told me, i was the worst drowning victim they have seen that lived to talk about it. it was the worst day of my life. his injuries are severe. i hit so hard, i had two brain contusions with the helmet on. my right collar bone was shattered in half in four places. i had a torn rotator cuff. two broken ribs and chemical pneumonia. this cameraman can barely move but he s still directing action from his hospital bed. yeah, get that shoulder. you got it all? yeah. it was the most excruciating pain you could ever imagine. broken bones are like a picnic compared to the pain i felt that day. love you, larry. thank you, man. in pain? sure. happy to be alive? definitely. i m forever grateful for my good friend larry who saved the day. ray spends nine days in critical care and it takes him a full year to recover. when he finally does get back in the ocean, he says he s not
it s go time. across america, we re all committed to team usa. the waves get really big.ç that gets the adrenaline going. it makes it all worthwhile. it makes life worth living. larry haynes and ray hollowell are professional cameramen. you won t find these guys in a
told me i was the worst drowning victim they saw that lived to talk about it. it was the worst day of my life. his injuries are severe. i hit so hard, i had two brain contusions with the helmet on. my right collar bone was shattered in half in four places. i had a torn rotator cuff. two broken bruised ribs and chemical pneumonia. this cameraman can barely move but he s still directing the action from his hospital bed. yeah, get that shoulder. you got it all? yeah. it was the most excruciating pain you could ever imagine. compared to the pain i felt that day. love you, larry. thank you, man. in pain? sure. happy to be alive? definitely. i m forever grateful for my good friend, larry, who saved the day. ray spends nine days in critical care and it takes him a
the swell comes from very deep water. it hits the pipeline, it hits a shallow reef with such power, it creates just a huge barrel. to get in that barrel and make it in the barrel and to get spit out is the ultimate euphoric feeling. to capture it on film is just great. shooting the pipeline long enough to know that ideal conditions for riding waves don t always meanç safe workin conditions for them. it was one of those days. it was very low tide. very dangerous, 14, 16-foot faces. low tide means huge waves and amazing footage. watch this wall of water crashing right over ray as his camera catches all the action. it was a great day. it was pretty epic. this big set. we see it breaking on the outer reef. larry and i realize we re really deep in the pit, they call it, which is the impact zone where the wave breaks.
caught between a crushing wave barreling down on them, and the jagged rocks on the reef below, ray and larry start frantically swimming as fast as they can with cameras still rolling. it s like doing the 50-yard dash under the water. when i got under the first wave, i got tumbled for at least ten seconds. like a wash and rinse cycle. it was really intense. and when i pop up, i manage to get two deep breaths and i look up and there s this big giant wall of whitewater coming at me. that s when the wave pile drove me into the reef. head and shoulder first and i was knocked unconscious. i look back. he was face down, just in a death position with his camera a few feet away. i knew he was in a super dangerous situation. larry swims as fast as he can to get to his friend.