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"\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Heavy Water: Gerard Butler recounts the two-wave hold-down that nearly ended his life during the filming of &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.livelikejay.com\\/\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Chasing Mavericks&lt;\\/em&gt;&lt;\\/a&gt;&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\n&lt;em&gt;As told to Zander Morton&lt;\\/em&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;It all started as we were shooting a scene padding out over these massive waves, and I wasn\\u2019t meant to actually be surfing at the time. In this scene, Jay [Moriarity] is watching me, but I don\\u2019t know he\\u2019s watching me; it\\u2019s supposed to be the first time he\\u2019s seen Mavericks. He\\u2019s watching from the bluff, and we\\u2019re paddling out and the waves are crazy. So we were filming\\u2014just paddling out and going up over the crest of the waves\\u2014and we were getting a little close into the rocks. Now it\\u2019s kind of my fault because I was saying, \\u201cNo, let\\u2019s go there, look how big they are over there,\\u201d and I\\u2019m telling everyone, \\u201cIt\\u2019s fine, let\\u2019s go,\\u201d and I\\u2019ll admit I had no business saying that.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;All of a sudden, a huge set came in. And I knew it was always a risk doing this, there was always the chance I was going to get caught inside. So the four of us are out there, and Greg Long turns around and starts screaming, \\u201cPaddle, Gerry, paddle!\\u201d I saw this wave coming from, Jesus, half a mile away, and I was paddling, paddling, paddling. By the time it got to me, I was exhausted. I had already been out for six hours, in the freezing cold water of Mavericks\\u2014doing shot after shot, paddling over waves. And like I said, I\\u2019m not a surfer, and I\\u2019m definitely not a big-wave surfer. And then it got me, and it took me down. Immediately I thought, \\u201cThis is weird,\\u201d because I wasn\\u2019t being pulled in any particular direction. I was just tumbling. And then, I felt for my leg and realized I lost my board. My leash had snapped.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;I was just spinning. I wasn\\u2019t going anywhere, and I was taking in water. The water just kept going into my mouth and I was thinking, \\u201cWhy is that happening? I don\\u2019t quite understand.\\u201d I already had no breath, and I knew I needed to get up. I needed to get up fast, but I wasn\\u2019t going anywhere. It was starting to get really uncomfortable, and then I heard this loud smash as another wave went over me and the tumbling started again.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;And then I thought, \\u201cOh my God.\\u201d I had just done a scene earlier where I was talking about a two-wave hold-down and about how fear and panic are the difference between life and death. When you panic out there you die. Our second unit director kept saying, \\u201cBuddy, this is Mavericks. You panic, you die!\\u201d The next minute I\\u2019m underwater and I\\u2019m thinking that if I panic in any way, I\\u2019m gone. All I could think was, \\u201cShit, there\\u2019s a whole film crew up there going, \\u2018I think Gerry\\u2019s in some serious trouble.\\u2019\\u201d I could feel things going from the moment where they would think, \\u201cOkay, this is pretty intense,\\u201d to the moment where they\\u2019d start going, \\u201cOh shit, this might be it. Gerry might not be coming up.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;And then finally, when I did come up, I was only up for a few seconds before being sent back down again. The next wave came, and Grant Washburn was trying to get to me on a Jet Ski, but he just couldn\\u2019t. I was about five feet away from him, but the next wave came and he had to turn and go. And I knew what was going on, the wave would have got him, but when he turned I could see the fear in his face. I had already been in a couple of hairy situations filming, and Grant had been so cool, he had been right there for me. This time, it\\u2019s not that he wasn\\u2019t cool, he was amazing, but to see him that freaked out\\u2026he wasn\\u2019t freaked out for himself, he was freaked out for me. So I\\u2019m going back down thinking, \\u201cIf he\\u2019s looking like that, this is not a good situation.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe src=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.youtube.com\\/embed\\/1iYeQbfaqE0?enablejsapi=1\\\" width=\\\"640\\\" height=\\\"360\\\" frameborder=\\\"0\\\" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;\\/iframe&gt;&lt;br \\/&gt;\\nAnd then I finally came back up, and Peter Mel was over to the side, trying to tell me, \\u201cIt\\u2019s okay, don\\u2019t worry! Be cool, it\\u2019s okay!\\u201d But then yet another wave came and that took me down and into the Boneyard, and just as it was about to go from very bad to even worse, Grant grabbed me and took me in.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;And you know, I feel like I used every bit of wisdom and courage that I\\u2019ve picked up in life on this movie. If I hadn\\u2019t known the importance of staying absolutely calm, I would have been screwed. Because even as the water was going in and I wasn\\u2019t going anywhere, and as it became so painful, I told myself, \\u201cRemember what this movie is about. Fear is healthy, panic is deadly.\\u201d And because of that thinking I survived a two-wave hold-down, and it sounds cool just to say that.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Afterwards, Zach Wormhoudt sent me a note. He came in the ambulance with me, and he was amazing. All the surfers were amazing, they were all really cool. But Zach came in the ambulance with me, and he was just like, \\u201cHey man, it\\u2019s all good, no worries.\\u201d And then he sent me an e-mail the next day saying, \\u201cYou know what? Very few people can ever know what it feels like to be down for that long and to be so powerless. They can think they do, but they don\\u2019t, and now you do.\\u201d It was very poetic. He said it\\u2019s like asking a dancer in a dance what she felt. And she can\\u2019t necessarily put the feeling into words; she just dances, just feels it. And nobody can know until they\\u2019ve done that dance. When he said that, it really made sense to me, it was really beautiful. And that was what I was constantly surprised about\\u2014how eloquent and poetic a lot of these surfers are\\u2014the way they view life and the way they view the sea, surfing, and their craft. I was really taken aback by them. I could listen for days.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chasing Mavericks in theaters worldwide October 26!&lt;br \\/&gt;\\n&lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.livelikejay.com\\/\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\"&gt;livelikejay.com&lt;\\/a&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;img class=\\\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1000153425\\\" title=\\\"Gerard Butler True Stories Mavericks Wipeout\\\" src=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.grindtv.com\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/2012\\/10\\/GB-True-Stories.jpg\\\" alt=\\\"Gerard Butler True Stories Mavericks Wipeout\\\" width=\\\"640\\\" height=\\\"360\\\" \\/&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.grindtv.com/surf/gerard-butler-recalls-his-near-death-experience-at-mavericks/?pid=67245>