Steve Rice: “The leash broke my leg instantly”

The series that last week found everyone out of place in Jaws broke the femur of the big wave surfer who described the situation this way

November 9, 2021

Big wave surfer Steve Rice suffered a broken femur after the biggest heat of the day wiped out the lineup at Jaws last week on opening day at the wave located in Maui, Hawaii.

“The leash broke my leg instantly,” Steve said in a letter he sent to Kai Lenny, who was the first to share the incident on his Instagram.

“I managed to get through the first one, I was more inside but the board got caught,” he explained and the pull snapped his femur (see photo below). The verdict was: “I suffered a spiral fracture in my femur and underwent surgery at the Maui memorial.”

“I eventually managed to get the pin out of the leash afterwards, but about 15 seconds later I didn’t make it to the surface and the second wave sent me down until my vest opened. Luckily we had hired security and they took me to the boat to Maliko where the firemen and ambulance lifted me up. Just out for this season said the doctor, he expects a full recovery,” the surfer concluded.

His friends organized a fundraiser of $25000 to cover hospital and recovery costs.

Lenny said: “The biggest set of the day wiped out the entire lineup. I dodged a bullet after surfing the previous set and was heading back down the channel when this happened. You can hear on the video that several people went under two waves. And that was even with inflated vests.”