 3 foot wave breaking on top and a 7 foot vertical death wall breaking below.

[oldmansurfer]

He should have bailed from the board unless he had some idea he was going to land it. If he watched from the shoreline before going out he should have had a clue it was going to be sucking up heavy in that area. If he had that idea then he could have ankle turned the board at the top to minimize contact with the wave at the top and get the board to release down the face quicker. That is how you handle sucking up steep waves with a longboard. plus with the board turned so that only the side rail is in the water the nose pushes itself back out when it hits the angled water between the vertical face and the flats at the bottom of a steep drop.

[oldmansurfer]

I looked at that again and it looks like he did turn the board a bit but then it hit the double wave and the nose went up and it turned back. I don't know..... but gnarly wave. I have to deal with stuff like that often. if there is a will there is a way.

[Tudeo]

Watching the following video clip.

https://www.instagram.com/p/8eomU5KF2p/

(The clip is better with the sound off, in my opinion.)

I try to keep away from shore breaks, the backwash makes them too hard to predict imo. I learned the hard way, creasing my (then) favorite board when a very doable shorebrake wave suddenly jacked up during takeoff, I was on my feet but it went too fast for me to react, the board went straight down and the nose hit the sand and broke

Btw. the guy editing that soundtrack in seems to enjoy people getting hurt..

[RinkyDink]

I looked at that again and it looks like he did turn the board a bit but then it hit the double wave and the nose went up and it turned back. I don't know..... but gnarly wave. I have to deal with stuff like that often. if there is a will there is a way.

Yeah, I think he turned the board and things don't look too bad, but then his board just drops out from under him and he loses contact with it. Nothing he could do at that point. It is a gnarly wave; it looks a lot like some of the waves that come through Ocean Beach in San Fran.

[RinkyDink]

Watching the following video clip.

https://www.instagram.com/p/8eomU5KF2p/

(The clip is better with the sound off, in my opinion.)

I try to keep away from shore breaks, the backwash makes them too hard to predict imo. I learned the hard way, creasing my (then) favorite board when a very doable shorebrake wave suddenly jacked up during takeoff, I was on my feet but it went too fast for me to react, the board went straight down and the nose hit the sand and broke

Btw. the guy editing that soundtrack in seems to enjoy people getting hurt..

I hear that. Shorebreak just ain't worth the trouble.

[oldmansurfer]

I looked at that again and it looks like he did turn the board a bit but then it hit the double wave and the nose went up and it turned back. I don't know..... but gnarly wave. I have to deal with stuff like that often. if there is a will there is a way.

Yeah, I think he turned the board and things don't look too bad, but then his board just drops out from under him and he loses contact with it. Nothing he could do at that point. It is a gnarly wave; it looks a lot like some of the waves that come through Ocean Beach in San Fran.

He could certainly do something on the next wave

[dtc]

photographer is a guy named Chris Whitey https://www.instagram.com/chris.whitey/

[oldmansurfer]

I looked at that again and it looks like he did turn the board a bit but then it hit the double wave and the nose went up and it turned back. I don't know..... but gnarly wave. I have to deal with stuff like that often. if there is a will there is a way.

Yeah, I think he turned the board and things don't look too bad, but then his board just drops out from under him and he loses contact with it. Nothing he could do at that point. It is a gnarly wave; it looks a lot like some of the waves that come through Ocean Beach in San Fran.

He could certainly do something on the next wave

Things to try. Well first of all unless you expect to land an air drop don't try to do it on that huge of a drop. Bail off your board. I am sure he could see the wave was going concave below him so he knew he was going to airdrop. If not he was way out of his league and he should never have been there in the first place. Next thing at least in my experience if you have the board turned when it goes airborne then when it lands it does a little sideways squiggle that always makes me fall so If I am not squared up really well I may bail depending on the situation and in this case maybe even at the top of the wave. So he could try to paddle harder or longer and get more down the face before popping up. He could try to get on the front wave instead of the back wave of that double wave. He could try lining up in a different spot maybe deeper from there where he did. He could try putting a lot of pressure on his front foot to push the board down faster. It seems like he stepped back on the tail causing the nose of the board to pop up definitely not a good thing when the wave is getting steep below you. Hard to tell from the video if he was a skilled surfer or not since he almost landed that drop but one foot slipped off. Maybe he was just lucky (or unlucky actually) to land with one foot on the board.