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    • Waves of Pain
      • No Respect!
      • Death Wish at Fairy Bower
      • Fried nuts
      • The ocean is a trickster… especially Hawaii’s North Shore – Gas chambers bites the unwary!
      • Titus Kinimaka’s nightmare Christmas
      • Dix dumped – the trials of a self-confessed elite body surfer
      • The little surf that nearly ruined a promising career…
      • Rabbit killer – a master takes a caning at pipeline!
      • Death Wish at Fairy Bower
      • Easternmost memory – surfing in the wild at the end of the continent
      • Nothing ruins a good surf like a couple of blokes with automatic assault rifles…
      • Agony for Miki Dora
      • Smashed at Gas Chambers
      • Who was Europe’s first surfing woman? Introducing the wonderful Witch of Newbury.
      • A bad day at Palmy – surfies and clubbies at war!
      • When being a proven waterman is not enough!
      • The highs and lows of surfing Sunset Beach while competing at the Duke Kahanamoku Invitational
      • An American midnight surf – that goes very wrong!
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    • Socrates and Aristotle debate football defence
    • Michel de Montaigne on coaching sports
    • Ancient philosophers discuss what makes the beautiful game beautiful! Laozi and Socrates get technical.

When being a proven waterman is not enough!

July 1, 2017 By TIMOTHY EDWARDS Leave a Comment Filed Under: Waves of Pain

When he told his story in his own surfing magazine, Doug Lees described himself as an average Joe staring death in the face. In truth, Doug is no average Joe. In his sporting life, his business life and in his personal life his achievements, (and even more importantly, the manner of his achievements), show him to be a very special character. This character rarely stands back from a challenge. Doug is definitely a waterman.

Just a little trip to Tavarua

It was the challenge of Tavarua’s Cloudbreak that took Doug to Fiji a couple of years back. Most forty-plus blokes would find Cloudbreak challenging on a smallish day but, from the watchtower on Tavarua, this day looked like a perfect ten-foot day. Anything but small!

Beautiful island of Tavarua

Initially Doug was cautious and could have been talked into waiting for a less challenging swell but the enthusiasm of a fellow island guest and the life guard and boat captain (champion Hawaiian big-wave surfer Mark Healey) encouraged Doug to at least go out for a look. What he saw when the boat reached the channel got all those endorphins racing. The ocean was dishing up perfect ten-foot clean barrels that were rolling evenly down the reef.

While Doug and his new surfing buddy waited in the boat to assess the lie of the land (or the state of the swell to be more accurate) Mark paddled into the line up to show the boys what would be available to them. He immediately paddled into a screamer of a barrel that had Doug scrambling for his board. This was not an opportunity to be missed.

Bad decision

Minutes later he was in the line-up. Moments after paddling over the top of an incoming set wave Doug realized that the decision might not have been a good one. Waves that only moments ago had looked around ten-foot were clearly coming in now at around the fifteen-foot mark. Things got worse. On scanning the horizon Doug glimpsed the first signs of what was an even larger set wave on the way. He paddled for all he was worth and counted six long paddles just to make it up the face of the incoming beast and just managed to burrow his way through the feathering lip. Instantaneous feelings of relief were replaced by gut-wrenching horror as he saw the second wave of the set, a twenty foot plus tube, already breaking and heading straight for him.

Big Cloudbreak!

Doug’s water survival skills (he is an experienced big wave surfer and former surf lifesaving champion) kicked immediately into gear. Concentrate now. Panic could kill you. Pull off your leg rope because it will prevent you from diving deeply. Get ready. Dive.

His strategy was to stay as deep as he could for as long as he could then try for the surface when the primary energy of the wave had dissipated. It seemed a good enough plan but when, after a substantial amount of time holding his breath, he tried for the surface, the churning mass of white water refused to relent. He stroked upward time and time again but still the nightmare continued. After what seemed like an eternity he thought he was near the surface because of the bubbling sounds he could hear. As he broke through be gasped for air and succeeded in swallowing bucket-loads of salt water.

Between set waves

As any surfer would know, Doug was not out of danger. The amount of time he had spent under water simply reduced the amount of time he had to prepare himself for the onslaught of the next wall of white water. Luckily, he did have a few moments to prepare himself before he was forced to dive again. His shallower dive ensured that the second wave gave him an even more ferocious beating than the bigger first wave had.

Really big Cloudbreak! Oh, Dougy. Why?

Doug is not a man prone to exaggeration. On the contrary, he is more the type who sees two-foot waves when everyone else sees five foot. Doug really believes that if he had not escaped from the clutches of the second set wave when he did, he would have died on that day. I believe him.

Rescued… just!

When he broke through the surface the sight of the life guard on the Jet Ski racing in his direction from the channel must have been a moment of intense relief. When the ski pulled up next to Doug he was totally incapable of pulling himself on board. His depleted oxygen reserves left his arm muscles useless. He grabbed the tow rope and yelled for the driver to get him out of there. The force of the ski pulling him to safety broke two of Doug’s fingers leaving him with a painful reminder of his day’s outing.

Who’s the bloke with waterman, Doug?

TIMOTHY EDWARDS

Tim Edwards has had a completely rubbish sporting career so it is odd that he seems so obsessed with sport and adventuring. As a basketball shooting guard he had an okay jump shot but couldn't do anything else. As a rugby hooker he spent more time puking then actually playing. As a runner he won an awful lot of consolation prize chocolates for coming fourth but almost never won a ribbon. Despite his inadequacies he still loves sport and has opinions on almost any sporting subject. Tim has spent large parts of his working life in publishing and writing roles and has even done his share of teaching sport management to Uni students. He has coached more sports teams than he cares to remember. Tim is an awful surfer and skier but his lack of competence does not bother him one little bit!

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Tagged With: big waves, cloudbreak, Doug Lees, fiji, surfin. tavarua

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