“It Punctured a Digestive Organ”: 20-Year-Old Surfer Opens Up About Near-Death Wipeouts

The 20-year-old Hawaiian surfer, Eli Hanneman, has been chasing waves and making torrents in the surfing realm since he was just a 12-year-old kid. The surfer’s first breakthrough came when he was just 13, receiving his first-ever surfing contract from Red Bull. Ever since then, he has been unstoppable. Now, at 20, Hanneman is one of the biggest names in the surfing world. However, in his pursuit of reaching the pinnacle of wave barrels, he once got severely injured and ended up having some brutal lacerations.

In January 2020, Hanneman was chasing the Pipeline at the north shore when a giant wave barrel took him by surprise and he fell prey to a wipeout. What came next was the unprecedented sight of a vicious surfing mishap and the surfer’s ceaseless efforts to survive.

Eli Hanneman’s brutal Pipeline wipeout

In the recent episode of the Jamie O’Brien podcast, the 20-year-old thoroughly talked about the Pipeline wipeout that injured him ferociously. As the wave barrel pummeled him, his surfboard got reversed, and he connected face-first with the whetted reefs. Things went downhill when another wave came in and this time the wipeout rendered him some severe injuries in his chest and pancreas.

Describing the aftermath of the wipeout, the surfer stated, “The second wave hit me, and that’s where everything went south. The head injury was fine; I got staples in my head. But I think I took my rail to my chest area, right here, and it punctured my digestive organ in my body my pancreas”. But how did he come out of the ocean?

Though he was knocked out into the sea, the lifeguards immediately started the rescue operation and extricated the surfer. Following this, he was taken to the hospital for further treatment. “They had to go in there and do surgeries on it. It’s really gnarly because if the toxins get out it can eat away your other organs. It’s like life or death. I was being monitored in the hospital for like two weeks. It felt like I had a knife in my chest and someone was just twisting it”.

It took Hanneman another eight months of recovery and medical treatment to gain his robustness back. The wave indeed took a toll on the Hawaiian surfer’s physical health. In the words of Hanneman, “the wave is serious and I experienced it first hand”. However, it is not the first time when the 20-year-old fell victim to a brutal wipeout. Just a year after the Pipeline fiasco, Hanneman got into another wipeout in Hawaii.

No rest for Hanneman

In 2021, while surfing Valentine’s wave swell in Hawaii, a massive barrel hindered his path, and he drowned in the depths of turquoise water. “It landed on me and all my friends barely made it and I got smoked, and my board broke in like three pieces“, recalled the 20-year-old. Acting out of his reflex, the surfer then started swimming toward the shore. Unfortunately, another wave came and smashed the Hawaiian into the sea. However, after some time, the coastguards extricated the surfer and he was then taken to the safety of the shore. “everyone was cheering for me that I was alive“.

Read More: “It Was So Violent and So Painful”: Big-Wave Surfer Once Recalled His Nightmarish Wipeout at One of the Most Horrifying Surfing Destinations

Given the ferocity of the accident, many would have called it quits right there, but not Hanneman. Following the incident, he went back to his car, took another surfboard, and went back to the ocean to chase the swell for one more time. Expressing his delight, the surfer asserted, “I went for it and it worked…I’m glad that I did it“. Eli Hanneman indeed has an unparallel moxie and an exceptional drive to reach the crest of big wave barrels, don’t you agree?

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