Coco Nogales went through one of the worst things a surfer can go through. Photos: Greg Long/Instagram
On Friday the 13th, Coco Nogales came very close to dying. A massive swell was making its way across the ocean, and big wave surfers around the world were heading to spots they thought would be firing. Nogales, along with a handful of others including Greg Long, chose Isla Todos Santos. It was a good choice, wave-wise, but when it come to surfing waves of serious consequence, a “good choice” can lead to bad things.
Sitting in the lineup at Killers, a set loomed large on the horizon. Nogales scratched hard to make it over. But, in a situation he’s faced countless times in the past, he realized it was going to break directly on him. He ditched his board and tried to dive under it, and that’s when things went terribly wrong.
I called Nogales a few weeks after that fateful wave, which, considering his status in surfing and the severity of his injury, was a surprisingly under-reported event. I wanted to find out what exactly happened that led to an emergency EVAC from Killers, the appropriately named main break at Todos Santos. What he told me was the stuff nightmares are made of.
Over the years, I’ve reported on quite a few bad wipeouts. In talking to Coco, though, I heard one of the worst. Not only the accident itself, which ended with a broken pelvis and sacrum and easily could have ended in death, but the events in the hours and days afterward.
“The doctor told me this type of fracture is really rare in surfing,” Coco said. “It normally happens with motorcycle accidents. He told me that I could have died, and not just when I was under the water. I also could have died when they transitioned me into the boat. I was so afraid that I would be in a wheelchair. I couldn’t move my hip or my leg… I was so afraid.”
With the type of injury Coco suffered, it’s common for there to be a lot of internal bleeding. The pelvis is surrounded by veins and arteries, all of which, if severed, could fill your insides with blood. That, obviously, is not a good thing.
“A day or two later, my balls were so big and so black,” Coco told me. “The danger there is you can get blood clots. They get into your heart or brain or lungs and you just die.”
Surprisingly, Nogales remembers exactly what happened in the heat of the moment when he went down.
“I felt the lip compress me deep down and at the same time, I got pulled on my leg,” he said. “The board is a big wave board and the leash is as strong as a metal cable. There’s no flexibility. The wave broke right in front of me , and it pushed me and the board with all its energy, but it pushed me down and pushed the board away from me. In that moment, I felt a crack into my ass and my coccyx.”
Knowing that he was likely hurt badly, Coco frantically tried to inflate his vest. Big wave surfers often wear vests that fill with compressed air that make it easier to get to the surface in situations that require it.
“I was so deep down, and I just felt ‘crack, crack, crack,'” he remembered. “I was in so much pain. I’m already hurt, but I’m deep down and the board is still pulling on my leg. It was like when you have a cut, but you keep cutting it and cutting it and cutting it. It was the worst thing ever.”
There was nothing for him to do except grit his teeth, hang on, and hope the vest would bring him to the surface quickly.
“I think that vest saved my life,” he told me. “I don’t know if I would have had the power to swim up without it, with a broken pelvis. I don’t think I would have made it. One wave, I might have managed. But three? I think I wouldn’t have been able to. I would have fought for my life to come up, but I don’t know. More chance no than yes.”
In those helpless moments, Coco was fighting back panic. All his big wave experience has taught him that panic can equal death, but it wasn’t easy to get a handle on it.
“I was under the water and I was like, ‘what the fuck is going on?'” he said. “I was in so much pain, just hoping the inflatable vest works. There was a moment where everything was in slow motion; rolling underwater with the leash pulling on me. And finally, after I came up, I got one second of air, and the second wave was even bigger.”
That second wave packed even more punch than the first, and Coco didn’t think he was going to survive it. “I just put my head under because I had too much air in my vest. And ‘crack, crack, crack,’ my leg was getting pulled on again. On that second wave, I thought I was going to die. It was so weird. I just thought, ‘God, I’m going to die today. Please no, please no, please no.’ I didn’t really understand what was happening. I couldn’t reach my leash because I couldn’t move my leg or hip. So I’m rolling under the water with the board still pulling, and my pelvis just keeps cracking. When I came up, I waved my hand for help, but there was a third wave.”
Thankfully, the third wave in the set was a little smaller. Coco said it was only about ten feet, which is still a good size, especially when your body is breaking apart.
“I was screaming in pain and everything was blurry. I was screaming for help, and I was scared. I was so scared. In that moment, I was like, ‘please save me. Please.'”
Thankfully, a lifeguard named Roger from San Diego was piloting a ski, running safety for the surfers. Nogales didn’t know who he was at the time, but Roger made it to Nogales and told him to get on the sled.
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“I told him that I couldn’t,” Nogales said. “I said I can’t move my hip. He told me that I had to get on the sled right now, because we’re getting pushed into the rocks and that third wave was coming.”
It took everything he had, but Coco was able to drag himself partially onto the sled. The pain was immense and all-consuming, and he was on the verge of blacking out. Looking back on it now, he has no idea what happened to his surfboard and leash, but when they made it to the channel, they weren’t anywhere to be found.
“That’s when Greg [Long] and a few other guys like Jamie Mitchell came over,” Nogales said. “Greg asked if I was hurt, and then he took over.”
In a situation like the one Coco found himself in, there isn’t a better person to have at your side than Greg Long. Aside from his own drowning experience at Cortes Bank, Greg is intensely involved with big wave safety. He knows what to do in life or death situations and a calm, measured demeanor when things are anything but calm.
“I was screaming and crying in that moment,” Coco remembered. “I was so scared. They took me off the sled and onto the boat. Greg asked me if I could squeeze his hand and I could. Jamie asked me if I could feel my fingers and toes, and I could… Greg told me I was going to be okay and I just closed my eyes. He gave me a little relief.”
Coco Nogales, strapped in and ready to go to Ensenada, where he would be turned away after two days. Photo: Greg Long//GoFundMe
As soon as Nogales was strapped down securely, they began the long and bumpy journey back to Ensenada. Isla Todos Santos is a tiny, desolate place. The only things there are a lighthouse and a fish farm operation, so a serious injury could easily become a fatality. The Mexican Marines met them halfway and Nogales was transferred onto their vessel. Bouncing towards Baja with a broken pelvis was, as you’d imagine, brutally painful.
“The marines did pretty good, though,” Coco said. “Even though it was painful, they did a really good job.”
Finally, hours after that wave shattered his body, Coco made it to a hospital in Ensenada. But that wasn’t where things got better. Far from it, in fact. The awful ride was just getting started, and it would last for two more days. To hear another side of the story, I got a hold of Greg Long.
“They admitted him,” he explained, “then took away his phone so he had no outside contact. He was only allowed visitors for 15 minutes a day, and after doing x-rays, the doctor at the general hospital told him he was okay and actually tried to get him to stand up and walk. They actually weren’t even considering surgery as a potential option.”
After doctors cut off his wetsuit, they moved him to the x-ray room without giving him any pain medication. Despite the doctors in Ensenada telling him that he was okay, he knew in his heart that something was terribly wrong.
“They threw me onto this cold metal table, and I screamed so loud. I couldn’t be on anything hard and flat like that. They moved me like I was a little doll or something. They didn’t do it carefully. After that, they gave me something for the pain, but then I had to wait thirty hours for them to tell me what they thought was wrong.”
For two days, Coco languished in the hospital, lonely, scared, and still in more pain than he’s ever felt. And when they finally did return with some information, they told him that he had just broken a little bone. They said he’d be fine and that he should go home and recover.
“They said, ‘you’re complaining and you should be moving. Get up and walk!'” Coco said, the exasperation clear in his voice. “I knew that I couldn’t do that. They didn’t let me use the phone. I could only see one person a day for ten minutes. I was scared, and I couldn’t move.”
Luckily, Coco has a friend who was able to get the x-rays under the table. He showed them to another friend who happens to be a doctor, and it was immediately apparent to him that Coco needed surgery. They got a hold of Greg and told him that Coco needed to go to a different hospital, so they went to a private hospital, still in Mexico. The doctor there agreed that Coco needed surgery, and he needed it yesterday. The decision was made to go under the knife in the U.S. “In that moment I just wanted to have the best care,” Coco said. “It gave me some peace in my heart. I stopped crying and I was able to smile.”
To take an ambulance or a helicopter from Mexico into the U.S., however, would cost an absolute fortune and be clogged with paperwork.
“Greg just said, ‘fuck it, we’re going to go in the van,'” Coco explained. “They put me in the van and we got to the border. One of my friends who was with us didn’t have his passport, and I needed to pay the border crossing. Greg told the officers that I was in the back and injured. They said, ‘you know what? Just go.'”
Amazingly, they were able to cross the border and get Coco to a hospital stateside. Within a few hours, he was in surgery and the nightmare was finally coming to an end. Now, he’s got a metal plate under his bladder that’s holding his pelvis together and two enormous screws in his sacrum. From the time he had his first x-ray in Mexico to the time he got his surgery, the fracture in his pelvis had widened from 13 millimeters to 36 millimeters.
The surgery went well, but now Coco is facing a long road. Photo: Greg Long//GoFundMe
“Ever since Greg picked me up, everything was amazing,” Coco laughed. “Before that, everything was a nightmare. He needs an award or something for being the best good guy.”
Coco is finally on the mend, but he’s looking at a long road to recovery. He’s got the same doctor as Billy Kemper had when he nearly died in Morocco.
“I’m doing rehab and feeling better every day,” he said. “My doctor has been amazing. They’re putting me in this machine that brings the inflammation down from the injury and the surgery, working to break down the scar tissue.”
At the time of this writing, Coco is still using a walker, but his condition is rapidly improving. In the month since his wipeout, he’s gone from not being able to put any weight at all on his left leg to putting 75 percent of his weight on it. He’s not in any rush, though, and the accident has drastically changed his perspective on life.
“I’m still taking it slowly,” he said. “They said it’ll probably be four months before I can walk properly, and even longer for surfing. Maybe small waves on a longboard, but big waves? Solid waves? They recommend waiting nine months to a year.”
I asked him whether he had any qualms about even surfing big waves again. Whether the risk was worth the reward, now that he had first-hand experience of just how risky it is. He’s not sure right now, but one thing is for certain: he won’t be doing it the same way he used to.
“When I was in the hospital in Mexico, I just wanted to walk again,” he said. “If I don’t surf big waves again, then I don’t surf big waves again, but it would be really sad for me. I love everything about it, but one thing I know for sure is that if I do go back, I’m going to do it differently. There are so many days when you go out when it’s not perfect and you put yourself into so much danger to only catch one good wave in six hours. I’m not going to do that anymore. I’m going to go when it’s the best day of the year. I don’t want to put myself in that situation ever again. You never think it’s going to happen to you until it happens to you. For sure this is going to be a life-changer for me. This thing that I went through has already changed my way of thinking, and not just with surfing. With life.”
Due to the circumstances, Coco was unable to receive any medical insurance assistance and now faces an overwhelming financial bill and needs our help. Donate to his GoFundMe campaign here.
