What was your worst surfing injury?

Icu812

Nep status
Jun 23, 2013
621
1,476
93
73
WEST of 101
I've had to get stitches a couple times--first time surfing excellent waves up here in northern cal, buddy and I are both scratching for a set, he bails right in front of me, entangled in the white water, board hits me in the back of the head, got a big opening. Cold water kind of cauterized it so I stayed out 'cause the waves were so good. Also bounced off the bottom at Honolua Bay a few years ago, had to get stitches in my elbow. I didn't think I needed 'em but the wife and her friends looked at it and exclaimed "there's meat showing in there dude!". But the worst injury I know of was when a friend punctured his femoral artery at HTs. His buddy saved his life by sticking his hand in there and stopping the bleeding. Then an 8hr ride back across the channel to Padang with his lower extremities packed in all the frozen food on board to get to a hospital. Gnarly...
 

gbg

Miki Dora status
Jan 22, 2006
3,866
3,378
113
Compound fracture of my tibia right above my ankle. Same injury resulted in spiral fracture of my fibula. Still have the 18 inch titanium rod in my tibia.
 

casa_mugrienta

Duke status
Apr 13, 2008
43,209
17,636
113
Petak Island
the worst injury I know of was when a friend punctured his femoral artery at HTs. His buddy saved his life by sticking his hand in there and stopping the bleeding. Then an 8hr ride back across the channel to Padang with his lower extremities packed in all the frozen food on board to get to a hospital. Gnarly...
WTF

Worst case scenario.

Story time, please.....
 

Sharky

Phil Edwards status
Feb 25, 2006
6,828
9,061
113
I have a friend that, when he was young, ate it shooting the pier at Malibu. By the time they got him to the beach, he was dead. It just so happened that there had been a wreck in which someone had died up on the PCH. The paramedics wound up on the beach with my friend and were able to revive him. Got his heart started, got him breathing again.

Same guy is surfing Drainpipes. Somehow he winds up with his board at the bottom of the wave and him at the top, going down. Head first into the deck of his board. He broke his neck. Drove himself to the hospital with his head laying on his shoulder. Walked in to the ER that way. The freaked. Somehow he didn't get paralyzed. He had to wear one of those halo things where they literally have bolts torqued into your skull.

His mom told him she loved him, but she couldn't handle this surfing sh!t. Told him to get out of the house until he quit. So he became a boatman in Fiji. Then he moved to PPK's Island in the 80's. I surfed with him over there a couple of times. He was charging everything. Large powerful stuff. And he never got hurt again. lol. But California was going to kill him.
 

Iceman

Phil Edwards status
Apr 1, 2002
6,254
1,017
113
NorCenCal
Broke my toe when I kicked a rock on the beach while my gaze was fixed on a big set at Uppers years ago.

Took my own board to the face after getting caught inside by a huge set at a very off-the-beaten-path spot. Gave me a pretty good cut on my nose that probably would have warranted stitches had I been closer to medical help. Ended up with the only black eye of my life so far.

Perforated eardrum after a flyaway kickout and my head landing sideways on the water.

:shrug::shrug::shrug: