HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — The veteran big-wave surfer Ken Collins thought he was going to drown. Safely alive a few minutes later, standing on a small dock with gauze stuffed into a left ear that had a ruptured drum, he was out of the Titans of Mavericks.
He was asked if the injury occurred when he hit the water.
“When the water hit me,” he said, making it clear that the ocean was the aggressor in the conflict. “The thing came down on me — two tons of water. I thought I was concussed at first.