Wipeouts are part and parcel of surfing. You’ll never met a surfer who hasn’t wiped out. No matter how good one gets, no matter how many waves ridden, the wipeout is a common thread that we’ve all experienced. But when the waves get big… well, the wipeouts do too. And CJ Macias was surfing a very big wave when he had his worst wipeout ever.
Tim Bonython, the man behind Surfing Visions, decided to talk with Macias about it, and it’s a terrifying tale. It was at Nazaré, the biggest of waves and a place that dishes out the biggest of wipeouts. Macias is not a new guy out there.
“I’ve grown comfortable at this wave,” he said. “I’m actually surprised at how comfortable I feel with it. I think part of that was from coming in the beginning and only seeing Garrett’s mentality of, ‘Oh yeah, it’s good! We can do it!’ But he would also be like, ‘this is serious,’ but I just kind of didn’t know.”
Going into it with that mentality gave Macias some confidence — a necessary thing at any wave, but especially at a wave like Nazaré — but in his own words, it was almost a false confidence.
“It still makes me super nervous to go out there any time,” he continued. “But all the experiences that I’ve had have added to all that confidence. Any time I get pounded I realize what kind of power we’re dealing with. Every time I misread something or don’t prepare for something, I see that there are consequences.”
Macias worst-ever pounding took place in the middle of 2022. It was during the Gigantes de Nazaré event, which, as you’d imagine, takes place in very, very big waves. Macias got the call up, and it was an opportunity he relished.
“It felt good,” he remembered. “I got to go out there and compete for a couple of days in some big surf. The night before the event, Macias went out with a few others in the rising swell. He caught the biggest wave of his life that evening, and it set the stage for what was to come. He went to bed that night with a head full of confidence in himself and his abilities. When the sun rose the next morning, Macias was ready.
“It was the biggest day I’d ever been out it,” he said. “The biggest and cleanest; the craziest. There were people everywhere. Jet Skis everywhere. It was really intense. That whole morning, I felt complete already from the night before.”
As the morning wore on, the perfect glass conditions were slightly ruffled by a breath of an offshore wind. Garrett McNamara backed off a bit, but some other members of the team, like Andrew Cotton, were champing at the bit.
“I watched the team operate in this giant surf, you know?” Macias said. “When Cotty was done, they kind of looked me, like, ‘you want some?’ And it was one of those moments where I just knew I was going to say yes.”
But no matter how ready Macias was, no matter how mentally prepared he was, the ocean had different plans. I’ll let him tell the rest of the story, because what happened next was very nearly the end of his life.
