The off-season swell that broke in Australia last week caused Russell Bierke's spot to break big and tubular.
One of the bravest big riders on the planet went for it, as he has done many times before, on a powerful left but his board got stuck, he bodysurfed for a while and then hit the reef with his arm.
"My elbow found a sharp piece of reef," the surfer wrote in his Instagram post, adding that luckily no muscle or artery was affected. He shared a rather sensitive photo, with a considerable gap and a tourniquet applied to his arm.
Bierke added that the incident will only keep him out of the water for 10 days.
The Hawaiian-born Australian is one of the world's most prominent big riders, having won Red Bull Cape Fear in 2016 and surfing one of the best waves of the year at Jaws two years ago.
