Axed by the reef - Share your stories.

[offshore]

Well, this is something that hasn't been covered before. Share your stories with us, where you have hurt, been freaked, or broken a bone surfing a reef, beachbreak or whatever else takes your fancy....

Got nailed by the lip at Redsands, then it sucked dry in front of me.

I got pushed onto the dry reef, and to make matters worse, my leggie was caught on cunji or something, and there was a bomb set looming. I had to take my legrope off, get back into deeper water, and then swim to my board after it got washed off the rocks.

All in all, exciting, I was unscathed, but my board really copped it.

[daltz]

between winki and deadies
- a perf. ear drum
- snapped lig. in knee
- feet full of sea urchines
and numerous snapped sticks.

still ya can't put a price on the barrel, lookin thru to curly and freshy like an almond shapped picture frame.

[_cant_touch_this]

oh well oceanskk8er i reckon ya got rocks in yar head...what were you thinking?!?!?!

iv probly posted this story before on another thread but surfing newport reef i took the first wave of the set, pulle din, only to get axed by the lip. next wave is coming at me as whitewash, try to duckdive, eat reef due to shallowness and get washed onto knee deep water in the middle of the reef with waves coming from both sides pounding me over the rocks. i should have gotten up, you might say. well i would have if it wasnt for the bajillions of urchins in the crevaces and the fact my leggie was wrapped around a rock and the strain on it had basically renderd that leg useless and i couldnt get to my ankle to undo my leggie. eventually my leggie snaps under the pressure and cos of the strain it was under, board goes shooting off towards the south side (the sharky, deep water side) and i go the other way, stillgetiing pounded. i have to basically belly-crawl across rocks (no putting feet down - urchins) over the other side, all the while getting washed around by waves coming in at both sides. eventually get to my board and manage to paddle in, after getting in i find my foot, which is now red, missing a chunk out of my big toe and numerous cuts on my legs and the tops of me feet and forearms..

theres my story....oh hang on, got another. same spot.

on a reasonable day, 3' bigger sets and southerly increasing to a quite strong breeze, chopping up the water quite alot. anywayz... 4 of us out and if you wanted to take a wave between sets, (30min wait for 2 wave sets) you would have to negotiote the closeness to dry reef in which the takeoff zone had drifted to. and right on the spot where you would gat into thewave and be standing up, a massive rock would go dry, RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU. one takeoff i got pitched and landed on the rock on my back, farken hurt soooo much. the other guy watching thought i got cartwheeled onto my head and was wondering if hed be takin me n on a stretcher...not to be...

[prepare]

every single serious injury ive ever got has been at 1 place, a offshore reef break that likes to see me bleed and scares me like nothing else.

very difficult to rock off and get back on the rocks when its breaking and getting caught inside is a bitch, so much water moving over the reef once you get passed a certain point its impossible to get to deeper water and you basically get sucked at speed into some pretty large rocks and have to aim for the gaps then try climb a 2m high ledge all while dealing with some serious backwash.

got 3 stiches to my hand this easter there, sliced my forehead open 2 years ago, looked really funny i could lifted like half of my scalp up with my hair lol. cut back of my head open few years ago as well. some guy few years ago had to be air lifted out caus he messed himself up.

when i was younger (14/15) I used to almost cry when my dad used to drag me out and alot of times i thought I was going to die when I got caught inside.

[walloper]

North narrabeen point last summer 2003-----i took a right @ narrabeen point (narrabeen oint is shallow rock ledge that breaks left) and it was on big 6 foot day! got barreled, but because i took a right when it's a left pointbreak, it just sucked me under and kept barreling underwater- with me drowning like almost a minute without air (some can hold breath for 6.?? mins, but try that while your spinning over and over------ by the time i got air, another wave smashed into my face just i come up 2 breath------ my leash then snaps and i have no energy to swim in------- but somehow i made it in_____

this scared me heaps but i still go back to that spot when it's big, but i dont go taking rights when it's a left pointbreak!!!!!!!!!!

Northy Point isn't surfable at 6 foot, it just closes out, in fact it breaks outside the point and is just a mess of whitewash. Unless you're talking 6 foot on the face.

Anyone who goes right there should go to Collaroy.

Yes, it's a mongrel of a hold down, crazy hold down, but not a minute. It was probably 10 seconds, but felt like ages. If it was a minute you would have had at least 4 or 5 waves break over you, by then you'd be well and truly sucked over to the channel.

Maybe if you replaced the words "narrabeen point" with "15 foot Chopes" I might be able to read it without pissing myself laughing.



Now, my worst reefings were in Indo last month. Surfing low tide Supersuck I'd taken a few floggings, but most of the time had managed to keep my feet (I love booties) between me and the reef, but I had plenty of cuts. There was 6 of us out, it was cranking, and everyone was bleeding. I took a set, pulled in to one of the best barrels of my life, and with a couple of the boys hooting at me from the shoulder I just ran out of water. I went over onto dry reef square on my back. I hit it dead flat, so although the impact was huge I was lucky I didn't get dragged along or I woulda been in a really bad way. Couldn't stand up when I got to the boat, pretty scary.

Surfing Scar reef the next day, courtesy of Panadeine Forte, it was big, solid 8 foot plus (triple overhead sets), and 4 of us were struggling big time to paddle into them. I got the first wave of a set, got absolutely slaughtered, and the next 5 waves of the set pushed me onto the reef. I was standing in less than knee deep water for the next 20 minutes jumping over whitewash, completely unable to get off the reef until there was a good lull. Didn't get cut, but it still sucked. Got it on video too.

There's only been two times I thought I was gonna die, one was trying to duckdive a big set at the bower during the July 200? swell, ended up going over the falls backwards and got dragged for so long that I got past the point of panicking. I surfaced just as someone started pulling on my leggie to drag me up. Thought I was gone. The other was at Deadmans. Just got axed. Simple.

[zzz]

Yes, it's a mongrel of a hold down, crazy hold down, but not a minute. It was probably 10 seconds, but felt like ages. If it was a minute you would have had at least 4 or 5 waves break over you, by then you'd be well and truly sucked over to the channel.

Mate he's dead right there. Next time your held down try counting seconds rather than panicking, you'd be surprised how short it is.
Also watch a vid of jaws and count two waves - not that long really is it? Except when your adrenalins pumping and you're out of breath it seems a lot longer eh?

[_cant_touch_this]

also, when yar down, panicking only seems like its been longer cos it uses the oxygen in your system quicker, hence less time on yar clock before yar tank is empty. whenever i get held under, i let the turbulence have its way with me, then once its gone, try to work out which way is up and swim (not madly) for it.

[nubby]

faaaaaaaaark! i could fill the rest of this page!..........just the other week(when ever that last swell was?) i got reemed at winki. take a dodgy one off second reef and try to link it when no link is on offer, a coupla cracked ribs, thankyou very much......this little spot has also dished out dozens of stitches, a coupla head scans and corked thigh that took over a month to work loose(easily the worst one of em all)........then there is oz pipe and the hundreds of souveniers its let me keep in my feet, or me krinked neck i got from whale wedge after gettin creamed on that inside bank that had me walkin round with me head on its side for a fortnight...then theres dy point, fark....and gilloes ect ect.......and then all the coral kisses from indo!....maybe im unlucky or stupid, or both?

[HB]

Prepare: F**k me. Where the hell is that place?

Nubs: full marks for putting yourself in the situation to take so much punishment. That's also how you get the most epic waves -the ones you do make.

And Daltz: Deadies is a crazy place to surf. It's like one in five waves is semi-makeable. Good onya for having a dig, though.

Touch wood, I've been pretty lucky. Got scratched up all over in Tahiti - both hands, elbows, knees,feet and my back.

In Morroco I thought I was going to die as I got washed onto a sheer cliff face in a solid eight ft swell. Sliced my feet open in the process.

Went back to a place a bit further north once they healed up and ended up paying kids to pick about 60 urchins out of my feet.

[baldric]

there's a place down the south coast that if ya fall ya lose heapsa skin...end of story....and it's about a three quarter hour trek back to the car, so we used ta take a medical kit with us....although last time I was out there some arsholes from further north came down in a boat and anchored off the break....nothin' worse than trekin' that far and havin' half a dozen dickheads come in and think they own the joint....not ta mention we had ta patch one of 'em up 'cause he lost a heap of flesh from his foot....

also got dragged along the reef at 4ft low tide Ulluwatu...must have used a gallon of mecurichrome (or whatever that red stuff is called).

lots of other places but those two were the most memorable places I've been.

[WiNzA]

bar reef 6ft low tide.
took off too late
enuff said
never again

[Nikko]

faaaaaaaaark! i could fill the rest of this page!..........just the other week i got reemed at winki. take a dodgy one off second reef and try to link it when no link is on offer, a coupla cracked ribs, thankyou very much......this little spot has also dished out dozens of stitches, a coupla head scans and corked thigh that took over a month to work loose(easily the worst one of em all)............and then all the coral kisses from indo!....maybe im unlucky or stupid, or both?

Hi Nubby,

Mate I'm with you... Had enough of injuries, they suck BIG time...
Must say though on this last sojourn I was pretty lucky with the reefs.
By that I mean that I didn't get anything serious; no stiches required is what I mean.
Also enjoying seeing all my ulcerations finally closing up....
One note though, the weirdest thing happened when I had my first surf back in Oz. The soles of my feet peeled right off similar to a snake? The salt was highly visible on my skin post surf & I was suprised how burnt I got from such a short burst in the sun in only average temperatures?
All this seems to suggest that our waters are nowhere near as clean or clear of pollutants and friendly bacteria.
Man I'm missing it...

[happyknappy]

a few years back, out at dee why point. it was a 7 ft SE swell so it was breaking from 1st rock all the way through into suck up and so on. some good barrels that day. but got this one wave, about five foot, came through suck up and it closed out so rolled out of it. when i popped out of the whitewash i was heading for the inside pop up rocks, so i tried to bail backunder it but it had too much force and it just dragged me over those rocks for so long. only a few cuts so it was a bit of a laugh. wont be hitting closeouts that early when its that big out there any more, maybe

[One Mile Point]

Have u ever been stuck like half a mile out to sea but waves still breaking miles out and u got close setw aves just smashing then u got da waves in between that are smashing you then been washed onto the rocks then been sucked out by the permament rip into the whiteqash then back onto the rocks for 5mins broke my leg.

[One Mile Point]

i try when i at school in middle of class to do it fast