from surfline.com

Damo: I went home with my tail between my legs. I think there were some physical scars and maybe some mental and ego scars, too. By the end of the day, I think a lot of people were asking themselves: ‘was the risk really worth the reward?’ For myself and definitely a few other people, we were second-guessing ourselves. I don’t know if it was worth it, especially in a contest setting. In a contest, you have to put yourself in the zone and if a wave comes, you gotta go. You don’t really care what’s behind it because you might not have another shot to go again. When you’re freesurfing, you might wait until the last wave in the set.

“We were happy to just make it out alive.” – Damien Hobgood

You can get a perfect ride and do everything right out there, but you’re kicking out in the death zone. A perfectly ridden wave still puts you in a gnarly place. I was trying to get out for my next heat, and I was riding on the sled of the ski while holding my board. From the sled, it’s kind of hard to see what’s in front of you. But all of a sudden, I saw a wave coming in from the left and a wave coming in from the right. I don’t know if we could’ve spun around in time. It was closing in on us from either side. So he [Garret McNamara] just had to hit it and it was just a perfect launch ramp. It looked like a Travis Pastrana motocross ramp. As we get to the top, I just see G-Mac jump and I’m like, ‘this ain’t good when the driver jumps.’ So I tried to get away from the jetski, too, but from the sled you can’t get as much leverage. Then time stood still – I was in the air forever. Then, like a receiver waiting to catch the ball but getting laid out, it hit me like a bag of bricks. I was disintegrated. I don’t really know what happened after that. I came to and my vest was blown up and I was in the death zone. There was no one around. I took about four or five waves on the head, then Abe Lerner came out of nowhere and took me to the beach. I had a standard concussion, I was seeing stars. I still have a little headache, but it feels better every day. Luckily I had my hood on so I think that helped from completely splitting my head open. After that, I was done. I can barely handle those waves when I’m 100 percent. It would’ve been stupid to go back out after that. I wasn’t even remotely thinking about that.