Whilst sup surfing at mets, i came off a wave, in the infamous rock garden (a bed of towering coral stacks a couple of metres high and half a metre wide about 1-2 ft below the surface)
My leggy wrapped around one of the stacks quite deep down, the board went one way around the stack and I went the other, the force of the wave pushing the board then started to drag me under.
It took me a while to work out what the hell was going on, I was coming up for a breath, then another wave would come, push the board away and drag me under again. It was like a see saw effect. And i couldn't fight it.
A fellow surfer came over to see what was up as I was getting a bit panicy, then the 4th wave washed me under again, I knew now, i had to get out of my leggy quick time; i was running out of O2!!!!!!
Fortunatley my new creatures outer reef leggy has got a little loop on the velcro strap, (surefire system), making it a really easy to find and undo. I floated up to the top and took a well anticipated gasp of air and the leash and board were released from the stack.
My old leggy was a real prick of thing to undo, and if i had been fumbling around much longer i could have been a goner.
moral of the story;; it's something i had never contemplated before BUT make sure you can get out of your leggy quick stix, it could save you from a trip to the harp farm ....
Wow windy that sounds pretty hard core , lucky you could get to your leggy quick enough ! that would suck. My leggie snapped today in very solid beach breaks down here today, some sets were closing out the whole beach Got some awesome long, fast big waves that were closing out at the end, if you couldnt kick out quick enough you were in for a hell of a thrashing and i got some good beatings
I t was really rippy and heaps of water moving around, it was a fair swim in with the paddle
I managed to kick out the back of a couple still standing and keep paddling fast out the back before getting caught inside
Stoked your still with us Miller
I will get you on a shortie one day so you can really feel the wrath of a solid wipeout
the scary thing was that it was knee high waves washing my board away that were pulling me down..
anything bigger and i would have had less time to come up for gasps.
mavericks (not that i'd ever be there) and it would have ripped my leg clean out the socket
Glad too hear all's good. The new wife wouldn't have been too happy with you if you hadn't made it home! Where abouts at metts is this spot?
Haven't you had another close call there falling backwards onto one of those columns while paddling out?
I had a bit of a close shave myself yesterday surfing a new spot and narrowly missing a partly submerged rock. Freaked me right out thinking what would have happened had I hit it. After that I properly checked the area before continuing.