HAHA!! I've had that one close call but I got to save a kid one time that was WAAAAAY closer call than that...
...Was a bad cold nor-easter(basically a badass cold front that had slipped down and built VERY large surf up along the east coast)... another one of them days that noooobody else was gettin' in the water... just too dangerous...
....WELLL.... guess who just
HAD to make a round....
Me and the only other friend I could muster up to go with me, if for no other reason than to tell the story of my epic death...
... well, the air temp was in the low 50's that day... water temps were just about the same.... COLD conditions to say the least... we were both suited up with 3mill full suits, but were still terribly cold...
... I remember the paddle out... making it out past the shore break then the long, tedious paddle towards the impact zone, where the 6-8' storm surf was closing out.... (I still wake up in a cold sweat thinking about it..)
....SO... For those of you that have never surfed in big waves... the most dangerous point is what's called the "break point", the spot at which the swell peaks and crashes... the impact zone... as a surfer, your biggest fear is not being able to get past the "impact zone"... you get caught in it, well... you can get worked over real bad... you make it past, and it's all smiles and rainbows... you sittin' on the "outside" at that point and can "drop" back into the "impact zone" when you ready...
.... JUST as my partner and I committed our traverse through the impact zone... I heard a faint "help"......
.... now, not having seen ANY other people in the water up and down almost 5miles of beach on the way in... I thought I was imagining things and continued to paddle frantically as a massive breaker was about to demolish me if I didn't get under it....
.... as I popped up from a duck dive, I/we heard it again...."help".... my bud turned to me... neither of us wanted to acknowledge what we knew we had heard... we were in straight up self protection mode, just flat out trying not to get hurt ourselves...
... I remember saying "did you hear that"... the blank stare I got back confirmed that I had... now what to do about it...
...As the next breaker was heading towards us, I took a brief moment and turned to my left and saw a head and arm come up and go down about 200yds away... not good....
....In the middle of the impact zone I turned sideways and began to paddle, parallel to the beach, towards the person I no longer could see...
..He never did come back up.
...I got to the spot that I thought he was close to when he went down, kicked my board out and dove for the bottom.... made two dives feeling my way across the bottom as the waves crashed above me... pitch black, zero visibility with all the sand being kicked up by the waves...
....all of a sudden, I felt a foot.
...Snatched his ass to the surface and he was out out.... gave him a good smack and he started coughing as the next wave rolled us both and sent us back to the bottom...
...got back up and he made eye contact with me... spoooky... I told him to grab aholt of my board but he was done... pulled him up and threw him on his belly onto my surfboard(in 10' of water with waves kickin' my ass) and realized... HE WAS BUTT NAKED!!!
.... "this just keeps gettin' better" I remember tellin' myself...
...about that time my bud finally came draggin' up, beat to chit from the breakers and saw the mess I'd gotten into.... we limped towards the shore(we were over a quarter mile out at this point).... every time a breaker would hit us,(at this point, the dudes ass was basically in my face...) I'd have to bear-hug the passed out neckid dude on my surfboard as we got swept end over end under water as the wave passed... good times.... good times...
... Finally got to shore and a crowd had gathered, everyone was bundled up in winter clothes... strange mental image still...
...Drug his ass up on shore and he was finally coherent enuff to realize he had no clothes on... apparently, he'd tried to go surfing, lost his board and his shorts in the storm surf...
... I ran and got him a pair of shorts from my truck... he asked me "what can I do to ever repay you".... "don't ever get in the water again" is what I said as I headed back into the water to finish my day in the surf...
...That was one lucky son of a bitch right there...
JD, sounds good man, sometimes these hurricane swells get hard to catch when that wind switches around out of the west!!! A tow in would be sweeeeet!!!
