SURVIVAL MODE Puerto Rican pro Gaby Escudero scalped at treacherous local spot, saved by pals By Matt Pruett

Published: April 1, 2012

April 1, 2012 Views: 7,235







SURVIVAL MODE Matt Pruett's report on Gaby Escudero's injury sustained while surfing gnarly local wave.





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Related Gaby Escudero at Chatarra, a different though equally heavy, PR reefbreak. Photo: gOnzolenz.com

Surfline wishes Gaby a speedy recovery. Photo: gOnzolenz.com



A secret spot is no longer a secret when it almost kills one of its best surfers.

In order to properly dissect the brutality of this experience, we must work backwards. The first question everyone wants to know the answer to -- is Gaby okay?



"He's back home already and in good spirits," says close friend and Survival regular Alejandro Moreda upon discovering there was no skull fracture, brain injury, or major spinal trauma. "He's still pretty out of it and doesn't remember much, but he's laughing and cracking jokes. It sucks Gaby had to be the guy to pay the price for pushing it out there, but his attitude is awesome. He's just so strong. I just got off the phone with him and he was like, 'Yeah, I got Jack Johnson's [faceplant] record beat now." I think he's just glad to be alive. If it hadn't been for my brother Nico and Dylan [Graves], Gaby would have died."





The second question -- just how gnarly is that spot?



"What makes that wave so dangerous is it's a heavy barrel breaking on a shallow reef in front of a gnarly cliff, and you're pretty isolated out there," explains Puerto Rico luminary and surf photographer Steve Fitzpatrick, who wasn't present for this session but has swam and shot the spot on previous occasions. "Survival is little bit flatter compared to somewhere like Chatarra, which is more live reef, brain coral and stuff. This is more like Middles, a reef top, although there's a big ol' hump about 20 yards inside, which is where I assume Gaby landed when he went down. Places like Survival and Chatarra are all about swell direction. If you got enough west to keep it from sectioning, it's a dreamland; when it gets too north it's these big, unmakeable slabs hitting places on the reef where there's no escape. It'll handle that when it's head-high, but 12-foot faces can't accommodate that north. Gaby feels really comfortable out there, but with all the photographers present, maybe there was the impetus to push each other a little too hard."



Which brings us to the third question -- what exactly happened out there? Surfline called up Nico Moreda to get all the gory details:



Surfline: What went wrong?

Nico: Gaby and I paddled out together. He was riding a 5'10". I had a 6'1" in my car but decided to ride the same so we'd be on the same mentality. Looking back, we should've been on bigger equipment. When we got to the beach we saw Dylan eat shit on one, break his board and take a crazy pounding. Then we saw Dane Guduaskas get a good barrel, so we went out. Everyone ate shit. It was super sucked out, low tide, with some wind and backwash on it, so the drops were super hard to make, doubling up and stuff. Dane and Dylan were calling it "Teahupo'o style" out there. Gaby went on the second wave of a set and went down hard. When he came up, all I could see was red.



How'd you get him to the beach?

Dylan was on the first wave of that set, so he got to him first. I was trying not to panic because I did that one time when I saw a lot of blood, so I tried not think and just paddled like a madman over to him. When I got there, he had the biggest gash I'd ever seen, a piece of skin folded off his head and flapping over his eye. We could see his skull, bro. It seriously looked like something out of a movie, Hannibal Lecter or something. I thought he was gonna bleed out, so I took my Lycra off and tied it around his head to maintain pressure. He had also dislocated his left shoulder and hurt his back and neck pretty bad, so he couldn't swim at all. He held on to Dylan's ankle with his one good arm while I pushed his tail through his legs. He kept asking questions: "How are my eyes? Do I have my eyes?" The skin flap was so big it was actually covering his eyes. "Your eyes are fine. Your face is fine..." We kept talking to him so he wouldn't lose consciousness, telling him to breathe, all the while trying not to look at the wound ourselves. He asked to stop and rest for a second, and we were like, "No way, bro, we need to get you to shore." I can't believe he didn't pass out. He lost so much blood.



So paddling straight in and going up the trail wasn't an option?

We never would've made the trail. He couldn't climb or see or anything. He was dizzy and had to move super slowly. Just getting him on the stretcher at the hospital was a full-on odyssey because his [vertebrae] were smashed. He's lucky he didn't get paralyzed. I'm not a religious person, but I thank God there weren't any sets coming through as we paddled Gaby through Backdoor, down Surfer's Beach, and in near Table Top. We made it to the beach easily, got him in the car and took him to the hospital. It was freaky.



Isn't Gaby one of the best guys out there; or maybe we say, one of the only guys out there?

Gaby's one of the best surfers on the island, top-five for sure. When we were young, he was the only one in our age group who could consistently beat Brian Toth, who was just unstoppable then. He was so calm through this whole experience. If I felt a flap of my own skin dangling over my eyes like that, I would've flipped.



But you didn't flip. You reacted. You went into survival mode and you handled the situation. You and Dylan are heroes.

We're always patrolling for each other out there, as well as Chatarra, where I surf with Gaby a lot. So I can tell you Gaby Escudero has all the experience in the world when it comes to waves like this. If it can happen to him out there, it can happen to anybody.



Surfline wishes Gaby Escudero a speedy recovery.

Then it's a black diamond -- a wave that can take care of itself, a wave you probably wouldn't want to have anything to do with in the first place.And if you did before, you might not now.This Thursday, a gnarly session at a low-profile Puerto Rican reefbreak resulted in local pro surfer Gaby Escudero cheating death, after a horrific wipeout at the aptly named Aguadilla spot "Survival" left him horrifically battered.