Matthews made the drop on this monster, but afterwards, he was swallowed whole. Photo: WSL
As the inaugural Big Wave Tour event at Jaws got underway on Maui this morning, the action did not disappoint. Even before the event kicked off, many of the world’s finest XXL surfers tackled some mammoth walls of water – some successful, some not so much.
On one of the biggest bombs of the morning, Australian Mark Matthews hucked himself over a behemoth ledge, which sent him and his board air dropping down a small building’s worth of water. Matthews stuck the landing, but the sheer intensity of it all forced him to take the wave straight, instead of screaming down the line.
Matthews air dropping down a huge wall of water. Photo: WSL
And here’s where Matthews got into trouble. With a legit mountain of whitewater looming behind him like a lion hunting a gazelle, he was forced to hit the eject button. From there was swallowed whole.
After taking the wave on the head, Matthews finally emerged in a sea of whitewater. Photo: WSL
After pulling his inflatable vest and taking another wave on the head, Matthews was finally picked up by the rescue jetski. As he rode away to safety, Matthews clearly appeared to be in pain. He held onto the ski with his right arm while his left dangled loosely. Initial reports were a dislocated shoulder. Although full medical teams were on site, Matthews was taken to the hospital for further attention.
The jetskis pulled Matthews to the channel for safety, where he was clearly in pain. Photo: WSL
All of this went down before Round 1, Heat 1 even took to the water. In addition to Matthews’ heroic wipeout, Shane Dorian dropped in on one of the XXL waves of the year, as Dorian so casually and often does. And all of this happened before any jerseys hit the lineup – just goes to show that today is going to be an historic day in big wave paddle surfing.
