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Dylan Longbottom is no stranger to waves of serious consequence. He knows the ins and outs of surfboards — he’s a talented shaper — and the ins and outs of enduring a serious wipeout. He’s been there, done that. But recently, he was caught by surprise by the seriousness of a particular wipeout. It put him in the hospital with busted ribs (bad enough to require surgery) and a punctured lung. It was a serious Southern Oz slab that did the damage.
“Well this was my first wave at a new location for me after I just towed @jerome_sahyoun and some of the lads in,” Longbottom wrote. “I thought I had a good line on this wave and had enough speed but it just kept growing and bottoming out so fast!”
Longbottom was riding his Predator model. His thought process was that it would help him get through the first part of the roll in and hold his speed. Things, though, did not go as planned.
“This wave is like nothing else I have ever experienced,” he continued. “In hindsight, I wish I (had ) ridden my slab tow board.”
As I mentioned, the wipeout landed him on his back in a hospital gown. Four of his ribs were broken and his lung was punctured. When the x-rays came back, his lung was full of fluid and blood, so they shoved a tube in there to drain it. Next on the list is surgery to fix those ribs, which is rare in rib breaks, he said.
Tim Bonython was in the water at the time of Longbottom’s horrific wipeout. “Big wave surfing comes with its risks,” he said. “During this swell chase at this super heavy slab, everything seemed epic but when it came to Dylan’s turn to ride, the first wave he chose was a wave that became a mutant beast. A 15-footer that stepped out where he lost his balance and went top to bottom inside the lip on one of the heaviest wipeouts ever. He was driven to the bottom, smashing his chest and seeing stars.”
Longbottom has a decent outlook, however, and will come back just as strong as ever. But for the next few months at least, he’s going to focus on healing.
“Time to slow down a couple of notches and pass the torch onto @summalongbottom as she is killing it and loving it, and train harder,” he wrote. “I’ll be back shaping in about a week hopefully, but no surfing for a couple of months, with some precious quality family time and work to catch up on.”
