MICHEL BOUREZ INJURED AT TEAHUPOO

Posted May 4th. The Spartan breaks hand and one vertebrae going over the falls and will be out for six week missing Rio. He is the defending event champion and will be replaced by Alejo Muniz. He suffered three broken fingers on his left hand, and after hearing his complaints of a sore back, they found he also broke one of his vertebrae, plus multiple lacerations on his head.

“This is the wave that I got hurt on ! Such a Beauty… I might need a bigger board for the next time!!!” MB

Big Swells cranked in the South Pacific and in Tahiti, World Tour veteran Michel Bourez suffered what he’s calling his “worst wipeout ever” at Teahupo’o. The best swell of the year so far, it was eight to 10-feet Tahitian size & pristine and uncrowded. Bourez got hung up on a set wave, ejected, but was couldn’t penetrate the wave face and got sucked over the falls and hit the deadly reef.

“One of the worst wipeouts I’ve ever had at Teahupoo,” Bourez posted on Instagram from a hospital bed. “One broken hand and 6 weeks out of the water minimum!! Thanks to everyone out there today that helped me out… I’m about to get a surgery now!! That drop was worth it tho!!!”The scene in the channel was pretty hectic when Bourez didn’t surface right away.“Michel took off on one of the bombs of the day and the takeoff was so steep that he kind of dove off the board into the face of the wave,” explains Vincent Devert, who works as an assistant to photographer Tim McKenna and was out in the water when Bourez went down. “He got sucked back over the falls and that’s when he hit the reef with his hand and broke it to the extent that he needed surgery.”