Anastasiia Temirbek faced 10-foot walls of whitewater as she paddled out next to the pier at the International Surfing Association World Surfing Games in Huntington Beach, California, this week.
The ocean had decided to pulse just as Temirbek’s heat began, sending a steady succession of solid waves into the lineup and leaving the surfers struggling to make it “out back” to the calmer water.
But at least there were no mines.
And the water was a balmy 71 degrees — warm enough for a bikini rather than a thick, cumbersome wetsuit. There were no rockets flying overhead.