Here is a pretty good story I read last week about almost drowning while surfing Mavs (near half moon bay, ca)
"My Mavs Experiences
(1991) I was hanging with my friend Marcel Soros and he pretty much forced me to hit Mavs one morning on a massive swell. This was a bit before everyone was hitting it. I was working at Freeline at the time and it was the big buzz at that moment. So we dawned it and were the first ones there. I had borrowed a 10′2″ from Jeff Divine and really had no idea how to handle a board like that but I figured once I got up on a wave it would tell me what to do. Fat chance. We paddled out in the early morning haze over these massive lumps….the tide was just going out so it wasn’t slamming on the inside yet. We get out there and hoollly shit….I had never ever seen waves that big, nor been that close to waves that big. To top it off it was grey and cold…so heavy. One of those corner swinger outside things came through and we barely made it over the top. We were not laughing but marcel was showing heaps more cajones than me. I paddled way outside into the channel as far as I could and on the horizon all you could see were more and more massive lumps coming in. It was just getting bigger by the second and jacking with the outgoing tide…I couldn’t seem to stay out far enough and the more I paddled the more I seemed to get sucked into the bowl. Right then VCollier and RSchmidt paddled out. Vinnie took one look at my face and yelled at me, at the top of his lungs (ever heard VC yell?)…”get the F*** out of here cuz you’re going to get hurt!”….well, s***, I knew he was right and I wasn’t going to argue so I paddled as wide and hard as I could South and then inwards. I was huffing sooo hard and I think I was in the middle, halfway in, when the biggest set yet started to roll through. I remember that I heard it before I saw it and when I turned over my shoulder there it was….MASSIVE 12 wave set breaking wayyyy outside. I paddled inwards as hard as I could figuring that I could prone out that first wave in the drink if I could get in far enough….as the whitewater approached I knew something was wrong. When I first looked over my shoulder it looked like a typical wall of whitewash…as it got closer…well…bigger and bigger and bigger. When it finally got to me I was shitting…it must have been a solid 15 ft wall of drink. Rather than pushing me forward it pushed me straight down, and down, and down….the typical story that we’ve all heard. Couldn’t find the way up, was totally lost, and was empty on breath…I started to see visions of my life, things got really slow, and I was ok with death because there was no fighting it. All of a sudden I opened my eyes and i could see a small shaft of light through the turbulence…I have no idea how i managed but I hyper-kicked and struggled and pooped up in a layer of foam about 3 feet thick. I sucked it all in with a bit of air just in time to go through the whole process 3 more times….when the last wave passed I came up gasping and puking and I was way the f*** down at the corner end of the harbour! F***.
(1992) Wanting it give it another go I prepared myself a bit more and hit it one morning with Pete and John Mel and that Sharp photog dude by boat. It was quite a bit smaller but still macking and clean offshore perfection. We got out on the bowl and s***, the way that place buckles in the impact zone is the freakiest thing…there was alot of pressure to paddle in and get some shots, but everytime I chose a wave and started to paddle in I’d pull back at the last moment in fear and then find myself very close to being stuck in the impact zone…after 3 attempts I gave up and headed back to the boat humiliated. Thus came to an end my desire to surf waves like that. OB on a 6 foot day will do nicely, yo. Peace to ze board…even to the haters!"
http://www.mavsurfer.com/main_page/