Scary Surf Moments

[isaluteyou]

Im sure this has to happen at least once to every surfer.

Well the surf was windchopped and pretty angry/big considering. Anyway i was positioned wrong and took a wave on the head. I immerge and my board is not attached to me. The leash snapped Im nt overly concerned with that but then an outside set started breaking i saw at least five lots of large angry whitewter speeding towards me.

Now im pretty decent at duckdiving but i had a 7'8 with me and my turtling sucks pluss im surfing reefside rih by a pier so i was kinda sweating it a bit. anyway i made it through the waves barely. Now im sitting there thinking how the bloody hell am i going to get ashore if i lose my bored im screwed

So i took the chicken way out i bodyboarded a shoulder and turned straight riding the whitewater when i stopped speeding so quickly i popped up and shot the pier making it back to beach break.

Ugh why do these things happen at the worst time in the worst possible conditions

[gdude335]

not begin such a great surfer, these are my scariest moments.
I learned t surf in france, well, 2 weeks in a monitor proposes me to go out back, where there were shoulder height waves +
So, i try to catch a wave, tried it too early, the wave breaks after, i start slowly runing back on my bic 7.3 and notice another wave coming in, get smashed and then, my leash gets caught around my feet so i couldnt open them.
Remember, these waves where huge for me and i had never gotten my leash stuck on anything. I used my hands to get to the surface and get pummeled by 2 other waves. I managed to get my feet free during that moment.

[miamisurfer]

For the first few times I went surfing I didn't have a leash. So every time I would fall trying to learn tricks I would have to swim all the way back to shore.

[Milo]

Don`t know if this counts, sitting out back at Saunton ( North Devon ) minding my own, and a very large seal pops up next to me.
Scared the crap out of me

[Otter]

Surfing at Abs, Pt. Loma, Sunset Cliffs, San Diego, CA. USA. December 24, 2005. Largest waves in 10 years with this storm. I'm on the outside, on my 10'. Wrong choice of board for the conditions. Waves are 20'-25' faces, steep and hollow. After attempting several take offs, I realized things weren't working and I decided to paddle in. I look to the horizon, nothing terribly unusual so I start paddling in. The huge amounts of water are flowing back to sea, I'm going against the "tide" so to speak and not making much progress. I turn around to check the horizon and there is a set coming in from way, way outside. I turn to face the set, paddling my little butt off as are all the other surfers on the outside. My buddy, also riding a 10' board, barely makes it over the top and bails off his board, punching himself through the lip. His board, on end, could easilly have stood on top of itself, and not gone from the bottom to the top of the wave, I estimate between 22'-25' face. I'm about 10'-15' in front of the impact zone. This is the largest wave I have ever been in the water with, and it breaks right in front of me. I get thrashed. I'm held under for at least 45 seconds, although it felt like an eternity. There is nothing but bubbles to try and swim in, and bubbles won't float you. I recover my breath, gasping deeply for air. In So Cal, sets usually come in 3's. The second wave thrashes me. I've had enough. I grab my board (somehow the leash didn't snap) turn toward shore and grab hold with all my stregth. The wave breaks practically directly behind, lifts my body off the board, wrenching my back, but I hold on. In about a half a second, I'm going from 0 to about 45 mph. That was my scariest experience, except perhaps for seeing the headless seal floating through the lineup at La Jolla Shores...

[Clark]

Don`t know if this counts, sitting out back at Saunton ( North Devon ) minding my own, and a very large seal pops up next to me.
Scared the crap out of me

i had the very same thing happen to me in the north sea (scarborough) it s**t the life out me i just turned around and this thing was staring at me i think i laid something.......

[justloafing]

Well this was probably back in 1989. I went to an island with a friend of mine. A tropical storm was hanging off the coast and the faces were probably 8-10 ft. I had no business going out and knew it(I had never stood up). I had a 7 ft. board. My friend was a good surfer so he was stoked. Well getting out was hard but I made it.

I went for a wave and I ended up on the very top of it as it was breaking. I went over the falls. I swear to God I got bent so far backwards that my heels of my feet almost hit the back of my head. It hurt like hell but I held my breath and took a pummeling. The wave left me right in the impact zone. As soon as I came up and I got my bearings another crashed right on my head. I ended up getting my board as the 3rd one slammed me. The last two washed me in far enough so I was in the whitewater. I got my board again and made it to the beach beat up but ok. I hurt for a few days after that.