Watch: Pipeline Wipeout Almost Kills Pro Surfer Koa Rothman

Pipeline’s casualty count continues to rise this winter surf season.

First, 2023’s world number four ranked surfer Joao Chianca was taken out; then, Tahitian tube hound Eimeo Czermak was hospitalized during the Vans Pipe Masters; next, North Shore local Koa Rothman was knocked unconscious on an unassuming wave; and finally, most recently, Maui big-wave surfer Kai Lenny cracked his helmet on the Pipe reef during the Da Hui Backdoor Shootout SUP division.

And the season’s not nearly over yet.

As for Rothman’s recent injury, details were scarce when it went down in late December. But being a YouTube vlogger, of course Rothman was going to release a video about it. Now, we’ve got the whole story – Rothman slammed his head on the reef, was knocked unconscious, was rescued by 2023 Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational winner and North Shore Lifeguard, Luke Shepardson, and is now on the mend.

Rothman takes the story from there:

“You guys…I’m alive! I’m doing well and I feel great. But I did have quite a scary experience two weeks ago, exactly, and thank you to everyone who has reached out. The love and support has been amazing. It was definitely a scary experience, but I’m fine and I’m doing good and I’ll be back in the water in a couple days.

“For those of you who don’t know what happened, or wanted to know what happened, I actually had an accident out here [motions towards ocean] at Pipeline. It was on a wave you would’ve never expected it to happen on.

“Pretty much what happened was, I hit my head on the bottom. I got 21 stitches on my face. They’re all healed up now. And I had a pretty bad concussion. I don’t remember, like, 10 minutes of it. But what I do remember is the whole session up until I caught a wave, and straightened out. I just remember jumping a little bit. Right when I hit the water, I don’t remember anything. I came to on the beach, on a stretcher, in a neck brace, with all the lifeguards above me.

“I was like, ‘what happened…’”

Glad everyone’s okay…for now.

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