Acid Drops... slowly I turn... inch by inch... step by step...
We were in Poipu in 1980 when a swell hit. I was scrambling for a board, and ended up renting a 6' Doyle for a kneeboard.
After a few sessions there, which were insane, it claimed me hard.
It wasn't even big, maybe a couple of feet overhead? I got dis-oriented when the nose caught some water in a tube, and drifted right into the flats just in time to get nailed squarely by the lip.
It hit me so squarely that it drove me straight down until I hit bottom, still over the board. Another physics equation that I lost.
Two compression fractures of the vertebrae, mid-back. I spent the short rest of that trip flat on my back. That cost me about 5 months out of the water.
Anyhow, it's an amazing wave. I can still picture looking down the right barrel.
I've got some pix from that trip from one of those old Minolta water cameras. If the weather continues and the brood gives me a break, I'll scan them and post.