Pro surfer Tom Dosland probably wasn’t planning for his January to include a nomination for 2016’s “Wipeout of the Year” — but an epic free-fall from an estimated four storeys may have earned him just that.
Dosland, and several other surfers, were on their boards Jan. 27 at Jaws in Hawaii (also known as Pe’ahi) when he said a wave that resembled a “sea monster” rose out of the ocean and came his way.
“I was going. No matter what,” Dosland told Surfer Magazine. “So I flipped around and started paddling to get into it.”
That was the easy part. Dosland says he was “pretty much blinded” as he reached the wave’s peak because of spray that was coming off its face.
Reality hit as he “dropped in” — surfing lingo for engaging the wave.
“I was free falling for a while. It felt like I jumped off a cliff,” he explained.
“I hit the face and it was just a brutal beating, like I was in a car crash. It was so intense that I basically froze and forgot to pull my vest.”
Dosland did eventually remember to activate his vest and surfaced. He says he came away with just a stiff neck and a busted board.
The World Surf League called Dosland’s recent fall “one of the craziest wipeouts we’ve ever seen” on Twitter. A video recording of the fall had been viewed nearly one million times on YouTube.