Cape Town charger, Neil Zietsman, knows as well as any that small waves can be just as dangerous as the big waves he frequently charges at Dungeons and Sunset Reef.

While surfing a weak 1-ft day at Long Beach, Neil took a tumble and got speared by the nose of his board in the eye socket. Thankfully, his board’s nose pierced a few millimetres from the actual eyeball, which could have led to more serious ocular damage.

Neil was also thankful of the fact that he had taken care of his board repairs prior to the session.

“I had just fixed the nose of that board. You know how the front of the board gets damaged really easily? I reckon [that] if I had not fixed it the damage to myself would have been way worse.” said Neil about the close call.