To wipe-out in California meant sand in the waistband of your baggies, maybe in your ears, and hopefully, to retrieve your board before it killed someone. But to wipe-out on the north shore meant being pounded by millions of tons of water grinding your flesh into coral rock and lava. And if you recovered, it meant being sucked far out to sea as the next gigantic wave built itself up. If one wave didn't get you, the next one would.

1969.