Not everybody surfs, but just about everybody appreciates a dramatic wipeout, providing that the person receiving the pounding is not injured.
On Wednesday, photographer Robbie Crawford posted to his Facebook page a video clip he titled, "The craziest wipeout I ever captured." (Clip is posted below.)
I asked for the back story and Crawford said that the wipeout occurred at the Wedge, in Newport Beach, California.
The Wedge is notorious for its thunderous shore break, and popular among bodyboarders such as Alex Johnston, who stars in a video clip that has been widely shared during the past two days.
Crawford states: "These are the types of days people get hurt, break bones and necks. It's because of how close to the beach the wave breaks and in such shallow water."
Johnston, Crawford explains, had hoped to pull off an aerial maneuver, "but the backwash bump was too much to handle as it threw him way into the air and mere feet from the beach into very shallow water."
Pat Towersey, a local who was watching from the beach, predicted to those within earshot: "Alex just died."
Witnesses shouted to Johnston, asking if he was OK, and the bodyboarder emerged from the water "and somehow he walked away relatively unscathed," Crawford says.
The heaviest wipeout ever? Hardly. Big-wave surfers have been smashed onto reefs or held under for excruciatingly long periods in much larger surf, at spots such as Teahupoo in Tahiti and Maverick's in Central California.
But the craziest or most entertaining wipeout?
With Johnston completely airborne and flailing for what to him must have seemed an eternity, with so much uncertainty about his fate, it has to rank near the top. Johnston, no doubt, is eager for the next big swell to arrive, so he can pull off that aerial without so much drama.
–Pete Thomas, via GrindTv
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