A reef north of Santa Cruz, March 2001, a late season swell lining up with some 15 foot sets. Stiff northerly's already turning side-shore as I take off at the main peak thinking I'm barely going to beat this section. As I drop in and try to keep a high line, I realize I won't make the next section. I straighten out a bit to gain speed to escape the section about to slam down on me. That lip comes down inches from my rail as it blasts my board away from me.

So I take off my leash and try to yank it free. It is jammed so hard in there, I cannot. The next wave comes as I have a death grip on the cord and go under. The wave just yanks the cord out of my hands and I realize I now have limited vision in my right eye although very blurry. I am now half-blind and having to swim about a quarter mile to shore in heavy surf. As I get halfway in I realize I am drifting in to the channel and the sea foam is getting thick. As I get more into the channel the harder I am swimming to move to shore. Now I am in what appears to be the safety zone with the sea foam 6" thick in some places and bitter tasting while fight the outgoing rip current in the channel. I'm inhaling more of that foam and it is bitter and making me cough as I realize this rip is too strong to fight. So I start swimming, coughing, and gagging down towards the creek outlet to face the shore pound. A bodyboarder appears out of nowhere and he appears to have the same strategy I do. He sees me coughing and gagging and offers some rest on his board. So we are now two guys on a boogie board paddling it sideways to the shore pound. There appears to be a lull in the sets and we go hard towards the shore. We are making progress when the next set comes, a 10-foot shore pound breaking 40 yards in front of the creek. We are 38 yards in front of the creek. I try to go under but the wave just reached down and picked me up like I was Ally McBeal in a hurricane. I swear the sand went through my crotch seam and up my anal orifice.

The end result was that my nose guard on my board prevented me from picking up Jack O'Neill's fashion trademark. I only got a black eye as it jabbed me at the top of my eyeball, into the socket. And I swear I can still taste the bitterness in that sea foam to this day.

On January 15th 2000 me and a bud were driving the coast looking for the spot we would surf that day. Started in SF and checked OB but the winds were wrong so we headed south. Past Half Moon Bay we saw an offshore double overhead set roll though at a heavy beach break. I immediately thought it was just a fluke. My buddy wanted to surf it but I have lived in the area a lot longer new that spot NEVER breaks very well and nobody was out so I thought we would score better farther south. We drove to various reefs around but my friend insisted that we drive back to the heavy beach break. When we got back there were about 6 guys out and we paddled out on the north end looking left into these hollow barrels. Most of the guys were caught inside and it was hard making it past the shore pound but got out and pulled into a few nice lefts.

I was paddling into a set wave and new I was going to be late so I tried to angle it and set my rail early. I looked down directly below me and there is my friend. I hesitated for him to dive and was pitched sideways. When I hit the water my board was almost sideways and my foot just snapped. I can up and pulled my foot up and it was already double in size. With more waves coming I swam on my board with my foot up in the air to try and get out of the water. Now there's a huge shore break and a current taking up the coast but I managed to get to shore. I crawled about 1/2 mile on my knee's to the car and tried to get out of my suit but couldn't get it over my foot due to the pain. Bud drove me directly to Seton in HMB and they took one look, gave me drugs and sent me to Seton SF. Anyway after 4 days in the hospital and 2 surgeries, the first one taking 6 hours to dig bone fragments out I was in a cast with rods, screws and pins in my foot. During the next 8 months I had 2 more surgeries. Loss of work and not being able to get around I was so bummed. I eventually started surfing a longboard after cutting my cast off in frustration 4 months early. Today almost 2 years later the foot is brand new and I surf almost everyday. Man that was painful to write... Glenn

My worst wipeout. Up at bitch o'clock to get the morning goods somewhere along the Central/North Coast. The morning drive in the dark without coffee because cafes don't open until 6:00. The pressure starts building with anticipation. Fast forward to the session: Big North Swell-18 feet 17 seconds. Dropping in on 1st wave I get clubbed over the head by the lip and dragged to the bottom for about 15 seconds. No Problem! 2nd wave, I slip getting up and do the Kook Knee Shuffle never quite getting to my feet only to get battered back to paddling position and walloped by a giant closeout wave. Spun 3 times and taken to the bottom, another 15 second hold down. No problem!

Now I'm pissed. 3rd and final wave- I wait for one of the bigger set waves determined to make it and set the tone for the rest of my session. I take the second wave of a big set. Under gunned on a 6'8" I am way behind this behemoth and in desperate jeopardy of blowing yet another perfect wave. I make the drop (whew!) and throw everything I've got into a heaping bottom turn hoping it will shoot me somewhere close to the make-able face and breaking lip. All my energy backfires, literally. The bottom drops out, except it's not the bottom I'm expecting. My suit completely soiled with the remains of last nights Burrito. I shit my suit! Now, not only am I getting totally hammered, but I got issues out of the water if I survive this beating. In all the confusion any waterman instincts have been overruled by what seems a more pressing matter.

Soon I find myself pinned on the reef taking lumps on the head one after another. Some of the boys are on the beach and I'm thinking they're going to think I shit my suit in fear pinned on the reef. Meanwhile things in the suit are definitely getting pretty uncomfortable. Still in trouble on the inside I duck dive for my life under the first wave of a new set. Having purchased a hooded wetsuit and becoming disenchanted with it, I don't wear the hood anymore. The hood just hangs out on my back for the ride. As I'm duck diving, the wave catches my hood, fills it up with water and rips it clean from my suit. At the same time a burst of cold, cold water flushes my suit inflating it like the stay puff marshmallow man in Ghostbusters and pretty much cleans me up. With a gaping hole in the neck portion of my suit I realize that a few more duck dives and I'll be clean as a whistle. I duck dive the rest of the set and feel peachy clean. With all this water moving on the inside of my suit and the lineup I turn and catch a ride with a small whitewater wave to the channel and eventually to shore where my only embarrassment lies with comments of "whoa dude you got worked". A small price to pay considering the circumstances. And that has to be my all time worst wipe out.

After driving up and down the coast looking for manageable waves, I found myself back at the Beach-for better or worse. It was one of those big days at Ocean Beach when the buoys were ringing every 25 seconds. Three hundred guys on the beach and only five in the water. The long interval between sets left a calm that made VFW like a lake. I, against the advice of my kneeboarding friend, paddled out on my 7'10" wide-body. Dry hair paddle out. I waited 10 minutes for a wave and decided I was too far out. So, I paddled in just about the time the monster sets started firing. I clawed over-by the skin of my teeth; four waves which were bigger than I had witnessed before. The colossal fifth wave pitched and broke two feet in front of me. No need to tell you how long it seemed before I surfaced to find my leash snapped and my board broken in two pieces. Still feeling like I was going to drown I had to swim into shore without the help on encapsulated foam. It was a long arduous swim in with no help or encouragement because there were no available surfers in the water. Once in, I laid on the beach for an hour and fell asleep. Happy to be on solid ground. For months after I suffered a moderate version of post traumatic stress disorder. Every duck dive, wipe out and close call brought me back to that day in the Winter of 1999.

My worst wipeout is not about the wipeout itself, but the circumstances that made my wipeout, a damn good wipeout. A few years back, the season was getting started and being an Ocean Beach surfer, I found myself in need of different ways to stay warm. I thought it would be a good idea to invest in a hood, but little did I know, this hood would be part of my "wipeout contest" some years later.

I went into the surf shop and tried all the different types of hoods and after trying three or four hoods, I finally found a hood big enough for my big-ass head. I thought to myself how nice it would be to paddle out with out getting the infamous 'ice-cream headaches' and so... I put it on my credit card.

So, I waited, and waited, and eventually, there was a swell from Alaska ready to hit Ocean beach and I would be ready with my new hood. The next morning the swell hit and I paddled out to double overhead surf, Ocean Beach-style, but unlike the fog that usually coats the beach, on this day the sun was bright and the air warm. After catching a few waves, while I was paddling back out, the hood made it unbearably hot in the hood, so I pulled it back as it hang around my neck.

I waited outside for an outside set and I saw a wave way out at sea, not knowing if I was going to make it over. I made it over the first one and I was in front of wave number two when I decided to turn my board around and go for the late drop.... I didn't make the drop. I found myself in the white water paying my dues as expected, but what was to come next, I could never expect. I was being CHOKED, and I didn't know what it was that was CHOKING me. At first it was a tug, and then I was CHOKING, thinking my leash had wrapped around my neck. As I was being tumbled by the white water, I didn't know which way was up or which way was down, but worst of all, I knew that the tension around my neck was getting unbearable, when, SNAP! I came up to the surface and took a huge breath as I regained my bearings. The hood had filled with water and it built enough tension till it snapped right off. I never found my hood.

The next day, people would come up and give me a pat on the back thinking I was depressed because it looked like I tried to hang myself.

I will make this short and sweet. I was surfing Puerto Escondido, Mexico. Double overhead day, no channel. Not being from there, I paddled inside to catch smaller wave. Set comes, perfect timing right? I take a set wave on the head. Come up for air to see a boogieboarder taking a late drop. Aimed right at me. I yell, "Nooooooo!" Wave and Sponger slam into me. I go over the falls and get pressed to the bottom. Come up for air. Board busted in two. I grab the tail and boogieboard in. The Puerto backwash hits me and my half board. The board smashes me in the nose. I crawl to the beach eyes watering wondering if I will ever paddle out at this beach again?