Pro Surfer Drops 40 Feet in Maui Wipeout
Tom Dosland says the wave looked "like a sea monster rising out of the ocean."
— -- Professional surfer Tom Dosland says a wave that caused him to take a 40-foot drop looked “like a sea monster rising out of the ocean.”
Dosland spoke to Surfer Magazine about the monster wave that hit him in Maui, Hawaii, last week, sending him into a terrifying free-fall.
“I was free-falling for a while. It felt like I jumped off a cliff,” Dosland told the magazine of the incident, which was captured on video. “That’s when my leash stretched out all the way and flipped me over head-first.”
“From there, 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,” he said. “Toward the end of it, I realized I hadn’t pulled the chord, so I finally did and popped to the top of the water. But yeah, it was rough, man.”
Dosland told the magazine he had no injuries in the wipeout, other than a stiff neck, and was back out on the water the next day.