The Dangers of Surfing Big Waves and Brain Injuries
How often are surfers getting concussed.or worse?
Tom Dosland. Photo: Fred Pompermayer
Dashel Pierson
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At a remote surf spot in northern California, Shawn Dollar was in trouble. It was 2015 and Dollar was surfing alone. When a large set steamrolled his way, he stood on his board for a few feet of extra leverage, and dove beneath the whitewash. But, as he broke the surface, he went head-first into a shallow rock.
His neck was broken; his brain, scrambled.
“The real problem was, which I found out later, that all the concussions I had before added up, and this one was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Dollar, a two-time world record holder for biggest wave ever surfed (one at Maverick’s, another at Cortes Bank). “When I went up to the Amen Clinic, the results from the scans looked like I had played high school, college, and pro football. I had the brain of a pro football playe
Late Drop Big Wave Podcast with Shane Dorian
When the big-wave GOAT speaks we listen.
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Welcome to Episode One of Season Three of Late Drop – The Big Wave podcast. The series was created to showcase conversations with some of the best big-wave surfers in the world hosted by one of the best big-wave surfers in the world. New episodes will drop on Surfline every other week upcoming guests include, Laurie Towner, Carlos Burle and others. Stay tuned
for more.
Every so often, in certain eras across certain disciplines, an athlete doesn’t just change the way we look at a team he or she changes the way we look at the sport itself. A little over a decade ago, Shane Dorian did that with big-wave surfing out at Jaws. He raised the bar out there in XXL paddle-surfing, setting a precedent for all others to follow, while innovating and progressing that bar himself. Now a self-proclaimed surf-dad (geez, imagine if your pops was Shane Doria
Late Drop Big Wave Podcast with Mike Snips Parsons surfline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from surfline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.