The last year has been an incredible roller coaster ride for Hawaii's Aaron Gold. Up until last January few outside of his tight-knit big-wave community knew of him. But that all changed on January 15, when he stroked into one of the biggest monsters of the day at Pe'ahi, a.k.a. Jaws.
The mind-boggling drop garnered worldwide headlines, and thrust Gold into the spotlight as he collected the prestigious Big Wave award and a Guinness World Record to boot for the largest wave ever paddled into.
After surviving such an incredible drop, and the ensuing beating he took after getting steamrolled by the wave, it seemed Gold was invincible. After all, if he could survive that he could survive anything. Or so it would seem.
Four months later Gold was the victim of a life-threatening wipeout at Cloudbreak. Though the details were slow to emerge at the time, today Gold and those involved in his rescue are opening up about what really happened, and how the incident has impacted them.