Surfing: Paige Hareb eyes late-July return to World Surf League competition after 'scary' injury

Paige Hareb is in a race to be fit for an event in California in late July. Photo / WSL

Paige Hareb sat in the water with two broken ribs on her right side. Struggling to breathe, she began drifting toward a heavy shore break at Zippers in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico.

A free-surf in preparation for a major World Surf League qualifying series (QS) event last month took a terrifying turn for the 28-year-old Kiwi when, after catching a wave, she was picked up by the following one and slammed sideways into a boulder.

She got to her board and began to paddle in, but realised she was in trouble. Hareb's friends were surfing out the back of the break, and there was only one person around – a local surfer on the white-sand beach. She waved her arm to signal for help.

He waved back.

"It was a bit scary there when the Mexican guy was just waving back at me instead of coming out and helping me," she recalled.

The man finally got the message, paddled out on his board before passing it to the Kiwi in distress and towing her in. On the shore, a doctor was called to examine her injuries and said there was a possibility she might have punctured a lung or her liver – so she was initially refused painkillers, which made for an excruciating ambulance to the hospital ride over bumpy, uneven roads.

Hareb was later found to have broken ribs nine and 10 on her right side, an abrasion on her right lung and some liquid inside it. As a result, she had no choice but to withdraw from the competition, a smaller one in South Africa the week later, and the next Championship Tour (CT) event – at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa – which starts on Friday (NZ time).

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INJURY!...did a turn and jumped off right before a rock and was sweet but came up right in front of it with my board touching it and me about a metre away. I couldn’t get my board in time before the next wave so tried to swim sideways to the side of the rock but the next wave came super quick and slammed me sideways sooo hard straight into it. I heard my ribs crack underwater!!! 😳 Broke ribs number 9 & 10. Could hardly breathe, somehow floated to shore and a local Mexican surfer finally helped drag me in after he thought I was waving at him and waved back at me twice LOL I have an abrasion on my right lung and some liquid inside from it. They were worried I had punctured my liver or lung which I nearly did, so lucky! 😅 #kookoftheday UNFORTUNATELY I have to pull out of the qs event here in Mexico and the @wsl Jbay event for now. Absolutely gutted! Heartbroken (and rib broken 🤭) A BIG THANKYOU to the guy that dragged me in, @kurtyjay @elliejbrooksss @harrywrighty_ @isabella_nichols @dmacsurfboards and whoever else I missed that helped me in my delirious state, THANKYOU! ❤️ Hoping to be able to fly home soon to recover quickly! 🤞🏽💪🏽

A post shared by Paige Hareb (@paigehareb) on Jun 14, 2018 at 9:38am PDT

After having to rest for a couple of days while the liquid in her lung subsided, Hareb flew home to Taranaki to begin her recovery. She was working hard to be back in the water for the Supergirl Pro in California – another major QS event – in late July.

She said at the moment she was about a week ahead of schedule, and was confident of being back in time for the Supergirl Pro, which was the start of a crammed time of the year with four events spread across the USA and Spain within two months.

"Missing Mexico, I was pretty guttered. If I miss Supergirl, that'll be devastating," Hareb said. "I'm just lucky I got a couple of good results at the start of the year and I'm still sitting in a really good spot. If I can get back for that one it should be all good."

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Putting my tools away for awhile 😔 As an athlete it’s one of the hardest things to do. Not knowing exactly how long I have out of the water & going from being so active to barely doing anything is so frustrating! On a positive note my recovery is heading in the right direction & hopefully I will know when I can get wet again soon! THANKYOU to all my sponsors for your support through blood, sweat, sad & happy tears 🙏🏽💪🏽💃🏼🏄🏼‍♀️ @curvesurf @mtwoodgeesurfboards @gullnz @sunbreakeroptical @hyperride @toyota_nz @matuseinc @newbalancenz @hydrosurf @hpsportnz @kaiserbaas

A post shared by Paige Hareb (@paigehareb) on Jun 22, 2018 at 8:06pm PDT

It was a bad time of the year for Hareb to have picked up a major injury, with the QS looking like it will be vital in her bid to hold onto her spot on the CT.

The Kiwi has not seen things go her way on the CT this year – falling out of all five competitions in the second round. However, she currently sits in 13th place on the QS leaderboard with 6900 points – having competed in just three events of the series. With the top six securing automatic qualification spots, Hareb was well in contention, despite missing the event in Mexico.

"Everything's kind of on track still."