‘Chewed up and spit out’: Surfer survives terrifying wipeout at Jaws off Maui

New at 10, one of the gnarliest wipeouts of the year happened this weekend, and it wasn't at the eddy. Our Derek Kravitzky spoke to the surfer who got swallowed up at Peahi. That little speck on this massive wave at Peahi Maui is Ty Simpson-Kane, a 20-year-old Kamehameha Maui grad who spent his entire life preparing for a moment like this. Then, this happened. A brutal crash and burn that turned him inside out. Almost as if you're doing 80 in your car on the highway and then hitting a brick wall and then deciding to do a bunch of cartwheels just randomly, just falling from a three to four-story building after you get sucked up and over. That lifetime of preparation and instinct put him on autopilot. I like to just go into the darkest part of my brain and just shut everything off. Any big wave surfer is used to heavy wipeouts, but this was different. And when I hit the water, it knocked the wind out of me. So I was doing those cartwheels down the face of the wave with no air in my lungs. He ended up underwater, pulled the cord on his inflatable vest, and popped to the surface. The notorious wave known as Jaws had chewed him up and spit him out, relatively unscathed. Nothing too serious, just some casual whiplash and a little sore of the lower back. Simpson-Kane didn't get lucky. He's been surfing peahe since he was 13 and training with pool sprints and breath holding up to nearly five minutes. You train to survive the wipeout. You don't train to make a wave to the channel. There's a lot of adrenaline going on throughout your body. Your heart's pumping. So it's really just learning how to control your brain and learning when to shut it off and really settle in for the beating. After his terrifying tumble, Simpson-Kane could have called it a day. Instead, he settled his nerves, saw his friends catching bombs, and grabbed his board. After that wipeout, I went back out for another three to four hours. And that was when the swell was peaking. So I definitely got some bigger rides after that wave. Simpson-Kane, who's back home on winter break from college, says he plans to catch a few more monsters before heading back to school in California. If there's a swell that lines up while I'm home, then I'll definitely be back out there for it. Derek Hravitsky, Hawaii News Now. Oh, wow. Nerves of steel. Yeah, I'm glad he's all right. Very impressive.