Surfers Survive Big Wave

View Enlarged Photo and CaptionThe foreign tourists who were here during the tsunami have long since fled -- with the notable exception of the surfers. They're a hardy breed, lean and sinewy of body, as tough in their own way as the fishermen of Weligama. Hailing from places like Australia, France and Britain, they are willing to put up with a very modest lifestyle and considerable discomfort in pursuit of their passion. Today, they're part of the relief effort.

Yannick Poirier, 35, is the son of fishermen from Brittany, in France, so he knows a lot about the sea. He comes here for six months a year and pays for the trip by giving surfing lessons. When the tsunami struck, he was surfing in Weligama Bay with a group of three students. The bay is a good place to learn to surf: The waves are generally lower than down the coast.

At first he thought the tsunami was a freak high tide. He quickly decided his students were better off at sea. He calculated that they would be okay as long as they stayed on their surfboards, using them as emergency flotation devices. "Paddle out to sea, and don't remove your safety leashes," he instructed the students, a Swedish girl and a couple from Canada.

After taking care of his students, Yannick paddled toward land to look for his driver who was waiting by the road in a minivan. As he was doing so, the wave pushed him from behind, wrapping him and his surfboard almost 360 degrees around a palm tree. "Shhhlaaaaaaapp," says Yannick, describing the moment.

View Enlarged Photo and CaptionAs he clung to the palm tree, he could see death all around him. Another minivan had ended halfway up a coconut tree. A tuk-tuk -- a kind of motorized rickshaw powered by a scooter -- had floated out to sea. There were dead bodies in trees. When he got down from the tree, villagers were bringing corpses to the main road. Yannick pulled a woman's lifeless body from her home, leashing her wrist to the surfboard so it wouldn't fall off.

When the worst was over, two of his students paddled back in. But one of the Canadians was missing and the other was understandably hysterical. After two anxious hours, the missing surfer finally showed up on the road. He had been swept out to sea, and a fishing boat had brought him back in. It turned out that Yannick had made the right decision, after all.

P.S. -- I am looking for an Australian surfer called Jack, who was staying at the Subadinee restaurant in Midigama, when the tsunami struck. He has become a legend around here, but he disappeared at the end of December, and nobody knows his last name. As the water began to rise, he bodysurfed back to the village and began rescuing people who were trapped in buses and vans. He saved half a dozen people and pulled a dozen more bodies from the wreckage, bringing them out on a surfboard.

Jack, if you are out there, drop me an e-mail at blogs@washingtonpost.com. I would like to hear your story.

Editor's Note: Michael Dobbs, the author of this weblog, will answer questions live online from Sri Lanka Tuesday, Feb. 15, at 11 a.m. ET.

-- Michael Dobbs

By washingtonpost.com |  February 14, 2005; 5:00 AM ET  | Category:  Michael Dobbs
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