"The blood was squirting, which means it's arterial..."
As surfers, as seafaring adventurers, we are well aware of the dangers we face every time we step foot in the vast ocean. From sharks to stingrays, extra chilly temperatures to sunburn, trouble lurks everywhere to make no mention of the surfboard itself. The fiberglass and foam missile, either Patriot or SCUD (longboard), is the vehicle for fun, certainly, but get out of line and wham-o. Right in the kisser.
Or worse.
And let us travel to San Diego’s Pacific Beach where a 22-year-old was miraculously saved after slicing her femoral artery with the nasty fin of her surfboard.
“I remember coming up from the water, and then within five seconds, I felt the excruciating pain,” Allie Brieghner told San Diego’s NBC affiliate.
Within 20 seconds, she passed out.
Her friend, Alec Maddox, thankfully nearby saw she was in trouble.
“The blood was squirting, which means it’s arterial, so I had to get her out of the water as fast as I could.”
The brave man carried her to the beach and fashioned a tourniquet from leashes which he cranked down tight with a stick.
Somebody nearby found me the surf leash, and they detached it from the surfboard, so I just wrapped it around her leg a couple of times and made a little loop because you need to put a stick through this so you can crank it, so I had somebody go grab me a stick as well,” Maddox said, having learned the trick in the Marine Corps.
Ms. Brieghner was rushed to a local hospital where doctors removed her femoral artery and stapled it back together before re-inserting it into her leg.
“If there’s anything that anyone can take from this, it is to be more aware of the board you have and the fins because it was a freak accident. If they were more like a rubber fin, I don’t think it would have severed my femoral artery or cut through as much,” she said at the end.
Food for thought.
Or a sewed-up vagina
Move b**** get out the way! 😂
I’m obviously kidding. It’s a great idea….who is going to pay for these rubberized inferior fins?
One accident and the ‘experts’ (yeah, right) decide to penalize everyone…..
Ive been knocked out by my own board, wacked in the noggin more then once, run over shortboarders sitting on the inside and have been run over myself paddling back out. The list goes on. Surfing Nicaragua was great for many years until all the people from California started showing up and promoting. They’ve ruined the lineups. We hope for more pandemics so the beaches are ghosted again. That would be nice. The less people surfing the better. If this girl wants to use rubber fins and expects others too, I’d say to her that she is not wrong and good luck promoting it. We have a ton of coastline in Florida where there are leash requirements for all surfers. Many swimmers have by been taken down by the rogue log that got away from the gnarly surfer. Add 12′ paddle boards and kayaks in the mix and expect more casualties. Little kids and moms don’t stand a chance when those things come barreling out of the white water.
I know that it’s probably true that orca’s have no interest in eating people, but personally I don’t trust them. Particularly if it’s just one by itself doing hunting sort of things, flanking the lineup and spying from the side. You would be 100% powerless if they decided to come after you, absolutely nothing you could do. In the time that you can paddle 10 yards they can swim 100.
They come around very rarely; I get out of the water when they do.
October 5 years ago I saw an absolutely massive great white shark in the water up here in Washington. Its back around the dorsal fin looked like somebody painted a 4×8 sheet of plywood dark gray.
I think they eat the late run salmon in October yeah? Or rather the seals and sea lions trying to fatten up for winter on the salmon …
Not many up here, usually too cold and the orcas keep them in check. The only ones that get up this far in early fall are massive because they can handle colder water.
Only time I’ve seen a great white was at Stinson Beach, ten miles away from this attack. Massive black ugly fin just slowly cruising by me about thirty yards out from me.
The most scary part of that is you were surfing at Stinson Beach 😉
Haha, it was when I was fifteen years old. Believe it or not every once in a while a hole will form in the sandbar three and get good. Rare but it happens.
Jack that looked bad and I’m sure no one will confuse that pic for anything other than what it is…
The back I always assumed. At least that’s how I’ve seen bad cuts happen…
Sticks are very under-rated.
Mikala Jones recently succumbed to the same injury.
I literally nearly fully scalped a guy at Seaside with a fin when I was in my late teens.
He dropped in too deep on a head high set left and got behind the whitewash. It’s a shifty lineup so I and the rest of the crowd were inside of this guy.
Instead of jumping off after three or four seconds hopelessly caught behind like most people would do, The guy just continued to fight his way to the left, foam everywhere, with his eyes fully clamped shut the whole time. He was moving pell mell, bogging and then squirting forward.
He was coming right at us with his eyes closed and everyone was chaotically scrambling to get out of the way. He must have had his eyes completely shut for 10 seconds before he came charging through the group.
Like everyone else, I did my best to move, but he was moving erratically out of control. About a half a second before he straight up ran me over I bailed and swam down under. I knew my board could be a problem but fuck. The guy had his eyes closed and was just going to plow over everyone.
I felt my leash pull and tighten and then release, hoped it was just the wave but it felt weird, like hooking a fish. I came up and the guy was floating right there off his board, saying loudly over and over “what happened?”
His scalp was cut down to the bone right across the top of his forehead and the skin on the top of his head was flipped about halfway back. It looked like a Halloween costume.
A couple of the older guys immediately took him to the beach and they called paramedics. I knew it was me but I never took credit for it. I had no idea who this guy was, or who he was connected to. Turns out he was just some rando from Escondido or something. But I was still a kid more or less and was interested in staying out of trouble. Nowadays of course I would have been right there, regardless of the guy for some fucking reason, just totally kooking out groveling across whitewash with his eyes completely shut for what seemed like 10 seconds at least right into a pack of people.
My other fin cut story is a buddy who fell in big shore break. Nose of his board into the sand and a fin straight up his ass as he went over the falls onto it. He was in the hospital for quite a long time.
My Wavestorm would never do this to me.
It’s the first thing that comes to my mind when I see waning pros doing board drives for developing world communities. Soccer balls, go for it. But you want to give people in areas with poor or 0 healthcare old boards with some no-doubt lovely rock-strike sharpened/serrated fins.
Sad. Hopefully she took this as a sign, and got on her instasocial and told EVERYBODY not to surf. It gives you sadz, and makes you look like a bogan with scars…
This happened to guy at Nias about 25 years ago. Can’t recall his last name but first name was Tim, I believe he was from the islands. Super nice guy, bled out on the beach at Lagundri.
Blood for thought.
Swimmer pulled underwater by shark at Point Reyes, Marin County. Still Missing. Could be the first California shark attack where the victim was eaten instead of one bite and release.
Oct seems to be that month. Those Pt Dume kayakers were never found either were they?..edit….Pt Reyes sheesh, gives me the spooks thinking about it.
Anyone that goes swimming at Pt Reyes in October is psychotic or ignorant. Didn’t hear about the kayakers.
Seems to be confusion about actual beach, jeez that place has miles and miles of sand, heard things about Drakes on special days……https://http://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvi...
Board fin between the legs better than the big white kind…
The attack was about three miles north of a surf spot called the rock. A place called wildcat beach. There’s a waterfall on the beach and is very popular for selfies. Very isolated, no cell service. Have to hike to the beach where the attack happened.
Was a wedding celebration and a group of people decided to go in the water.
Freshwater entering the ocean is always a sketchy place.
yeah, saw that stretch in the park link…….nice placa for a party, to paraphrase Apocalypse Now, “dont get off the shore”
Beautiful area.
No comment on Drakes. A certain very popular surf journalist from here took a certain GOAT up to a wave in that area and got a lot of people mad.
Even “locals” drive miles and miles to surf that area. Real effort then you hike. Those guys can be friendly enough if you go low profile. Never had actual fun surfing around there, more like “let’s get this over with.” Beautiful but creepy and remote.
Been surfing that area since 78
ha! I ended up in SB in 78, up from San Diego , I never made it up north your way cept central coast, parents owned a place in Cambria, through the 80s. Surfed in Mendo one trip, but swell was too big for weeks, took bad pics instead, just to record the events. Coming from SB fun point waves and trying to figure out Cal winter carnage when its big and offshore? Took many years, mostly sitting on shore with binocs, wondering about this or that shelf….spooky shit out in the ocean. Never really saw anyone surf. Different nowadays. Still have those images burned into my brain. I only road 7’6″s or so, back them days, (maybe it was bigger then, I dunno) ….but they were like little chips and not practical at all.
Yeah, no worries, cent and nor cal has a million such killer spots, as good as anywhere, when they work or course…. just freezing, giant, with bad fish……
Many moons ago, I heard there was a sign somewhere in Mexican Bay, near the Pit probably..that had all the attack victims listed, dates and names, and below that it said, “Your Name Here”..
my buddy who related this did not go out. Perfecto conditions as well. edit: sand has left there? No bueno no more?
That place gets extremely good. Not sure how the sand is right now but that’s where a certain someone brought Slater. Half mile paddle sketchy to say the least. Boat or jet ski the way to go.
you might be referring to the kayakers near Dume that were lost to sharks many years ago? He was my friend from UCLA and his girlfriend. We surfed together at some of those spots in North LA County
Sorry for your loss. That one always bugged me, Dume so mellow, seems like swimmable waters……kayak tho?
Its a deep canyon zone there.
I think we should start requesting sharks to use rubber teeth.
What body part are we looking at here though? https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Haha
Indeed.
After all of the effort Alec used to keep her from bleeding to death, hopefully he got to sample that thing a few inches away from the fin wound. It must be said.
Confusing ain’t it?
Isn’t he femoral artery on the inside of the leg? This looks like the scar is on top.
I’m not an epidemiologist, but that appears to be the handgina.