Ouch. Photo: Instagram
From the looks of it, Chopes went off for the 250-deep crew that Hollywood employed when shutting down the break. And leading stuntman Laurie Towner towed into his fair share of bombs. (Head on over to MSW to check out the full gallery.)
This one, he made. Photo: Raihei Tapeta | Mataiea Lifestyle
According to MSW, local Matahi Drollet stole the show.
But epic swells often bring epic wipeouts with them, and a gnarly tumble took Towner into the reef and, eventually, sent him to the hospital where his face and neck would have be tended to rather extensively. Stab has a shot of the wave he was supposedly riding when he took what he would refer to as a “flogging.” If the portrait above is his argument, we’d have to agree.
He took to his Instagram to offer us insights into the wipeout: “Teahupoo gave me a good old fashion flogging yesterday on my 3rd wave. I let go of the rope on an a evil little west one. It was a pretty slow swell an although I should of kicked out I decided to go anyway. I could tell the lump of swell was going into the channel which generally means it’s a close out or a really fast west one. I hit my head on the bottom an must have blacked out because the next thing I can remember is being in the lagoon gasping for air in calm water. Apparently there was a bigger wave behind an no one saw me surface so I’m not sure if I had a 2 wave hold down or the wave I was on sent me straight to the lagoon. Either way I’m really Lucky an grateful I’m still here. I got myself a broken jaw some stitches in my lip an eye lid whip lash to my neck an back and a couple small puncher wounds that went through my neck an into the back of my mouth that apparently just missed an artery. Just want to thank every one who helped me though out yesterday really appreciate it! I’m all good an as positive as ever! I’ll be back when my jaw is good. In the mean time@bronandloz is coming to hang by my side because I can’t fly for a while see ya soon!”
Our thoughts and well-wishes go out to Towner. Get better soon!
