SUP Pilot Blows Out Eye Sockets, Cheeks, Brain etc on small-wave wipeout!

Bones imploded, cerebral fluid polluting water etc.

Some stories need little embellishment, like a celebrity whose past is rich in love affairs or erotic episodes.

Like today’s story lifted from the British tabloid, The Daily Mail.

A SUP rider was belted in the face by his giant craft and broke his nose, both eye sockets and right cheek and, says the pilot, Steve Bowens, ‘the impact had imploded the bones which make up the sinuses, this had forced air around my brain, and created a hole from my skull to the outside world through which cerebral spinal fluid now flowed.’

According to the Mail,

Two facial surgeons spent nine hours working on him, during which time he was cut from ear to ear and his face peeled forward allowing the perforation to be patched with muscle.

His cheek also had to be rebuilt and his eye suspended on titanium mesh.

As the wave came to the end it sectioned. I bottom turned but misjudged it and took a tumble.

‘The wave was not big, about 3ft. However I landed in the wrong place at the wrong time and the board hit me square in the face, right between the eyes. The sensation was as if someone hit me with a baseball bat. It was violent and as I came to the surface I knew that I was likely to pass out. As soon as I surfaced I climbed back on, thinking that at least if I passed out I would have some chance of keeping my airway out of the water until the next wave. Looking down at the board it was like someone was pouring red paint from a bucket onto the deck. I had never seen so much blood before. I then started shouting, I didn’t care who saw me, only that someone would see where I was and that I needed help.’

A concerned surfer paddled over to Mr Bowens and asked if he needed help.

He added: ‘I told him I needed to get back to the beach, but he seemed unsure of how to help. Fortunately the next wave caught me and I managed to prone surf back to the shore.’

On reaching the beach Steve struggled to stand and was helped to the car park, where his wife Sally, a doctor, was called to take him to A&E.

He added: ‘The shock of the accident started to set in. I sat there, shivering, with blood still pouring from my face. The pain was fairly intense and I just wanted to be anywhere apart from sat there.’

Y’ever been hit that hard?

By board, human hand, reef, concrete?