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Equipped with an inflated survival suit to keep him afloat if knocked unconscious and a Gun surfboard, which is thicker than a standard board, McNamara paddled slowly into what he described as a “normal” 70-foot wave.

A third of the way down the wave’s face, McNamara lost his footing and catapulted off his board, skipping like a rock several stories into the surf. The lip of the wave broke onto him.

Upon impact, McNamara suffered a four-part fracture of the humerus bone in his left arm. Like a cracked egg, the head of the humerus shattered into nine pieces, and the shaft was stuck in McNamara’s pectoral muscle, where it remained for 24 hours until doctors could remove it during emergency surgery.