I'm self admittedly accident prone but this morning takes the cake in my 40+ years of surfing. Probably my 4th time surfing Wedge and I was getting a few, nothing crazy, it was several feet overhead. I was packing a set wave closeout and while I was rebounding off the bottom in about three feet of water, my board came down to say hello. In under two seconds my fins opened an 6" hole in the front of my wetsuit jacket where my sternum is, a 2" hole on the left elbow of the jacket, and a 1/4" hole on my left ring finger just below my cuticle.
I've never been hit so hard and not have had at least moderate damage to my board. There are some stress shatters around my right fin which seems to have been the culprit for the injuries, but everything is watertight. I got a few Steri-strips on my elbow plus my chest and some Superglue to close the cut on my finger, but luckily, I won't have to get my board fixed.
My wife, daughter and I were heading down from Redondo to watch some of my friends' heats at the Brooks Street contest in Laguna. I wanted to get some "real" waves before parking it on the beach in Laguna to watch the comp. The waves were really fun all day at Brooks and now my sore body wishes I just caught a few at Oak/Thalia rather than my Wedge beating.
Keep an eye out for Scout Mitchell. She was surfing in the 16+ women's at Brooks. She f'in rips and was doing some backside turns that put the guys' to shame.
