“I don’t wanna get a head injury and die from drowning”
The YouTube sensation Jamie O’Brien is reportedly in good spirits after his “deadliest wipeout ever” and, incredibly, his third brush with death in the past five years.
Forty-year-old Jamie O’Brien, a man described as the “carrot-topped king of Pipeline and a sad-eyed degenerate” was surfing the famous wave when when he tried to straighten out, telling his 1.2 million followers.
“It was a triple double up! It was worth a try, but ended up slamming me straight to the reef!!! Very violent one I literally popped up 30 feet from the beach.
“It sucks cause you never know what part of your body you’re gonna hit that’s why I’ve been wearing a helmet recently because I don’t wanna get a head injury and die from drowning! But weirdly mostly hit your back.”
Koa Rothman, “extremely experienced local, and son of legendary strongman Eddie Rothman” wrote “Soo friggin deadly that you survived!!!” while another Pipeline specialist, Mike Stewart, was curious about the physics of the event asking Jamie,
“Did it blow you upward or did the lip overtake you and if so did you get drilled to the bottom?”
The wipeout marks Jamie O’Brien’s third near-death experience while surfing, a record of some sort you would think.
One year ago, he nearly died while surfing the world’s biggest river wave.
The famous Waimea River had become swollen like never before following wild rains and locals had opened it up to create the biggest rivermouth waves ever seen.
Jamie tried to ride it only to be sucked out to sea and when he eventually returned he said he’d almost died.
“I knew that it was going to be the biggest river wave ever ridden. It was sending me everywhere. I was like, ‘Don’t fall on this, Jamie. Don’t fall.’ I couldn’t control my board, and I honestly just fell right back. It’s like a 10 or 12 foot wave, and it sucked me back. Then there was another wave, and it was just as big, and I’m like, ‘oh my god. I’m gonna die. My leash is gonna break. I’m in a very bad spot.
“That wave just tumbles me, and tumbles me, and tumbles me…then, boom. It lets me out where the river meets the ocean. And the [ocean] waves were 15 feet. Huge Waimea. Probably one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done in my life. I don’t even know where I am. I pop up in the middle of Waimea Bay, 300 yards out in the middle of the ocean and the waves are 15 feet. Not a good idea.”
And back in 2018, Jamie O’Brien almost perished among rocks at Waikiki during a one-foot swell.
Fooling around in Waikiki, Jamie was examining an interesting rock on a breakwall and “stating the obvious,” says Jamie, “I turned my back on the ocean. Honestly, I had put my hand up in front of my face at the last second and I face-planted into my hand. It almost knocked me out just hitting my hand. I almost died at one-foot Waikiki. I almost died at one-foot Waikiki. Frick. I got so lucky.
“I was thinking about it a lot. You do all this crazy shit your whole career, crazy waves, sitting yourself on fire, and you almost die at one-foot Waikiki. Death is a stone’s throw away, always, but to realise that. I was overwhelmed. It was one of the heaviest moments of my life. I still trip out when I watch the clip. That night, I was laying in bed, thinking, that I almost died at Waikiki. Literally.”
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