There is no way you can understand the seriousness of this photo unless you've been in a huge wave. This was Russian Roulette. This was a gamble with his life. This was a 50/50 chance that this surfer, this VERY experienced surfer from Hawaii that travels the world over in search of killer waves, would even LIVE through this gynormous 90 ft. (about 9 stories) wave in Portugal.
One of the closest times I've beaten death was in Acapulco just after I graduated from high school. I was with several families and it was the rainy season, and unbeknownst to us, there was a typhoon off of the coast. We, being stupid kids, decided to go swimming. The storm came in with a fury and sucked us out to sea. The undertow kept us out, and I used up all of my energy trying to get back in. That's when the waves became 3 stories high, and as these massive waves were forming so completely high (and thick) all I could do was try to dive through them. Having gone to the beach every weekend from Spring break to Labor Day, I have a great respect for the ocean and am an experienced swimmer. But my energy soon wore out, and these killer waves would pick me up and drop me, and I would roll and roll and roll, until I lost all breath and didn't know which was was up, literally. I remember thinking that I was going to die, and it would be a pretty painless death. Then my miracle happened. One of they guys we were with, who had been on the swim team, somehow found me, and got me to the shore. I was so out of all energy, I had to lie there in the rain and muster my last bit of life to even move.
This wave was 3 times bigger and the surfer beat a new world record in riding it.
Was it worth risking his life for??
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