Mikey “Redd” O’Shaughnessy: In Search of One Perfect Wave

By Stefan Verbano

“One wave will change your life.”

This is the motto of big wave surfer Mikey “Redd” O’Shaughnessy, who throughout his 29 years of life in Hawai‘i has seen those words play out in the best and worst possible ways. The towering cliffs of crashing blue ocean that several years ago propelled him to international fame and growing fortune in the competitive surfing world are the same ones that other times have flailed his limp body to and fro like a rag doll, filled his lungs full of seawater, and mercilessly catapulted him head-first into the reefʻs jagged, rocky jaws.

These waves have given great purpose and meaning to his life, but in a handful of brief, unlucky moments out there among the breaks, they’ve also nearly taken it away from him altogether. So, he has come to know both extremes: the potential and the peril; the glossy surf magazine covers emblazoned with his confident smile as he rides a sparkling, perfectly shaped barrel, as well as the painful days spent in hospital beds hooked up to lifesaving machines after wiping out and being dragged unconscious back to shore by fellow surfers.

To cope with the emotional roller coaster, Mikey has adopted what he calls a “warrior mentality.” It is this mindset, he says, that gives him the confidence to stare down some of the worldʻs most dangerous waves.

“Iʻm a daredevil, a warrior,” Mikey says. “Iʻve had that mentality since I was a kid—since I was just learning to ride. I knew that Iʻve always wanted it…from a very young age I knew I couldn’t let anything get in the way. Going out there is like going into battle.”

The word “dangerous” does not seem to have a place in the big wave surfer lexicon, so Mikey instead describes his three favorite “waves of consequence” that have had the most profound effect on his career: Pipeline on O‘ahuʻs North Shore, Jaws (also known as Pe‘ahi) on Mauiʻs North Shore, and Teahupo‘o—a world-renowned surf spot named after its nearby village on the southwestern coast of Tahiti.

“Those are the waves with the most consequence,” Mikey says. “Those are the waves that every surfer is drawn to when they see a photo of them, the most rewarding waves. The rush, the high that you get from surfing them you canʻt really compare with anything else— maybe snowboarding down an avalanche.”

Wipeouts!

In early 2021, Mikey had the misfortune of suffering back-to-back wipeouts and their corresponding concussions at two of his three beloved breaks: first Jaws, and then Pipeline less than a month later.

At Jaws, he fell head-first into a cresting wave and went “over the falls,” leaving him with a brief blackout and severe whiplash. Before he had even made a complete recovery from that injury in mid-January, he was back out on the North Shore on Valentineʻs Day with a photographer shooting footage for his entry into the annual OʻNeill Wave of the Winter at North Shore competition. Contest judges review video clip submissions taken over a four-month period and declare a winner and recipient of a $25,000 grand prize. Mikey won the competition back in 2016 with a perfectly executed ride at Off The Wall—another big wave break along the same stretch of reef as Pipeline—beating out 200 other pro surfers, including legends like Kelly Slater.

Mikey describes his home base of Pipeline as the “bread and butter of [his] career,” sometimes referring to it as his “office.” Heʻs spent a lifetime surfing the treacherous barrels that form out of its hollow reef. On that fateful February afternoon, though, even his years of experience couldn’t save him.

After an exhilarating morning riding 10- to 12-foot behemoths, Mikey came in for lunch and a brief rest before paddling back out again to catch another set. There were dozens of surfers in the lineup, and a particularly steep set of rollers came through as he moved to catch the second one in the procession. His takeoff looked clean, but as he was charging down the almost-vertical face of the wave, the nose of his board sliced deep into the water, slowing him down to the point that he fell forward in a self-described “swan dive” before getting sucked up in the curl and slammed head-first into the rocky reef. The helmet he was wearing saved his life.

“Thank God for the helmet,” Mikey says. “It went straight into the reef and left a quarter-sized indentation. I definitely would have had a hole in my head.”

Two more waves crested and broke while he was underwater, and other surfers in the lineup noticed that he still hadn’t surfaced. They scrambled to get to him, including friend and fellow North Shore alum Billy Kemper who rode what he called a “miracle backwash” from the receding wave all the way out to where Mikeyʻs board was bobbing. Three surfers kept him afloat while taking massive swells on their heads as lifeguards on shore launched a Jet Ski towing a sled to retrieve him. They got him on the sled with little difficulty, brought him to shore and started chest compressions.

Honolulu Ocean Safety Lifeguard Kyle Foyle did two compressions on Mikey before he started spitting up water and weakly breathing on his own. A crowd of his terrified friends and peers, including his girlfriend, had gathered around. Some were praying.

“I woke up fighting and kicking and punching and screaming,” Mikey says. “I think I clocked the lifeguard a couple good ones. Everybody was so scared, couldn’t believe what was going on. When I came back to life, a lot of people were cheering…it was like a movie.”

He spent three days in the hospital on O‘ahu, some of them on a ventilator due to the damage to his lungs. Doctors and nurses treated him for pneumonia and a traumatic brain injury, inflicted by the more than three minutes he was unconscious with water-filled lungs, for which heʻd need weeks of outpatient rehabilitation. Another minute without breathing, the doctors said, and he would have ended up with major, permanent brain damage.

In the midst of such a somber ordeal, the heroism of North Shoreʻs lifeguards and surfer clan gave Mikey something positive to focus on, and to be grateful for.

“The surfers, the first responders; itʻs such a brotherhood,” Mikey says. “Without all of those angels, I probably wouldn’t be here.”

Back on the Board, Mikey Inspires

Recovery has been a long, slow process, with bouts of depression and lingering brain trauma symptoms.

“Those head injuries, they really mess with you and your emotions,” Mikey says. “Itʻs hard to regulate the bad and receive the good.”

His family and community back on Hawai‘i Island have supported him throughout, and Mikey visualizes his parentsʻ property in Kalapana when he needs a reminder of the good things in life. He recalls living there as a young boy and attending Pāhoa Elementary School where heʻd draw doodles in his notebook of tiny stick-figure surfers riding along the flanks of huge waves at Jaws.

“I love that place with all my heart and soul,” he says about his childhood home. “My parents are still there; they still live on the land. Itʻs like a retreat. You go there and itʻs really calming and grounding.”

He caught his first wave ever at Pohoiki Bay—remembered fondly and with heavy hearts by the East Hawai‘i surfing community after it was all but wiped out during the 2018 Lower Puna Eruption. When he was four years old, his father would stick him on the front of his surfboard as he rode. His brothers Patrick, Dallas, and Kalae, all surfers, too, influenced him immensely and pushed him toward greatness throughout his formative years.

Mikey plans on moving back to the Kalapana area when his globetrotting daredevil days are behind him.

“Thatʻs always in the back of my mind, where I know I’ll end up,” he says. “We are woven into that community like the lauhala mats.”

Interviewed on O‘ahu in June 2021, Mikey was already back on the surfboard, riding baby waves at spots like Ala Moana Beach Park and Waikiki Beach in the free time between running his own surf school and doing odd jobs to make ends meet. Heʻs confident that by this upcoming winter surf season he’ll be ready for action again, but heʻs had his misgivings, too, saying, “I’ve definitely had a worry that has come through my mind: will I be able to do this again? To keep risking my life like that? But thereʻs no question about it, thatʻs what I love to do and thatʻs my job.”

Mikey still believes one perfect wave can change his life for the better. He watched it happen in 2016 when he beat the best surfers in the world. The warrior mentality heʻs fostered has seen him through the setbacks of 2021, and it is this state of mind that will, no doubt, in time lift him up once again to the victorʻs podium. ❖

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