Every Surfers Worst Nightmare...

My preferred technique is to watch videos on the Internet.

As a surf photographer I only have one more tip for these situations: - Think always about the next one. It doesn't matter if a big wave is going to smash you, while you are diving you have to think "the next one is worst" instead of "just this and I'm safe". Think always there is a next one because many times will be. That with the calm and the breathe made myself to escape from many dangerous situations for me and my camera.

In my younger days I could hold my breath for almost three minutes. I've never had a hold down that even came close to scaring me. I used to LOVE getting ragdolled when it was inevitable. Going limp and just letting the water do it's thing was one of the most relaxing experience ever, like a big massaging washing machine.

Old surfer here. I surfed in the days before board chords, in the 70's, at Hanalei. My mantra was to wrap my arms around my board when going over the falls. I've been tucked many a time washing machine fashion. Also relax and let the wave action have its way with you. If/ when you loose your board stay in the white water as it will push you to shore. Stay away from all channels as all that water is rushing off the reef and rushing back to sea. The white water is actually your friend and body surf it back to shore. Never surf big waves when you are physically tired. Rest on shore and surf another day.

Wear a buoyancy vest! Got caught inside on a 10 plus day at my local reef about 400m offshore. Had to bail, stand and dive method, got a couple of strokes down as it got hold of me. Got a breath as I came out of the back of the wave, while getting sucked over, then got obliterated. Popped up as the next one was about to unload on me. Smashed again but washed out of impact zone. Third and fourth were a mountains of white water. Leggy held and I finally got my board back spun around and got bounced by the fifth wave. I was 52! Shook me up. The vest saved my life. Just a wakeboard impact vest with stomach pads removed. Still surfing at 59 but keep it real nowadays. No 10 foot days but wear my vest when solid. Stay fit and flexible. Riding a 9”1” Takayama. So much fun. Keep surfing

i used live in California and id surf most everyday when i was a teenager. got to play around in some bigger waves and learn the ocean at the same time. i am 33 now, I haven't surfed in many years, but i still have dreams of being trapped in big waves when my life is in turmoil. the feeling of being powerless and tossed around is a unique one, not easily forgotten.

I surf the North Shore of Hawaii Island and I've had some pretty bad hold downs. Letting my board go is definitely a last resort, because it will be destroyed on the rocks if your leash breaks. Having said that, when a 20' wall of water is coming down on your head, you definitely don't want to be near the surface. Holding your board won't matter, because it will absolutely be snatched out of your hands like candy from a baby. Even if you have your arms wrapped around your board and your hands locked together, there is no way you'll be able to hold on. It really is incredible to have something as big as your gun, ripped from your arms instantly, like less than a tenth of a second. If you do somehow hold on, you'll lose so much yardage, it's a real possibility that both you and your board will be dashed on the rocks. If it's a mountain of whitewater, I'll make an effort to duck, but if it's too big and I can't get under the initial impact, I know I failed immediately and I'll just let my board go and continue my duckdive without the board. I usually lose less ground this way, but the down side is, you have to reel in your board and if it's upside down, you'll be swimming under the next wave too and so on. 🤔 Now that I think about it, why do I even do this, it's insane. 🤣

Three years ago, I was a lower-level intermediate when I first went over the falls. I was paddling in for the evening at Kings Beach in Queensland, Australia. I reached the shore break and thought I would try to catch one. It was really dumpy and the wave looked like it was closing out; I hesitated thinking about what to do and then pulled back- one second too late. I failed to throw my board to the side and got slammed down over it when it hit the seafloor. Cracked two ribs and coughed up blood. It turned out not to be serious, but I couldn't lie on a surfboard for four weeks it hurt so much. Lesson learned: hesitation is a surfer's bane.

Great presentation! Although I'm now 70 years old and never really surfed I appreciate what you surfers are doing and applaud you all!!!!

If above 10' in a bad impact zone, I always go for option 3. Grab my board by the rails, chest on the tail and wait for the turbulent six feet white wash roll to shoot me like a rocket towards the shore. Definitely more fun than struggling to breath for a minute.

A couple of other things that always made a big difference for me was also making sure you have a much longer leash for 8 - 10 foot swells and above. Also on reef breaks I found opening my eyes after getting washing machined in impact zones helped me get a much quicker orientation of where the surface was. I came very close once in the 90,s surfing on La Graciosa at el corral in the Canaries. it was a solid 6-8 foot rising swell with cross offshore winds and I got caught out by a rogue set. one of my friends who had gone in because the wind was starting to swing cross onshore started shouting and whistling and I just had time to realize a much bigger set was coming in but could not make it out of the impact zone in time. I dove down toward the reef as far as I could just before impact and still got totally ragdolled and took the second wave over me while still under. I remember opening my eyes punching for the light and just making it in time for a brief second of air before taking the third wall over me. My head was pounding and I was seeing loads of multi colored lights but thankfully I had been washed down point so was able to get some breaths in before the tail end of the fourth wave. I paddled back out and just sat there going WTF just happened before getting out which is a whole other fiddle to there in big swells lol Epic times though no regrets. Also If poss try and flatten your body out as much as you can when wiping and getting sucked over in heavy shore breaks and shallow reefs.

Scariest hold down I ever experienced, I wiped out while on the face of the wave....seemed like 50', when it was probably 10-12' at most....I got clipped by the heavy lip of the barrel, wind knocked out of me immediately when I crashed into the bottom of the wave hard, than I got sucked up by the wave, felt the weightless free fall as I'm going down sideways through the air/over the falls and impact the water hard again ....rinse and repeat....two more waves the exact same size come charging right at me....one bigger than the next....kept calm, controlled my breath, knowing when I fell on the first one what to expect... Than I opened my eyes....EVERYTHING BLACK.... Absolutely scared me to death and I panicked, didn't know which way was up, didn't know how my body was even orientated to the surface....literally thought I'm going to drown, I have the wind knocked out of me, I remained patient for what seemed like an hour and now I can't even find the way out....pitch black all around, f***ing terrifying..... Next wave hits, boom....thank God, it wrapped my leash around my mid-section as I went through the washing machine again, so I was able to unravel it real quick and follow the leash to my board on the surface....and than boom, hit again, but at least I took the biggest one second inhale any human has ever done before..... I have never experienced such a time in my life such as that where I resigned myself to dying..... Finally find the surface after the set....I'm stuck inside at Sunset Cliffs, SD and the waves keep firing....no beach, inside is only cliffs....took me 45 minutes of continuous duck dives to finally make it out of the cove and not get pummeled against the rocks.....thank God I was young and in good surfing shape, otherwise I think there would be some makeshift cross with my name on it up along the road/tourist spots asking the cliffs

It had been dead flat all day when I heard that perfect sets had begun rolling in at Bells 8 minutes apart. It was 8:30pm with only 30 min of daylight so my friend and I drove done and sure enough perfect waves were coming in in 8 min intervals and there was no one out so my friend and I paddled to the usual take off spot and didn't have to wait long for the sets to start rolling in but we very quickly realised that the waves were 2x-3x what were estimated from the cliff and were are least 12-15 foot (hard to tell when there was no one in the water) and were peaking a good 100 metres further out that normal. We began paddling like made to make it over the first wave which we barely made (they wave were so high that our ears popped as we went up the face) but there was no way were were gonna make it past the 2nd and 3rd and they broke right on top of use. Unlike regular waves, when these broke it was initially like being under Niagra falls and the wave would initially push you down, then after a split second it was like an explosion and you wouldnt know which way was up. One thing that does not get conveyed when seeing huge waves on video is that when the waves are right in front of you they fill up your peripheral vision as well so the wave is not just high, it fills your entire vision. Never been rag dolled so hard before and when I started paddling for the surface I realised I was actually paddling down. One other scary / memorable 'over the falls' wipeout was when I was surfing Jan Juc's bird rock at low tide where I could see the seaweed as the wave would suck up on take off. Not particularly big, 4-5 foot reef break, but has fast hollow short rides especially at low tide. On this particularly large wave I was probably six feet too far forward (the takeoff area is tiny) and was lip thrown so hard that I cleared the wave like I had been shot from a cannon and I instinctively positioned my body as horizontal as possible with arms outstretched as I expected to hit the reef but surprisingly didn't and thought 'hmmm, that didn't seem as shallow as I thought' until I stood up and found that the water was maximum only 4 feet deep. Was a miracle I didn't get a cracked skull that day.

Over the falls is the worst, because you are being propelled into the explosion zone like a pile driver. Being in the explosion zone is as bad but you don’t have the added momentum of the wave throwing you down. The water is your friend, it will cushion the force of the wave so the deeper you are, the safer you are.

This is actually a REALLY good tutorial. Most “tutorials” are no better than sweaty balls on a hot day, but this one actually gives good suggestions. #3, taking a moment to gather yourself and look for other surfers to help get your bearings is something many folks miss when getting hammered. It feels like an eternity, but in reality it just isn’t that long when taking a couple to the head. Being calm uses less oxygen internally. Best advice I can give folks is to practice holding your breath outside of the water. If you can hold your breath for 90 seconds, that should be enough for most surfers. Those who surf big waves need more, but for the average guy or gal who surfs, it’s rare to find yourself on waves bigger than 10-15’ faces.

These guys are superhuman living through that. I can hold my breath a long time in a still environment but right after heavy paddling, maybe getting only a half breath, and facing a savage beating, I don't know how these guys do this.

I was surfing Ocean Beach in San Francisco on a moderately big day probably double overhead. Anyone who surfs there knows that wipeouts can be brutal even on smaller swells. I paddled into a pretty big one, but was just too late and free fell down the face. At first I thought no big deal. I hit feet first and went deep and thought OK it’ll just pass over me. But suddenly the turbulence wrapped my leash around my ankles and then I was 20+ feet down and hog tied. I couldn’t use my feet to kick up, so I was freaking out, trying to swim up with one arm while using the other hand to try and get my leash untangled. Then I could feel the next wave breaking on top and knew I was in for at least a two wave hold down. I definitely was starting panic and to see spots in front of my eyes when the drag from my board pulled from the second wave me up to the surface, and I was able to get the leash un tangled before the next wave hit. But definitely puts the fear of God in you, It’s the panic that gets you, not the wave. I’m guessing I was underwater for 30, maybe 40 seconds tops but it felt like 5 minutes.

Best surf channel on YT ! I’d say a,b and c depending on size, kind of wave (spilling, plunging ) and position to shore or distance to direct impactzone

Sometimes the pressure going over the falls pushes all the air out of the lungs. Doesnt matter how fit you are in big surf if a combitination of things go wrong its game over

Love it, absolutely love the sensation of going over backwards. Big tip , relax and enjoy the ride.