Jacob Trette improving after Mav’s near-drowning

A surfer who nearly drowned after being pummeled and washed through rocks by a big wave in Northern California is expected to recover, hospital officials said Tuesday. A Stanford Hospital spokesman said 30-year-old Jacob Trette was in fair condition three days after he nearly drowned while attempting to surf Mavericks, a famous break about 20 miles south of San Francisco that has claimed a number of lives over the years.

Trette was rescued on Saturday by an Australian firefighter, Russell Ord, who was on a personal watercraft taking photographs of the surfers when a large “freak set” caught a pack of them too close to shore.

Recently, the surfer recounts near-death experience to Marcus Sanders (Surfline.com). Check few lines below:

I was on a 9′6″. It was the first time I had ridden it. I made it especially for Maverick’s and designed it myself. So I was super stoked. I mean, I rode it the day before, but I didn’t get very many waves. But Saturday I got really comfortable out there and I got a lot of waves. And everyone out there, I kind of let them know it was one of my first times out. So everyone was really nice and really cool.

I was getting really comfortable. Too comfortable out there. I was sitting right in the pit. Pretty deep, like, behind the rocks and in the middle of the pack, kind of. And I just got caught. A lot of people got caught on that set. And we all started rushing out to get over it. There was somebody behind me, and a couple people to the side of me, so I don’t know; I was worried about ditching my board and hitting someone. I just thought I could make it over, I didn’t realize it was gonna break already. Because it was offshore, I thought I could make it over and the wind would blow me over kind of thing.

I was paddling up the face and I said, ‘Oh man, if I don’t get over it. I’m gonna get on my board and stand up and get off.’ I should’ve just bailed my board, you know, and gone under it. It kind of caught me off guard and I thought I could make it. It just kept on standing up and standing up. I just thought I could make it. I was charging, going full speed.

The locals told me the rules at the beginning of the day: don’t ditch your board in front of anyone. If you’re going under a wave, try not to ditch it in front of somebody’s face or something. And it was really crowded. There were probably four or five people getting wiped out on that wave, so I was trying to prevent getting tangled up with anybody. There were so many boards just getting throttled. I didn’t want to get tangled up.

But now that I look at the footage, next time that happens, I’m just gonna ditch my board. But in the moment it was like one of those decisions you have to make in two seconds. And I made the wrong decision. It’s tough watching the video.

I was at the top of the wave and I get sucked backward, over the falls. The worst possible scenario. My head’s not even out of the water, I’m like, in the lip now, getting sucked backwards over the falls. I ended up hitting the bottom with my feet; I landed right on my feet. I was actually stoked, ’cause I got a chance to push off the bottom. So I pushed off the bottom and it gave me some extra speed to get through the foamball at the top. So I pushed off the bottom and did like, seven swims. Seven or eight swims. And right when I got through the top, the next wave just hit me. The next wave was just as big

After that, I believe the next wave just knocked me out. The wave itself just knocked me out, because I just remember blacking out. Just, BOOM, that’s it. It knocked me out. Somehow, I made it through the rocks. After four waves, I was pushed through the rocks. And somehow I have no scratches on me. I was pretty much in God’s hands.

My board was floating by itself, and then the kayaker saw something floating. And he yelled over to Russell, ‘Hey here’s the body.’ And then Russell already had Alex on the back, and then they grabbed me and put me on the back of the sled. And then the rushed me to the beach and resumed giving me CPR and try to get all the water out of my lungs.

My board’s really scratched up. Rocks everywhere. There’s dents on it. I’m pretty fortunate not even to have hit a rock. And not even have brain damage. I mean, I was in the water for eight minutes. And then they were starting to revive me after nine minutes, and then they finally got me breathing after like, 12-13 minutes. They thought I was dead, but they just kept on trying. I guess they held me upside down; they pushed on my stomach to try to get as much water out of me as they could, so I pretty much drowned. My eyes were rolling to the back of my head. I was blue. I’ve seen pictures and I was like, light blue. It was pretty ugly.

There was a nurse that saw all this going on the cliff, and she ended up calling 911, and she got through to the Fire Department. So the fire department showed up, and then they started doing CPR on me. I guess the fire marshal was like, a minute away, so he came really fast. And then after the fire marshal came, the helicopter came and then took me to Stanford. And then I woke up on Monday.

They put me in an induced coma in cold water to slow down the oxygen to my brain, I guess. To preserve my brain so I didn’t get brain damage. When I woke up, I knew that I was in the hospital, and my parents were looking right at me. And all I knew was something bad happened at Maverick’s. I didn’t know what, I just knew I almost drowned.

I didn’t even know what hospital I was in, but I remembered because it was Maverick’s. Because I’d been planning this trip for a month. I got the board shaped. It’s been my life-long goal to surf that spot. I’ve surfed a lot of other waves around the world. It’s just a spot that I’ve really been curious about, and I love to watch photos of. It’s just an unbelievable break. It’s huge and massive. It’s like the Waimea of California. So I wanted to charge the Waimea of California. I wanted to be part of the gang. Definitely got slapped in the face.

I do want to go back out there. I just want to make sure I’m mentally ready. I wasn’t wearing a life vest, but next time I think I’m going to wear a life vest. And I’m gonna make sure there are jet skis out there. Even if they’re out there illegally.

I mainly train just by surfing. I try to surf every day. I go to the gym, try to lift weights every day. I jog. But I should do underwater training. I mean, I hold my breath and stuff under the pool. But I should do some stuff that the big-wave surfers do, like hold the rocks under the water.

I go to Black’s once in a while, but I haven’t gone to Todos yet. I’ve surfed Teahupoo really big. I’ve surfed Puerto Escondido really big. But yeah, I really wish I lived up there because I’d be able to maintain my focus, and even my strength. Because I go back to SoCal and it’s so small. I was like, ‘this is so weak, oh my god!’ I just went out for my first surf since the accident in front of my house [at Capo Beach]. It wasn’t that good, it was just good to get back in the water.

Physically, everything’s cool. I kind of forget things. I have a little short-term memory loss. But it’s getting better every day. Sometimes I forget why I walked in a room, or little quick memories. Nothing-long term. But yeah, that’s definitely one thing that’s affected me a little bit.

It’s been kind of stressful. Just trying to get better, then dealing with the media too. I just feel like I owe it to everyone, ’cause the public saved my life. So I can take my time to thank everybody. Thanks to Russell Ord, and thanks to all the Maverick’s crew, and thanks for the firefighters, and thanks for that kayaker, and there’s just a list of people that I thank and I’m still thanking.

I’m so stoked to be alive because I have such a great family and I have so many friends. I kind of have, you know how some people have the charger in their blood. I always liked to do things that are big. I’m just kind of an active charger. But I wish things would’ve turned out better. I really do want to go back there. I better chill out for a couple weeks, though.