This week during the Vans US Open of Surfing, Lakey Peterson turned what could have been a very ugly situation into a valuable lesson. Would you have done the same?

Round one, and it's Nikki Van Dijk, Laura Enever and and Lakey Peterson at Huntington Beach. There's head high sections rolling down the jetty, a lot of them closing out on top of the girls who tried desperately to tuck into a barrel. It was one of those closeouts which could have spelled disaster for Lakey, when she got swept through the pier.

Among all the barnacles and the pylons themselves is not a cool place to be. It's sharp, and the best thing a surfer can do is get out of there - fast! But when Lakey got swept under there, her board went around the other side of the barnacle covered pylon to her, so she was trapped as another set wave came rolling towards her. Quickly, before anyone even really knew what was going on, she'd reached down and pulled her leggy off. Free from the board, she could then swim under the next wave, before returning to pick up her board.

She managed to get it off the barnacles and paddle back out with no damage to her, or the board. But before you say 'oh, this wouldn't happen to me', think about it for a second! Boards get wedged in all kinds of places! Reefs, rocks, other surfers, stray stand up paddleboarders and hydrofoilers, or big jetty pylons. How quick could you get your leggy off if you had to?

Skip forward to 5:15 to watch it all unfold...

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