Brett Lickle

[hellwoman]

Surfing star rescues companion in 80-foot Hawaii wave
By Associated Press


WAILUKU, Maui — Ever in search of the 100-foot wave, extreme surfing star Laird Hamilton came to the aid of a fellow surfer off Maui.

Brett Lickle, who was rescued by Hamilton, his dramatic rescue "the most intense thing I've been through."

Lickle said Hamilton stripped naked so he could tie his surf trunks into a tourniquet after Lickle suffered a huge gash on his leg in a wipeout on what he said was an 80-foot ocean wave.

Lickle, 47, was recovering Wednesday at home in Haiku.

In the incident Monday at a tow-in surf spot called Outer Spreks, Lickle says he was cut by the fin of a board on the Honda AquaTrax watercraft he and Hamilton had used to get to the spot where the waves were breaking. He says he was trying to stay ahead of the monster wave, but it crashed down on him.

Hamilton is among extreme surfers who have pioneered in the riding of superwaves that ordinary surfers don't tackle. He and fellow big-waver Dave Kalama premiered a short film, "All Aboard the Crazy Train," on tow-in surfing in 2005, warning that it wasn't a sport for the inexperienced. Hamilton also was among surfers performing in feature-length films highlighting the sport, "Step Into Liquid" and "Riding Giants."

The outer reef off Spreckelsville is a big challenge for big-wave surfers.

"If ever you're going to find a 100-footer, it's there," said Lickle.

He and Hamilton had surfed the area in the morning and then returned in the afternoon when the accident occurred. He said only one other tow-in team was on the waves at the time.

Lickle said he was trying to outrun the looming water wall in the watercraft when it caught him. Hamilton was in tow.

"I'm in big trouble," he said he told himself.

After the wave crashed down on them, he reunited with Hamilton about three quarters of a mile offshore.



One fear, Lickle said, was the blood from his wound would attract tiger sharks that hover around the Maui shoreline.

He said that after tying the tourniquet, Hamilton swam "like a bat out of hell" for about a half mile to recover the watercraft.

Surfers said ocean conditions on Monday created waves of historic size.

"There were the biggest waves that any of us have seen," said Buzzy Kerbox, another Maui big-wave surfer who saw the Outer Spreks waves but chose to taken on another surf spot.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/outdoors/2004054763_webhawaiirescue05.html

[hellwoman]

Big-wave surfer recounts harrowing survival off Maui

Laird Hamilton helps haul in Brett Lickle in the face of 80-footers
By Joe Edwards
jedwards@starbulletin.com
Tow-in surfers Brett Lickle and Laird Hamilton were catching some of the biggest waves ever ridden Monday. Lickle said 80-footers were thundering at Outer Sprecks off Maui. History was in the making.

And that's when things went wrong.

A massive wave nearly killed the two of them. Lickle's left calf muscle was nearly torn from his leg, and Hamilton's open-ocean aid saved Lickle's life.

"In my days, I've had four or five of these near-death experiences," said Lickle, who was part of the original group of tow-in surfers who braved Peahi, or Jaws, in the early 1990s. "It's a pretty cool feeling when you get away with it and know that somebody else is looking out for you."

By somebody else, Lickle said, he means "the big guy" -- God.

Lickle and Hamilton, along with John Denny and Sierra Emory, decided to challenge Outer Sprecks a second time that day after a successful morning.

"We'd surfed all morning and came back out," Lickle said. "The surf had almost doubled."

Lickle towed Hamilton into a wave, the second of a mountainous five-wave set. "The bomb set of all sets," as Lickle described it. A huge wall of water. "I'll say 40-foot Hawaiian," Lickle said. That's an 80-foot face.

"He was riding the wave, and all the sudden he kicked out and I'm like, 'Oh, my God,'" Lickle said.

He raced the Jet Ski toward Hamilton.

"We'd had a pretty clear zone to get out, but the area where we normally get out was all white water. A 20-foot closeout," Lickle said. "We realized we weren't going to make it, and eventually the thing caught up and just annihilated me."

Along with that pounding, the thin, aluminum fins of a tow-in board severed Lickle's calf muscle. Blood gushed into the ocean.

Wave after wave rolled over, separating and nearly drowning the two. "We went through a four- or five-wave hold-down," Lickle said, explaining how surfers get crushed by the wave, go under, hold their breath for a minute and come up, only to be hammered again and again. He said Hamilton told him that he was thinking Lickle wasn't going to make it.

Lickle said the surf washed them a quarter-mile in from the impact point, and he knew something was very wrong with his leg.

"The whole calf has been ripped in half, just hanging there," Lickle said. "Then, all the sudden, Laird shows up. He had a long-sleeved wet suit on. He tore that off and used the sleeve as a tourniquet."

Lickle said at that point, big-wave rider Dave Kalama and helicopter pilot Don Shear of Windward Aviation were scouting the coastline for waves. The two passed overhead but didn't spot them. So Hamilton decided to swim for the ski.

"Now I've got to worry about the big boy," Lickle said, meaning sharks.

Once Hamilton got to the Jet Ski, about a 15-minute swim in heavy water, according to Lickle's estimate, the two had radio contact with the helicopter.

With Hamilton at the handlebars, the two began the harrowing ride back to Baldwin Beach. No easy trick. Because his calf muscle was basically just hanging there, he couldn't ride the tow sled in a normal way, or the force of the water would have torn it from his leg. He had to kneel on the tow sled and put his body on the back seat of the ski.

An ambulance was waiting for them when they got to the beach, Lickle said.

Lickle said it took about an hour's worth of work just to stitch the inside of his calf. Painful, to be sure, especially since he said the doctors told him they couldn't give him general anesthesia, fearing he had water in his lungs and that knocking him out would create another set of potentially deadly problems.

"I was biting that towel hard," Lickle said.

Fifty-six staples closed the outside of the wound.

Lickle said he has movement in his toes and said the doctors are "pretty sure I'll come back 100 percent."

He said he feels extremely fortunate to be alive.

If God had wanted him, Lickle said, he had three chances. "One was the drowning. The other was to be taken out, and the third was to be eaten alive."

His wife, Shannon, feels blessed as well. "It's always been a concern," she said. "Tow-in surfing, big waves. I have a lot of faith in Brett and his ability to assess his limits.

"I have a lot of faith in his team riders. Brett went in to save Laird, and Laird saved him."



http://starbulletin.com/2007/12/06/news/story06.html