Storm Hercules in France Jan. 2014, Jamie Mitchell:
DID YOU GET SUCKED UP AND OVER?
Well, I skipped down and got sucked over and pretty pounded and then by the time I came up, the next one behind it was even bigger. The view from where I was...I've never seen anything like it. It was, I don't even want to say how big the whitewater was, but it looked like the whitewater was connecting with the clouds and there was just all one big freakin' white bit of water from the sky down to the ocean coming at me. I already had my Patagonia vest self-inflated, so I couldn't even really duck under the wave. So I just sat there, got a couple of good breaths, and just had to take it. I looked in the channel and saw skis that wanted to come and get me. I looked left and right and then looked ahead of me and went, 'There is no one in the world that can help you now, my man. You're on your own.' It was pretty daunting.