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Comment by harywilke | Hacker News Reader

A nitpic on the article. Teahupoo is not a big wave surfing spot similar to Jaws/Mavrics/Nazaré. It's a know for it's freakishly thick shape, amazing barrels, and dangerous reef, but the biggest wave there is about 25 feet, not even in the conversation with the 80+ waves at the other locations. Here it is on one of it's biggest days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSq5pBKFzJQ

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Yeah, except that if you go under at Teahupoo, it's so thick it's probably going to feel like an 80ft wave [1].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teahupo%27o#Surfing_deaths_at_...

I've heard of people bursting their eardrums there just duck-diving into a wave because of the sudden and severe change in pressure from imstantly being under that much water.

Probably not true, I don't have enough knowledge about these things to prove from a physics standpoint that it doesn't happen but I've watched tons of big wave surfers' interviews and podcasts where they were talking about what it's like to get wiped out and none of them mentioned it.

Immediate severe concussion however....

I believe it, I've had my eardrums go pfffzzzt from diving into much lighter waves

What's notable is that despite its ferocity and danger, according to the wiki section only one recorded death. Must be similar to free soloing in rock climbing where only the most competent dare to do it so the number of deaths is fewer than you'd have thought considering the risk.

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