Epidemic of life-altering surf injuries continues as star airlifted to hospital with spinal injuries following horror wipeout, “Not the helicopter ride I was looking for”

"Got washed in and couldn’t walk up beach. Had to crawl for 20 minutes as had to go so slow as pain was intense."

Until very recently, surfing was as extreme as a twilight sail around a man-made lake, the most common injury a protruding gut from all the post-surf beers.

Now that waves that were hitherto deemed insurfable are ridden by everyone from children to the aged, well, the old saying ‘you play you pay’ has never been more prophetic.

One week ago, BeachGrit placed a call through to the ICU room of the shaper and former pro Dylan Longbottom who was gifted a front-row seat to his mortality after being driven chest-first into a limestone pinnacle at a wave he described as the heaviest in Australia.

“I got impaled on a limestone pinnacle,” said Dylan. “It’s not flat there, it’s like Pipeline. I landed right on my chest and, through my impact suit, I blew out my ribcage and punctured my lung… I was sent straight to the trauma ward, my ribs were badly broken like in a car crash, and tubes were put in my lungs to drain ’em. One lung was partially collapsed, the other wasn’t working. Doc said I was lucky to survive the flight ’cause of the pressure. I could’ve gone into cardiac arrest.”

In April, teenager Harry Hollmer-Cross, son of big-wave legend James Hollmer-Cross, hit the bottom at Shipstern Bluff, was knocked unconscious and “rag dolled down the point under water though all the rocks.”

James found his kid face down and not breathing, dragged him onto the jetski, and took him to a nearby boat where he and a pal took turns hitting the kid with CPR until he drew breath. An emergency chopper got Haz to Royal Hobart hospital.

“As soon as I got the breaths in, I knew straight away that his body was reacting to that,” James told ABC. “That’s the scariest thing, I think … basically you’re bringing them back, aren’t you? They’ve crossed over for a little bit there. It’s your worst nightmare, especially as a parent. I’m just thankful I was there.”

And, six months ago, the sexy powerlifter turned Only Fans star Nathan Florence was rushed to hospital by Kai Lenny after a wipeout during a twenty-foot day at Jaws that snapped a vertebrae in his spine.

Yesterday it was the turn of New Zealand’s Max Quinn, a wildly smooth, if lanky, talent, who became that country’s first CT surfer in 2001. Max was surfing one of New Zealand’s heaviest waves, a ledge where even our dear Negatron reports “Paddled out, pulled back on five in a row, got pitched, then just retreated and sat on the shoulder and hooted as Maz and three others got some of the best tubes I’ve ever seen in NZ.”

As Maz tells it,

“Not the helicopter ride I was looking for,” Max, who is forty-six, wrote from ICU. “Had a fall on a solid wave in Mahia yesterday which picked me up and drove me into the rocky ledge bottom. Was the first wave of a set so no one saw what happened. Got washed in and couldn’t walk up beach. Had to crawl for 20 minutes as had to go so slow as pain was intense. Luckily a guy Pat saw me came to help and even luckier an off duty paramedic was in the car park. At first they thought it was my pelvis so they called the Rescue Helicopter from Gisborne. Over night in ICU, still in here. In the end four broken ribs and multiple broken Transverse processors little bones at base of spine. Lucky for the blue button (strong pain relief).”

 

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Maz, happy to still be able to operate his pedals and continue life as a biped, said the episode has taught him something real important.

“Good lesson no matter how comfortable you are surfing a wave, always have to be extremely mindful.”