An Italian Surfer Spent Six Days With A Fin In His Face

Davide Lopez, from Tuscany, was recently reminded of Supertubos’ unpredictable mood swings.

The Italian was having “one of my best sessions ever” until a stiff brown lip pitched him into the tightly packed sandbar.

“When I fell, the lip shot my board straight into my face,” he told Stab from Morocco. “Luckily I was conscious and able to get to the beach on my own.” There he was met by bystanders who helped him to the parking area and called an ambulance.

“I was bleeding everywhere and I was kind of in shock,” he said, “but I was sure that I hadn’t been hit by the fin, because I felt the impact straight in my face — it felt like the rail, maybe.”

The blow was so hard he assumed it couldn’t have been a fin, and he’d probably be dead. He described the impact in two syllables: “Crack crack.”

On land, snot, mucus, and post-nasal drip that should have been leaving through his nostrils were draining from the gash in his face.

“When the paramedics arrived they were kind of confused.” Davide was taken straight to the nearest hospital, where his face was quickly decorated with ten stitches. He was then put through a CT scanner.

“Some minutes later I was asked if my board was okay,” he said of an interaction with the person operating the scanner. “He told me he could see something really weird in my nose and asked whether I felt anything different.”

Still dazed, Davide said he didn’t feel anything strange. After a five-hour wait, doctors diagnosed him with a broken nose and told him “the weird thing” had vanished, but still encouraged him to get in touch with his doctor, as he was leaving for Italy the next day. 

“They didn’t say anything else, and I really don’t know why,” he said.

And so Davide flew home oblivious to the fact that part of a broken surfboard fin was lodged in his face.

“I called my doctor, but she was busy and told me, after looking at the scans, ‘Don’t worry, the nose looks normal.’”

He waited another five days before arranging an appointment with a specialist.

“At the first appointment, she looked over the images and told me my nose was normal and not to worry,” Davide continued. “She told me I could go to Morocco, so I was happy and I really wasn’t feeling anything strange — I was simply okay.”

Though the swelling had settled, he was still struggling to breathe, which sent him back for another look. This time, after examining him in person, “she was absolutely scared and told me she had never seen anything like this before.”

Eventually, doctors peered into his nose with a camera and “saw this blue thing,” Davide said. From its colour, it clearly wasn’t bone. “It was crazy, we could see the blue of the fin up on the screen.”

Surgery followed the next day and out came a chunk of fin measuring roughly three centimetres by three. His nose underwent some repair, and his eyesight, by luck, remained intact. “I risked my eye and probably my life too,” he said. “I have a guardian angel for sure.”

When he came in from the accident, only one fin remained in his quad setup. “I never got to see the broken fin,” Davide said — one reason he never imagined the scenario he’d found himself in.

At this point, he’s back to work and life as usual, on land, at least. “I can’t touch saltwater yet because my nose is still in pretty bad shape,” he said.

Now that the catastrophe is receding, it is beginning to harden into personal lore. He expects to be back surfing within a month, but with a protective mask, “like a football player.”

There were also mentions of reassessing his choice of fin manufacturer. Still, there was perspective. “Could be worse,” he said. “At my unluckiest I was super lucky.”

“I love Supertubos and I spend so much time looking for that kind of wave — I love it,” he continued. “I know sometimes we have to pay, so I’m glad I had to pay like this, where nothing too bad really happened.”