A champion paddleboard surfer cheated death thanks to his best friend and a high-performance wetsuit when his leg shattered after an 18-metre monster wave crashed over him in Gracetown on Saturday.
But daredevil Justin Holland of Kingscliff, NSW, recovering with his wife by his side in Bunbury Hospital from a three-and-a-half hour surgery that inserted two titanium rods into his splintered leg, believes he can still challenge for the 2015 title.
Mr Holland, sitting fifth on the World Stand-Up Tour, was tow-surfing at infamous Gracetown surf break Cow Bombie when the freak wave, driven all the way from Antarctica as part of WA's monster swell of the decade, hit him.
He told Radio 6PR on Monday morning that he was "feeling a little rusty to say the least", but had been buoyed by telephone conversations with his son Charlie, 12, and daughter Domino, 10, and even escaped a dressing-down from wife Shelly.
"Before I left she always says don't get hurt and I'm usually pretty good," Mr Holland said.
"[But she's] actually here this morning, she's flown over from Kingscliff, she'll be here and we'll assess how my leg is and obviously try rehab for the next 10 weeks and get me set to tackle the next few events in America."
The 38-year-old father-of-two had rushed over to WA on Thursday with his best mate Jamie Mitchell from Hawaii on the promise of meeting up with some colossal waves.
"We pretty much chase the big swells all around the world," Mr Holland said from his hospital bed.
Mr Holland said he may have owed his survival to a revolutionary wetsuit he was wearing that allowed for emergency inflation.
He said after the duo arrived in Perth they headed straight to Margaret River to pick up gear and then drove to Gracetown.
Mr Holland said they hit the water on Friday along with a film crew from Mysurf TV.
"There were some big swells and it was a fun day," he said.
The surfers headed out again on Saturday and Mr Holland said they were the first ones out to the infamous Cow Bombie break about two kilometres offshore.
"I got towed into a few and I'd ridden about six-eight when the big one came in," Mr Holland said.
"It didn't look that big at first, but it just grew and grew. The ride started off well; it was silky smooth and I was flying down it.
He said the tonnes of white water that broke his leg under their weight had formed a smooth, beautiful wave.
"You're going so fast, the sun's out and that's what we live for ... [but] it did snap my leg pretty quick," he said.
"I started to angle back toward the breaking part of the wave. As I was starting to turn, the lip just came down on top of me.
"The pain was excruciating. Even though I'd usually hold my breath, I let out an involuntary gasp. Fortunately, I'd been testing a new type of wetsuit. I pulled the ripcord and it popped me to the surface in a second.
Mr Mitchell, nearby on a jet ski, wasn't able to get to his stricken mate straight away as he was battered by another giant wave.
"He got to me before the third one and flipped me onto the back of the jet ski. That wave was big enough to have destroyed us," Mr Holland said.
He described to Radio 6PR in detail his experience of being rolled on to the rescue sled and taken in.
"I'm laying facedown holding onto the sled and he's full-throttle out of there and I am just getting slapped up and down," he said.
"I was screaming for him to stop. It felt like someone was bashing me with a sledgehammer. And we got told as we got out that if he had stopped we all would have got mowed under the white water."
After Mr Holland got to shore he was taken by ambulance to Margaret River Hospital where they cut off his wet suit and assessed the damage.
"I was pretty lucky. The leg was shattered and the bone could have easily punctured the femoral artery. The new wetsuit has a lot of reinforcement and I think that help keep all the broken bits stable," he said.
Mr Holland was later transferred to Bunbury Hospital where he underwent surgery on Saturday night.
His mate, Mr Mitchell, is already heading back to his home base in Hawaii on the lookout for more big waves.
Mr Holland could be in hospital for up to two weeks. He said doctors believed he would make a full recovery over six to 10 weeks and that he could be back on a board within three months.
Unbelievably, he could still be a contender for the World Stand Up Tour title.
"Your top four rides are what counts. I could still get another couple in before the end of the year – so who knows?" he said.
"I'm ready to get back out there. I think I was just a bit unlucky with my positioning. I was actually more worried about sharks, being the only one out there in the water," he said.
The Stand Up World Tour is the Official World Championship Tour for Stand Up Paddlesurfing. It has grown, since 2009, into a global sport with events held in six countries and with competitors from 15 nations.
The Bureau of Meteorology said that the abnormal wave conditions were caused by a storm from the Antarctic region.
Swells in the area would ease to about 3-4 metres on Sunday and further ease to about two metres on Tuesday.
