Update Wednesday From the San Mateo Daily Journal:
A surfer who nearly drowned after being pummeled and washed through rocks by a big wave near Half Moon Bay is expected to recover, hospital officials said Tuesday.
A Stanford Hospital spokesman said 30-year-old Jacob Trette was in fair condition three days after he nearly drowned while attempting to surf Mavericks, a famous break about 20 miles south of San Francisco that has claimed a number of lives over the years. Full article
Earlier post
As of late yesterday, Jacob Trette, the surfer injured by a rogue wave at Mavericks Saturday, was still in critical condition.
(Video of the wave and the injury)
CBS’ Early Show talked today to Russell Ord, who rescued Trette:
He said, “It was a pretty small day for Mavericks really and then two big, deep rogue waves came through and just cleaned up the whole pack.”
Ord continued, “The first wave cleaned up about five guys. And then they got caught in the inside. And the second wave was not more than 20 seconds later. And then a surfer was waving out for a bit of help. Alex from Portugal, I think. And so I just zoomed in there and got him. And then that’s when we thought we saw Jacob in the water. But it was really hard to tell. There was a lot of white water. And so we had to get out of there. And by the time we got back, he was gone. So we went around the rocks and we found him there.”
Ord said when he found Trette, “He was in a real bad way.”
“I actually thought he was dead for sure,” Ord said.