Steve Pike

The grim reaper stalks us in mysterious ways. When he strikes, there is seldom warning. A colleague of mine escaped his cold clutches by a whisker a week ago today.

It was a glorious day. The ocean was a deep blue, creased with the dark lines of an epic swell. Bodyboarder Brendan Woodcock parked at Noordhoek beach and checked out the surf, which was firing.

He noticed that everyone was excitedly heading down the beach, but no one seemed interested in heading to the other option.

It was a solid swell, and perhaps many thought it was too big for the spot. Walking down, he could see that while a bit challenging, it looked epic. And no one was out!

Barrels are guaranteed at this spot if you don’t have to hussle for them.

He watched for 10 minutes to make sure. Set waves here can spell danger. They break hard, and can wash you on to rocks. However, it was a clean swell and the waves were spitting when they broke – the tubing signal that gets surfers frothing.

Paddling out, he made it out to the back, but spent 25 minutes fighting the rip and stiff offshore winds to get into place to catch a wave. He hooked one, and got barrelled down the line until it closed out. Stoked!

About half an hour passed of surfing alone, when other guys began to paddle out. If they hadn’t, Brendan would probably have lost his life.

Taking off on a wave, he landed hard and had to jam an immediate bottom turn to race the impact zone and hook back up on to the face of the curling tube. However, the top of the wave – the lip – smacked him in the back of the head.

“I’ve had heavy beatings in the years that I’ve been in the water, as we all have, but this was something I’ve never quite experienced. The force of the lip smashed my face into my board and really knocked me silly. My first thought was that I’d shattered my front teeth.”

Concussed and whoozy, he felt the world turn into a blurred slur. The main problem, however, was his arms and legs. They were not listening to his brain. They flopped around like alien tentacles.

He was trapped in a foaming impact zone, with surging white water walls rolling over him, then draining back out to sea.

This roiling rip sucks you back out, but the whump of another wave on the shallow sandbar smacks you back. Another bomb blasted on the bank, ripping his board away.

At this spot, if you cannot paddle and you’re stuck in the impact zone in strong surf, there is no way out. He was feebly fighting the rip. He was feebly trying to bodysurf the white water to shore.

It was a matter of time. The reaper beckoned with a bony finger.

By this time, he had raised his hand, the surfer’s universal SOS sign. A dramatic video shot from the beach by Dave McMaster provides scary proof of this. You can also see how fast the rip flows by the speed the upturned hand drifts across the screen, only to be engulfed in white water again.

“This is it!” he thought. “My time is up.”

But another two bodyboarders, Aden Kleve and Wilder Schultz, had noticed his distress. As a bonus, Aden is a trained lifeguard. They paddled to him.

“Aden asked if I was OK and as far as I can remember, all I said was something about having a concussion.”

Aden got Brendan on to his bodyboard and they rode a small wave to the shallows. “Aden was brilliant, he kept telling me to hold on to the board and that everything was cool and I didn’t have to do anything.”

We live to surf another day. Just make sure you don’t surf alone.

Fiji Pro

THE Fiji Pro 2014 window period opens tomorrow and the top pros will be looking forward to some epic waves at the grinding lefthander they call Cloudbreak. Volcom has pulled out of sponsoring the event.

Nine Miles

PULL into the 9Miles Invitational Surf Challenge next Saturday at Nine Miles beach near Strandfontein Beach. There will be a family surfers tag team challenge, treasure hunt, sand castle competition and safety demos and lessons by the NSRI, Strandfontein Lifesaving and Little Mermaid Swimming School. See www.9milesproject.org

Weather Tip

WINTER strikes today with heavy north-west winds and rain. A heaving storm-sea builds, and the wild 8’ conditions are a far cry from the epic glassy grooves we had yesterday. However, Muizenberg should be 3’ in stiff offshores. Tomorrow, it calms down but a huge west swell to 15 foot breaks in strong but moderating NW winds. Send adventure news to: spike@wavescape.co.za Spike is the founder of wavescape. co.za Twitter: @spike_wavescape Facebook: Wavescape SA