Pipeline hat mal wieder zugeschlagen. Erst vor wenigen Tagen hat es Leonardo Fioravanti in Pipeline erwischt, der jedoch “nur” zwei Wirbel gebrochen hat und bald wieder fit sein wird. Schlimmer steht es momentan um den Tahitianer Tuhiti Haumani, der gestern nach Ende des VOLCOM Pipe Pro noch eine Freesurf Session eingelegt hatte. Der Volcom Surfer wurde nach einem Wipeout, ähnlich wie Leonardo, durch die starke Strömung in die Impact Zone getrieben und konnte somit nur schwer geborgen werden. Momentan ist es noch unklar wie sich die Situation in der Klinik entwickelt. Aber wir bleiben dran. Hier ein Augenzeugenbericht:

I’m so sorry this happened. I watched it unfold about 2 hours after the contest ended. Tuhuti went down hard. I watched for him to pop up, but he didn’t. His board snapped. One of the surfers that was out dove down and grabbed him. Upon surfacing, he immediately flagged down the lifeguards for help. The lifeguard on duty grabbed his rescue board and paddled out, but the sets were pumping and it ripped to rescue board out of his hands. He swam over to the injured surfer that was being held above water by the flotilla of surfers already out. As the recuse board washed ashore, a second lifeguards grabbed ahold and paddled out. The boys were drifting further and further out to sea in pipelines treacherous current. The ski eventually showed up and the lifeguards brought the injured surfer, Tuhuti, to the shore and immediately started CPR. This continued for a few minutes until the medics showed up. Tuhuti was braced and then loaded on an ambulance. Last I heard, he was transported to Queens hospital. Several surfers were on the beach crying, though a language barrier prevented me from speaking to one of the guys, all I could do was wrap my arms around him and hug him. Many thanks to our north shore lifeguards, and Tuhuti…Mahalo Ke Akua. We’re pulling for you. Prayers sent.