“I’m blind” Tributes flow for carrot-topped Pipe Master Jamie O’Brien after post from hospital bed

Better red than dead, says champ!

I’ve last count of how many times we’ve nearly lost the Orangutan-flavoured King of Pipeline, Jamie O’Brien, a man well into his moyenne age yet Peter Pan in lifestyle and appearance.

Three years ago, Jamie O’Brien tried to ride a Waimea rivermouth, swollen like never before, only to be sucked out to sea.

“Gnarliest experience ever…I got sucked into the vortex of all vortexes!” Jamie O’Brien said. “I knew that it was going to be the biggest river wave ever ridden. It was sending me everywhere. I was like, ‘Don’t fall on this, Jamie. Don’t fall.’ I couldn’t control my board, and I honestly just fell right back. It’s like a 10 or 12 foot wave, and it sucked me back. Then there was another wave, and it was just as big, and I’m like, ‘oh my god. I’m gonna die.

Before that, a one-foot novelty wave almost claimed the King of Pipe.

Fooling around in Waikiki, Jamie was examining an interesting rock on a breakwall and “stating the obvious,” said Jamie O’Brien, “I turned my back on the ocean. Honestly, I had put my hand up in front of my face at the last second and I face-planted into my hand. It almost knocked me out just hitting my hand. I almost died at one-foot Waikiki. I almost died at one-foot Waikiki.”

Now, Jamie O’Brien is reporting that he is lucky to be able to use his eyes after a lifetime in the Hawaiian sun.

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A post shared by Jamie O'Brien (@whoisjob)

INJURY UPDATE! For so many years I’ve been putting this surgery off. My eyes were constantly sore, red 24/7, and every time I went to the doctor I’d somehow find a reason to keep pushing it back.

But eventually it started affecting my vision. I was having a hard time seeing waves coming and even just seeing things clearly in day-to-day life. The pterygium had started growing over my pupil, and I remember thinking, what would this winter be like surfing Pipeline with basically one good eye? Honestly, that scared the shit out of me.

So I finally decided to take care of it.

The doctor told me mine was HUGE. He does these surgeries every week, but said most of the ones he sees are nowhere near this big. They scraped the pterygium off, took a skin graft from the top of my eyeball, laid it over the area and put 8 stitches in my eye.

It’s been about a week since surgery and I’ve pretty much been on the couch struggling to even open my eye every day. I promise you… this fucking hurts.

Doctors have told JOB he ain’t to surf or fish for twelve-to-sixteen weeks. Which puts the ol warhorse back in the mix on December, right there, as Pipe starts to get good.