Interview with Odd Persson

Resteröds: Hi Odd, how are you?

Odd: I am always great. As long as I have the ocean I am always happy and stoked!

Resteröds: You are living your dream down in South Africa, tell us more about your inspiring life?

Odd: I live a life that might not reflect the ordinary Swedish kind of life. I am a Professional Big Wave surfer that followed my dream and moved to South Africa. That makes me able to be around and in the ocean that produces some of the wildest biggest waves in the world.   

Resteröds: You have surfed some of the biggest waves in the world, such as Maverick and more, tell us about some crazy shit we never would dare to do…?

Odd: I travel around the world to chase the biggest waves I can find. I went over to surf Mavericks in San Francisco, California the first time when I was 18 years old. The second time I went over I was the first guy that paddled out from land on a historically big day with waves over 60ft. 

Resteröds: Thats awesome! We also learned both you and your board was totally smashed last year, and the story about the travels of your board was over the tops, please tell us?

Odd: I was surfing a big wave spot in Cape Town, South Africa called Sunset that is a reef over 1km out at sea. It was only me and two of my friends out. After surfing a couple of hours in the big surf, a suddenly much bigger set appeared on the horizon. The first wave in the set landed right on my head, pushing me so far down under the surface that my eardrum burst. I just made it up to the surface before the next wave hit me, then the next and the next.

By the fifth wave I came up to the surface completely concust and disorientated. Not only was I disoriented from the burst eardrum and out of breath from the ocean holding me down under the surface for such a long time, I was paralyzed from my chest down. Not being able to move is not ideal in big waves and strong currents. Luckily my two friends saw that I was in trouble and paddled towards me.

Continued...

When they reached me the only words I could get out of was “I can’t feel my legs, I can’t move”.My friends swam me towards the shore. They had to tear off the legrope from our boards as the waves kept hitting us making the boards too dangerous to still be attached to us. After the long swim in the heavy seas we finally reached the shore were I was loaded into an ambulance. 

After a week in hospital I could stand up on my legs again. After many months of rehab I made a full recovery. Now I feel strong again and I am back in the water surfing big waves again. 

From the day of the accident it took a couple of weeks and my friend got a call. He had almost lost hope of someone finding his board washed up on some other beach, but someone did. They found his board washed up on a remote part of a beach over 400km from the place where we had to ditch them. A story few can believe. The story of my own board that we also had to ditch during the accident would however rock people even more. Over 16 weeks after the accident I recieve an email saying: “Is this board yours? Found in Namibia”. 

My board was found washed up in a restricted Diamond area in the middle of the Namibian Desert south of Walvis bay just over 1600km as the bird flies from the location of the accident. The board was still in one piece. On all my boards there is always a Resteröds sticker showing the support they have given me over the years. The Namibian who found my board in the desert looked up Resteröds online and after some further research came in contact with me. ..