Big-wave surfing is one of the most dangerous sports out there. What’s the departure from normal surfing, you ask? Well, the distinction is simple. For surfing to be classified as big-wave surfing, the waves need to be at least 20 feet tall. Big-wave surfers use specialized equipment to be able to ride the waves properly. But even with the right equipment, the mitigation of the danger is only minuscule. No one knows it better than American big-wave surfer, Greg Long,

Getting injured while surfing is a common occurrence. Similarly, back in the year 2012, Long suffered blunt trauma injuries, and as a result, fell under the water while riding big waves. The wipeout was long enough to make him lose his consciousness. The incident took place in Cortes Bank, off the coast of southern California. After the incident, life was never the same for Greg Long.

Greg Long and his adamance to make a comeback

Long suffered, what is called, a non-fatal drowning. While he temporarily died for all intents and purposes, he was resuscitated. The experience was traumatic enough that he could not step into the ocean for a while. Yet, he did not give up. According to him, “It was out of pure ego that I went back as soon as I did. I paddled back out to a big wave session… a big wave competition three weeks after it happened and it was literally just my ego.”

For Long, his will to be his old self was much stronger than his hesitation to go back to the very ocean that almost killed him. He wanted to show to everyone, “This is who I am, and I gotta bounce back and, you know, prove to the world that I haven’t changed.” The damage that Greg Long went through makes his recovery even more remarkable.

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“It Humbled Me a Lot”: Big Wave Surfing Legend Opened Up on Her Coping Mechanism Following a Brutal Wipeout in 2013

In a 2014 interview with Vice Sports, he describes the incident as follows, “Two years ago I drowned. I suffered… a non-fatal drowning where I was held down by one of the wipeouts for so long I lost consciousness. So, I was underwater for a significant amount of time before my rescue team was able to get to me and, umm… I was dead.”

While the video shows just how taxing the entire incident was on his body, his mind was deeply scarred as well. Long remembers, “Going through the whole physical process, you know, what it’s like to actually drown, and then, even worse was the mental challenge of getting back into the ocean afterward.”

The experience changed his life forever

After crossing the threshold to the other side of life, and then somehow touching death and coming back, the big-wave surfer was never the same. “Literally… my life, you know, this perfect picture of who I was and what I was doing and the direction just torn to shreds and, you know… Sat there for two years just picking the shreds, picking the pieces up. What… actually makes sense to me.” He was not the only one who was affected by the tragedy. His family was as well.

But they knew big wave surfing was Long’s destiny. So, when he finally decided to go back, they didn’t stop him. Long recalls, “They knew how intense and passionate I was my entire life. It was everything I slept, dreamt, breathed, was, you know, big wave surfing. So, they weren’t gonna tell me no.” Long did return to surfing, and he was successful the first time he tried as well. But inside, he was terrified. He describes feeling like a fraud for a long time before he could make his peace with surfing again.

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Would you ever dare to step foot into the ocean after almost getting killed by it?