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"\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;img src=http:\\/\\/surfingthemag.com\\/nathan-fletcher-010709.jpg&gt;&lt;\\/center&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Wednesday morning started without much fanfare at Pipe and Backdoor. A swell crept up into the 4- to 6-foot range, and most of the competitors for the Da Hui Backdoor Shootout stood around waiting for the call.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;But around 9:00 a.m. or so, Nathan Fletcher got sick of waiting, so he paddled out for a few waves. Ten minutes into it, he came flying out of a 4-footer, laid into a warp-speed roundhouse and looked to bank it off the whitewater.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;That\\u2019s when something went horribly wrong.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cI was standing on the porch at my house,\\u201d said witness Dave Wassell, who was the first to get to him. \\u201cAnd as he went to hit the whitewater, I heard the loudest, \\u2018Crack!\\u2019 And this was from {{{100}}} yards away. I knew right away that he broke his leg.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Wassell started walking down toward the water\\u2019s edge, saw Nathan raise his arm and immediately swam out to grab him. \\u201cIt was just one of those freak things with the angle of it,\\u201d says Wassell. \\u201cHe was going super fast, the whitewater was running fast, wedging in sideways, and it just hit him wrong. But Nathan\\u2019s one of the toughest guys around. When I got to him, he was very calm, not panicking at all. He said, \\u2018I think I broke my leg.\\u2019 And I\\u2019m, like, \\u2018Yeah. I know. I heard it.\\u2019\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Wassell got Fletcher to the beach OK, just as the lifeguards clocked in for work. He was taken to the hospital and we\\u2019ve yet to get the official diagnosis, but Wassell doesn\\u2019t have any doubt that his right femur snapped at the mid-way point. \\u201cIt\\u2019s a sound I\\u2019ll never forget,\\u201d he said.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cIt\\u2019s such a bummer, too,\\u201d continued Wassell. \\u201cNathan is on such a roll. If there were a Maverick\\u2019s Contest fantasy team, I\\u2019d put my money on him. He\\u2019s that in tune right now. And to have this happen on an 8-foot face\\u2026well, it\\u2019s just the way it goes, I guess.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;[Stay tuned to surfingmagazine.com as we learn more.]&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;object width=\\\"425\\\" height=\\\"344\\\"&gt;&lt;param name=\\\"movie\\\" value=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.youtube.com\\/v\\/cFwV-kpenYA&amp;#038;hl=en&amp;#038;fs=1\\\"&gt;&lt;\\/param&gt;&lt;param name=\\\"allowFullScreen\\\" value=\\\"true\\\"&gt;&lt;\\/param&gt;&lt;param name=\\\"allowscriptaccess\\\" value=\\\"always\\\"&gt;&lt;\\/param&gt;&lt;embed src=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.youtube.com\\/v\\/cFwV-kpenYA&amp;#038;hl=en&amp;#038;fs=1\\\" type=\\\"application\\/x-shockwave-flash\\\" allowscriptaccess=\\\"always\\\" allowfullscreen=\\\"true\\\" width=\\\"425\\\" height=\\\"344\\\"&gt;&lt;\\/embed&gt;&lt;\\/object&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.surfingmagazine.com/news/nathan-fletcher-breaks-his-leg-at-pipeline-010709/>