On January 13th, 2023, pro surfer and big-wave charger Coco Nogales was surfing Killers off Todos Santos island in Ensenada, Mexico.
The waves were massive that day. A huge set wave unloaded on the lineup, catching many, if not all, of the surfers inside. Coco took a beating. A bad one. He broke his pelvis and sacrum, and since then has been on a road to recovery.
Then, one year later, Coco returned to Todos. It wasn’t huge, but it was a meaningful experience for him to return to the place where he nearly drowned. And he wondered: What ever happened to his surfboard that broke during that fateful day?
Well, it turns out, it was still washed up on the island. An entire year later. Amid a graveyard of other broken boards claimed by the Baja big wave spot.
And Coco recovered it. As translated from Spanish, here’s what he had to say:
“After the accident I asked a couple of friends if anyone knew where my board had been, nobody knew anything and for a whole year I kept asking myself where the pieces of the board would have been after being caught by that big set of waves that not only broke my pelvis and sacrum but also breaking my board along with the leash.
“Now a year later January 26, 2024 after my first successful surf session on returning to the boat I told again to a great friend and video cameraman Chuy Salazar @jsslzr that as I would have liked to have that board and suddenly I say coconut I think your board is on the island by the features you tell me it seems like we saw it a few days ago that we went up, told me more or less where they saw it and do not hesitate for a second to go in search of it.
“[I] return to the island and find a piece of my board with which I was surfing during that strong experience the feeling was unique and very special on one part happy but on the other hand it gave me a lot of peace because I finally felt that I was closing a cycle.”
That’s a wall-hanger if there ever was one.
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