Crashing Into Jeff (While Jeff Shoots the Video)

It started out as my best wave ride of the day.   It ended with my nearly taking Peconic Jeff's head off.   It all began when Peter and I caught a nice head-high wave on the outer sand bar.    Jeff was about halfway in toward the beach shooting video and taking photos, so my only Jeff thought was "surf well and maybe you'll get a picture!"

I'm not very good in either direction but I'm worse on backside, so when I found myself comfortable and balanced (for me) and feeling in control going left, I was excited.

Usually I find myself too far to the bottom of the wave, and when I managed to bottom turn a bit and get back up the wave for a cutback, I was giddy.   With my eyes riveted on the ten feet of water immediately in front of me, I carved back down the wave.

With my eyes riveted on the ten feet of water immediately in front of me, I am unaware that I am now bearing down on Jeff, who is capturing it all.   He sees my face pointing towards him and assumes that my eyes are along for the ride.

A moment later I see him as he swings the camera down (for I don't know what reason, because he's not yelling at me to be careful.)  I'm going to plow right into his head.   I shouted Jeff's name (leaving off "Peconic" for brevity) and jumped off the board, hoping both to turn it to the left (to miss his head) and lighten it (in case, as I was sure it would, the board hit him.)

The board crashed across the tail of Jeff's board, immediately to the wave side of his head.   Then the wave, which still had plenty of gusto, rolled both boards into Jeff, and then the three of them into me.

There was a good deal of floundering on my part before I got back to the surface.   Incredibly no blood was gushing from Jeff's head.   At first glance neither board was damaged (which seemed impossible,) so shaken and with concern for our gear (and me apologizing a mile per minute) we returned to the beach.

Incredibly, the boards had some minor scratches but no damage.   I was nauseous for about an hour...I KNEW I was about to seriously injure a friend, and the endless moment kept replaying in my head.  Jeff's been very gracious about this.  Me, I feel I was lucky. I haven't been on the water since, but I believe that when I return I'm going to be paying an enormous amount of new attention to people in the water all around me, as I do windsurfing.   A newbie level of awareness doesn't cut it.  Hell, a newbie level of awareness should still be better than mine last Sunday.  Writing this post has brought the feeling of nausea back.

Here's the video Jeff shot.   It all happens pretty fast so I slowed it down.   Keep watching and it plays again in real time, complete with my shout.

 

Comments

[scott k.]

thats what i call real live action. i saw it all from the beach & it looked alot worse.glad nobody got hurt,just remember stay far away from the wolf &everybody should be o.k.!

[bill miltenberg]

Hey, at least it was among friends right? I've seen a lot of chatter as of late, namely on the NYNJSURF.COM site about everyone just increasing their general awareness, regardless of their skill level. Sometimes it takes an incident to shake you up, but it sounds like everyone will be better from it.

[bonnie]

Yikes.

BTW I did THINK about trying stand-up paddling while I was out in Hawaii. I mean with waves, I have had a good flatwater paddle but somehow I feel like using a SUP on flat water is sort of missing the point.

Anyways, I didn't think of it until the last full day. Made a couple of calls, couldn't get into a group anywhere, a 2-hour private lesson is $175.00. At the same time, my hostess, Lynne (who's very cool & a lot of fun to hang out with anyways), was going bodyboarding & asked me if I wanted to come along with her, so I ended up doing that & I was glad I did. Haven't bodyboarded since I was a kid, I sort of forgot how much fun this simplest form of playing in the waves is. Lynne's really good at it, she stands up & does flat spins & all that - I tried a spin a couple of times, just lost my speed & had the wave leave me behind & after that I just went back to just plain riding them. So much fun.

I really wonder if I ever would've gotten into all this complicated stuff with the boats if my parents had left me in Hawaii like I'd asked them to when we moved in my junior year. The boats are just ways to get out on the water - in Hawaii, you don't need a boat to do that.

[Jeff, aka PeconicJeff]

Increased wave awareness will make for better and more fun wave rides, in addition to safety and respect for other surfers. I'm glad everything worked out.

I've just posted 2 additional minutes of on-the-water footage from this day, plus my take on the crash

PS., see you on the water for wave sailing this afternoon?

[Michael]

Bonnie, you MUST get out there in the waves! You'll be great at it.

Jeff, It will take quite an improvement in conditions to get me out there today...I did some touch up work on the SUP board this morning, and it's not going back into the water until tomorrow, so unless there's enough wind for me to take the 109 out on a 6.2, I'm going to pass.

The wave forecast for tomorrow looks good, though!

[Bunty]

Fortunately you can all laugh about it now - video is great and the wave looked far too good to miss too. You're obviously having a great time with your SUP - enjoy!

[cd]

Did someone say KOOK I thought Jeff was your friend

[Michael]

Big time kook! Meanwhile I haven't paddled in almost a month.