Nathan Fletcher suffered a broken femur Wednesday January 7, 2009 while surfing Pipeline, according to a story on Surfermag.com:
Fletcher caught a clean west peak, ducked under and then emerged cleanly from a six-foot spinning tube. He sped out onto the shoulder in full afterburner mode. Fletcher then lay his outside rail into a massive Mach 5 roundhouse. He headed into the oncoming foam ball with a prodigous amount of speed. Too much speed. It was one of those cutbacks. His speed and velocity actually increased through the turn. Unfortunately, the mountainous white cotton ball grinding towards him was anything but fluffy and soft. “I heard his leg snap,” said Wassel. “It was the eeriest sound. Myles and I looked at each other and we just knew it was bad.”
Myles Padaca and North Shore lifeguard Dave Wassel went out and were able to drift with Nathan down to Gums and get him to the sand. We wish Nathan a speedy recovery.
[Link: Surfermag.com via Transworldsurf.com]
