Jack is an intermediate surfer

“I’m 22 years old, and have been surfing for 4 years”

“I usually tend to surf waves that are not much over head-height, yeah between chest and head height is ideal. Obviously I’m always looking to push myself a bit though.”

“For me, there’s only been a couple of times where actually getting to the surface and breathing again has been a struggle.”

“It’s usually been when you’re out the back of the surf, and most of the waves are a size you’re comfortable with, but every now and then you get one or two from way out the back. These could be anything up to twice as powerful. If you’re caught in the wrong place, they will just break on top of you, and then push you underneath the surface of the water, round and round. You sort of hold your breath for that, you might be fine after one wave but because you’re out of breath after the first one, it’s when the second or the third wave hits you. Thats when panic starts to creep in if you’re really struggling.”

“So it’s not just the first one, it’s really bad if youre caught inside getting a 2nd and 3rd and 4th wave on the head, then you’re in trouble.”

“If you’re surfing in England in the winter, there’s virtually no lifeguards, ever around. I suppose there’s an element of risk that plays into that. ”

“I’ll paddle into conditions that intimidate me maybe 1/4 of the time, if I had to guess. It’s a means of improvement, really. If I have friends that are more skilled and we’re all pushing eachother to go bigger and faster, you have to push yourself out of that comfort zone to improve.”

“There’s one situation with my cousin in Australia. It was a really messy, choppy day and the waves were huge. He decided to paddle out and give it a go anyway. He got absolutely rattled. He got held under pretty long for the first wave, and then wave after wave was hitting him until eventually he managed to get washed into the beach. It was one of those situations where there were surfers around, but none of us were in a position to be able to help him out.”

When it comes to safety equipment, Jack ensures that he’s fully covered with other sports:

For the winter: “I own all of the standard Avalanche rescue equipment (shovel, bleeper, probe). The fact that the inflatable airbags are so expensive leads me to rent them whilst I’m skiing. I’m about to do a whole season, though, and so will probably buy one for myself as it’ll make more financial sense.”

Tynemouth Surf, ‘Needles in Your Face’

Today I went down to Tynemouth Surf Co. to interview surfers about their experiences with being held underwater.

First up was Louis, 21 years of age and the owner of Tynemouth Surf Co.

Louis is an experienced surfer

“I’ve been surfing for around 14 years”

“I’ve done a lot of competitive surfing and surfed quite a lot of spots around the world”

“The biggest [wave] I’d go for in terms of feet is maybe 15? I’d go about double/triple overhead. I’ve just bought a Patagonia wetsuit with extra foam padding & buoyancy for winter, so I’d probably be wearing that if it got to triple overhead”

“I’ve been held down [chuckles] more than 50 times for sure. There are certain ones which are more memorable than others”

“A couple of the worst ones are where I’ve been on shallow reef. I’ve wiped out, and been pinned onto the reef on my back. Its like not being able to move, you’re basically stuck on your back until the water pressure releases and you can push yourself off the rock”

“I’ve also had a couple of other ones in deeper water, where you’re just being rolled around so many times and you don’t really know which way up you are. I’ve had to grab my leash to check which way up I am, and then obviously swim up from there”

“Personally, I’ve never actually felt like I was going to drown. I’ve been really scared and thought ‘God I’m in trouble here, this could be serious‘ but I’ve always had enough breath. This winter I’m going to be going for a lot more big waves, so thats where I’ll get tested a little bit!”

“A lot of the friends that I surf with are actually lifeguards, but most of the time there isn’t an on-duty Lifeguard when I’m surfing”

“It’s definitely a factor. The more experience you have, the more [courage] you’ll have. It’s also a thing with big waves, you have to want to go and surf them. I’ve got a few friends who are professional surfers who just don’t like big waves. Their skill set is good enough, but they’re not really into that”

“I was in Thurso a couple of weeks ago, the waves were 8-10ft [1.5x overhead], one of the lads got held under for quite a while and he said he was worried about drowning”

“I think if you’ve got additional buoyancy when you’re under the water obviously it’s a good thing, helping to achieve the same thing as what your surfboard is doing”

Next I spoke with Tom, 21 years of age and works at Tynemouth Surf Co.

Tom is an Intermediate Surfer

“I’ve been surfing for around 5 years. One year before uni, and 3 years whilst at uni but not as regularly and a year since I’ve finished”

“I prefer smaller waves, because I just bought a longboard, but I’ve surfed about head-high before.”

“I remember three or four times where I remember being like ‘this is not a normal wipeout’ ”

“I was surfing waves that were far too big for my ability back when I first started surfing. I caught a head-high solid wave, took off and rode the wave in a bit and fell off. It wasn’t that wave that I got held under by. I turned and started paddling back but took a massive set [of waves] on the head. It was because I was out of breath after paddling & surfing, and it felt really bad. I was put through what felt like a washing machine, when I came up for air, I was kind of dizzy and then got held under again!”

“you feel a lot more out of breath than you actually are, and you’re panicking and you don’t know where you are”

“It was mostly because I was out of breath before that wave, if I’d had breath I reckon I’d have been fine”

“I’m only surfing with an on-duty lifeguard present in the Summer, really”

“Yeah, I reckon that my first priority in a hold-down is to make my way to the surface as fast as possible”

“Yeah, I suppose if you had additional air you wouldn’t be as concerned with getting up”

“You really just want to get to the surface to breathe I guess”

Surfing and Watercraft Brief 2018

National Coastal Safety Report 2018

Surf Life Saving Australia, Published on Sep 11, 2018