Surfer Saved from Death

Biarritz Oct-Nov 1981

We set out from St Malo, France after a quick trip across the channel in the Hydrofoil, The kombi van we were in was just our means of a cheap 1000 km one way petrol shared taxi as the driver and his girlfriend were to continue on to in Northern Africa to surf Moroccan waves. It was all such an amazing experience for me to be part of a real life surfing adventure through Europe (I was then turning 19 years old). On arriving at Biarritz we found the local campsite at a place called La Barre near the famous hangout of Les Sables Les d’or a café complex filled with the coolest of international surfers and other such adventurous young people. As it happened we managed to pitch our tent alongside others who were likeminded from other parts of the world, from memory our new friends were from South Africa, California, England and somewhere else. We placed our tents in a circle to stake out our claim. We had come to find this a team of eight adventurous surfer mates that were on fire with our surfer lifestyle. When the surf was down we would explore and shop together in the daytime for French cheese, French bread, French wine, the nights we partied on with the local girls. We caught some amazing waves and one time we even train tripped over to San Sebastian in Spain for a few days to experience some more pretty wild and exciting moments of worldly youthful, fun and games.

Encounter with a difference

One night we went out to Les Sables Le Dor to party with some French girls we had met and after some time of drinking and chatting I sat down next to a Spanish girl on her own. After getting to know her a little we went to the beach for privacy to undertake the usual non-Christian thing, after the moment of intimacy she turned to me in broken English and said “my boyfriend is a Warlock, if he finds out what has happened here he will destroy you !” this did not mean much to me at the time but I went away feeling a little weird from what she said. Maybe it had some bearing on some of the things that were about to happen next !

The Wave

A few nights later we were all sitting around our camp fire in the camp site up on the hill of Le Bar when we began to hear the sounds of distant explosions, these noises were like great loud pops or claps (the release of air when the top of a large wave peals over and drops), it was the Atlantic swell (and a great one) that we had been expecting for three weeks. I excitingly motioned to the guys that we would surf at dawn and so I chose to go to bed early for the early rise. When I awoke I shook a few legs and realised that the others had stayed up and drank much more Bier the night before so I grabbed my wetsuit and surfboard and ran down the street towards the beach. As I peered over the sand dune I could see a great site for any surfer, perfectly shaped large glassy waves with lines way out to sea. I put on my wetsuit quickly and without caution I entered the water.

I remember paddling hard aiming straight out to sea, the waves were mounting up like small buildings and I remember paddling vertically over giant swells, I was in a time period of what surfers call a ‘lull’ (the calm period between the sets), this was a lengthy lull but I convincingly thought it was the period of the ‘sets’ (when the waves were coming in the biggest) even in this time of ‘the lull’ these waves would have been 15 feet on the face. I managed to get to where I thought was the safe spot on the outside of the sand reef and took a break to watch how the waves were breaking behind me and to consider my next move and if I had the courage to catch one of these monsters. After about ten minutes I was looking out to sea for the next set to appear when something strange and awesome began to happen (by this time I was probably 350 yards off the beach and therefore a long way out). I began to notice that out to sea it seemed that the horizon was moving, there was a distinct rising of the ocean positioned in front of me and a very long way off. As I continued to watch this area of ocean (possibly a mile wide) it began to rise higher and higher and I began to panic like I have never done since. Coming towards me was a very large wave likened only to what I could imagine a tidal wave could look like. I remember that I was stunned to see it keep rising and rising and recalling this moment has always returned fearful tears and a panic to me as it is doing now. I have often described it as if you were sitting at the sideline of a large football stadium and watching the whole field turn up vertical on its side.

I began to panic severely and I remember the thought going through my head “I will never make it to the beach if I paddle that way”, “it would be better to try and paddle towards it”, “that is crazy” and I decided that the only thing I could do is to stay where I was, aim my board towards the beach and hold on with all my might as hopefully if get pushed down deep then I will have a better chance of floating to the surface again. I remember watching the wave peak up to its highest and the top section came exploding down about 150 or so yards in front of me. The white water was also a massive towering wall, an explosive loud roaring lion speeding towards me. I started to call out to God to save me and just before the collision I let out a blood curdling scream from deep within everything in me “””JEEEESSSSUUUUSS !!!!! HELLLPPP MEEEEE””” the fear was tremendous and absolute as I knew that there was no hope for me and in a few moments of time I was surely going to die!

I remember the impact of the great wall of white water to be explosive, my board just disappeared and I didn’t even feel the leg rope attached to my leg snap, my body was stretched from limb to limb under the water and I was thrown like a rag doll in every way, it was too powerful to slow down, I was too far out and this was not any ordinary wave.

Suddenly everything went perfectly still and as this happened everything increased to become bright white, the total fear instantly disappeared turning into a total peace and I was surrounded by an awesome love feeling that simply consumed every part of me, there was stillness and an this awesome whiteness of light was all around me, everywhere. I had no sense of a physical body, it was just this incredible awesome eternal place (I had a sensation of timelessness), a place that you would not ever want to leave, perfect peace and love like someone was holding you in their arms. Like if you were an infant and went shopping at a busy location with your mum, if you were to get lost and terrified and screaming then suddenly her hand appeared, picked you up and tenderly cuddled you in her arms.

**On writing this down tonight I am reminded that it is exactly 21 years ago to the month that this happened. The thought of this moment quickens to me the reminder of that awesome fear, it still chills me and the fear returns momentarily bringing me into a place of trouble and tears. It is a vivid moment that I really don’t want to recall but I know that it is important to tell this story and I must add that it does not stop here.

I remember some time later opening my eyes high up on a wet sand dune probably 4-6 metres above the elevation of the tide level and maybe 60 metres up from the waters edge, I had no pain and my lungs contained no water, I looked up the beach away from Biarritz to my surfboard which was Northwards about 100 metres away also high up on the beach. There was no one to be seen, as it was still early in the morning, I was stunned by what had happened and simply just left it at good luck that I was not hurt! I waited a while then I walked home to the camp. Looking back on this moment some twenty years later I know now a life principle that ‘our disappointments are often Gods appointments’.

A few days later

The swell of the ocean had subsided but it still was biggish surf by any surfer’s estimation. I was out in the water one morning and said bonjour to a face I had recognised from our camping ground. He was a young Frenchman who had pitched tent with his mates nearby to us. I could not speak his language and he could not speak much English but we knew enough to communicate that he was inviting me to his tent to share a joint together (marijuana). When I had returned back from surfing that afternoon Pete chose to cook dinner and at that moment I was called over to the nearby tent to where the French surfers were. They instructed me to enter the tent and join them and out of wanting to maintain the image of coolness I entered. The tent was closed behind me and they began to say there hellos and I could tell that they had already become quite stoned. One guy in the back was instructed to do something but I could not see what he was doing. They handed me what I thought was a normal joint to smoke and implied that it was for me and as I begun to smoke it the atmosphere of the attitudes inside the tent began to change. They began to laugh in a strange cackling manner that made me feel very uncomfortable much so that I knew that I had to politely leave. A few moments later I was sitting at the apex of my tent when Pete handed me a plate of baked beans. I began to waver, dropped the plate and began to scream, what was going on inside of me was extremely horrible. If I had a few days before experienced something of God then at this moment it was definitely the opposite. What I remember was I entered what seemed another place spiritually where things were totally out of control a place of absolute fear with unrecognisable monster type beings attacking my again non-bodied soul. It was awesomely horrible, I remember how it stopped, it was at the sound of a loud thunderbolt that went crack and I snapped out of it instantly. Pete said later that they had to hold me down and put pillows over me inside the tent to keep me quite as I was having a screaming fit from a bad trip. Before you all write me off as a weirdo druggie I must say that I have never ever taken any heavy drugs and I absolutely abhor them. I have since researched the situation and have been informed of two facts, the reaction was from probably being (unadvisedly) given what was called then ‘Angel Dust’ and secondly people just don’t instantly snap-out (thunderbolt) out of such a trip. I know now that God had his hand on me and he was not going to let me go !!

After this moment I walked to the beach feeling pretty much bedazzled by my experiences, I sat on the sand dune and looked out to sea. I closed my eyes and I remember seeing clear pictures of what I can only des

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