Jason Momoa has revealed that he nearly drowned while surfing in his native Hawaii, leading him to quit smoking.
The “Chief of War” star, in an appearance on the “Smartless” podcast with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett, recalled going to the renowned big wave surfing break Pe’ahi (Jaws) in Maui when — while almost a mile offshore — the leash connected to his surfboard snapped.
“It’s so windy on Maui, and so the board just went. I couldn’t even see it anymore,” said the actor, who had paddled 13 miles down the coast with friends at the time.
Momoa, who wanted to be a surfer growing up and who hails from a family of celebrated surfers and watermen, said he “trained pretty well” for such situations, but he “took quite a few” to the head as 10-foot high waves rolled in.
“It’s actually, this place is called Shitfucks, and it’s literally because there’s all this water that pulls out … and it just pulls you out and you just get hit with these waves,” he explained.
“So I was stuck in this crazy spot, which is probably the outer reef, and unknown to me, I was really on the outer reef, and they couldn’t see me, and I had my paddle, and I was waving it, and they couldn’t see me. And the waves were so big, it basically took my shorts off they were so fucking big.”
Momoa noted that he began to think of his daughter, who was 3 months old at the time, and he was unable to move his arms and legs.
“Like I literally gave up, and I’m screaming inside, and my foot just hits the outer reef. And I don’t know if it was a fucking whale or like just could be one rock, but I just reached down, grabbed it, I jump up, I get hit by another wave,” he said.
“I dig my feet into the coral, and I’m literally in the middle of the ocean, and I’m just, I could barely put my lips above it just to breathe and get a break, but I had already given up. So it’s like, you’ve already given up and died and have a second chance at it.”
He said one of his friends came to the rescue, but it was “brutal” getting out to safety, adding that his feet were “covered in blood.”
Momoa said he used to smoke two to three packs of cigarettes a day before the experience.
“I couldn’t stop for my kids, I couldn’t stop for my ex, I couldn’t stop smoking,” he said.
“The moment I came out, I never smoked again. I just died. I just died. I tried and tried, but I couldn’t do it again because I just, I gave up. Like, I gave up my life.”
