Surfer cheats death after a big swell wipeout

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PRINCETON BY THE SEA, Calif. -- Through a blanket of fog, it was a vision of death. Darryl Virostko, the big-wave surfer known as Flea, was taking what witnesses described as the worst-looking wipeout they ever saw. It was a gloomy day at Maverick's last week, and a handful of riders were meeting the challenge of their lives.The most-seasoned Maverick's surfers have seen some epic disasters in their time. Jay Moriarity, who met his death years later while free-diving, took a well-publicized wipeout in 1994, just four days before the drowning of Hawaiian superstar Mark Foo. A Santa Cruz surfer named Neil Matthies took a fall on a giant peak in 1998 and was held under so long that a second wave passed over him before he came to the surface -- about 45 seconds later, more than 100 yards inside the spot of impact.Flea's wipeout, though, entered an entirely new realm. That Tuesday, the waves were so big that paddle-surfing, the style featured in the upcoming Maverick's competition, was out of the question. This was strictly for tow-surfing -- the act of being whipped into a wave at high speed, water-ski style, by a partner aboard a personal watercraft. Grant Washburn, the Maverick's standout who has meticulously chronicled every swell during the last 15 years, said some of the wave faces approached 80 feet in height."Probably the biggest day ever surfed at Maverick's," said Washburn. "A couple of other days are in the ballpark. But what really stood out was the performance level. Guys were turning, carving, snapping off the top, getting barreled like never before."Flea's wave was his first of the day. He had a solid-looking ride in progress when, turning near the wave's crest, he fell off. Swimming desperately to avoid being sucked down the back of the wave, he had no chance; he was going down like some crazy stuntman at Niagara Falls. As the wave began to break, Flea's helpless body could be spotted inside the lip -- absolutely the worst-case scenario."Definitely the worst wipeout I've seen," said photographer Frank Quirarte, whose stunning still images (on www.mavsurfer.com) captured a session not even visible for fog-shrouded spectators on land.Washburn, filming from close range, said he felt sick as he pondered the consequences. Grant "Twiggy" Baker, the South African who won the 2006 Maverick's contest, called it unsurvivable."All I remember," said Flea, "is taking a big breath, then seeing the sky fall. I don't even know what happened after that. It was bad. But somehow, I popped up pretty quick (thanks in large part to a life vest, now a staple for big-wave tow-surfers).""The most amazing part," said Peter Mel, Flea's longtime contemporary from Santa Cruz, "is that he went right back to catch more waves. He actually took another hideous wipeout and popped up from that one, too. ... That's what separates him from just about everyone else."The waves at the upcoming Maverick's contest -- scheduled to take place on the first favorable swell that arrives between now and the end of March -- won't be as big as they were on that foggy, terrifying Tuesday. The contest is for paddle-surfing only, and contest director Jeff Clark (the man who pioneered Maverick's in the mid-1970s) is looking for an open-ocean swell of 18 to 20 feet, which at Maverick's can translate into wave faces up to 50 feet. Beyond that, everyone agrees, paddle-surfing is simply out of the question.No one who surfed "The Big Ugly," as that Tuesday is being called, will soon forget it. Mel, long regarded as the most smooth-flowing performer at Maverick's, had three great rides but also a "train-wreck" wipeout that found him having to go under two vicious waves that broke directly in front of him."That was the thickest, meanest swell we've ever had, really an extreme direction from the west," said Mel. "Most of the good ones are sort of inviting, like it's our destiny to go out and catch a few. This was a crazy, angry swell; it did not feel welcome. Right about the time I was really getting worried, my partner (Ryan Augenstein) came into the cauldron on his jet-ski. I don't know how he did it. The whitewater was like Level Five rapids, and at one point the ski was completely submerged. "Somehow, we got out of there. I'm not a religious person, but I had ti leaves on my ski -- a ritual a lot of the guys follow for blessing in Hawaii. I was spiritually trying to connect to a higher power. After a while I reached the point where I knew it was too dangerous, that I had to get out of there."Mel, Flea, Washburn and many others shared their stories at the Maverick's contest's opening-ceremony party, held recently near Princeton Harbor.(E-mail Bruce Jenkins at bjenkins(at)sfchronicle.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)