Long before he became known as Aquaman, Jason Momoa had a terrifying experience off the beaches of Hawaii. The action star appeared on the Smartless podcast on August 11, where he told his story of a near-death experience in his home state.
The scary situation happened 18 years ago in 2007 when Momoa went surfing off the coast of Maui near an infamously difficult surfing spot nicknamed Jaws. “They’re pretty big, like 10-foot Hawaiian waves,” Momoa recalled of the surf condition at the time.
The Game of Thrones star told podcast hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett that the leash to his surfboard broke when he was about a mile offshore. Due to the strong current and the massive waves, he had also lost sight of his professional surfing partners, Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama.
“I was stuck in this crazy spot,” Mamoa says, “I had my paddle and I was waving it and they couldn’t see me, and the waves were so big.” The actor claims that his thoughts first went to his daughter Lola, who was just three months old at the time.
Mamoa struggled to stay afloat after finding himself in a tough part of the outer reef. “I couldn’t move anymore, and my arms and my legs gave up after I was out there for a while,” he said, “my body stopped.”
He says that things got dire as he waited to hopefully be rescued. “I literally gave up and I’m screaming inside,” he told the podcast, “I could barely put my lips above the water just to breathe and get a break, but I had already given up.”
Luckily, Mamoa was spotted clinging onto coral by one of his partners, Hamilton. The pair were able to get back to safety together, despite sustaining minor injuries and losing their surfboards.
The incident, Mamoa claims, is what led him to finally quit smoking. “The moment I came out, I never smoked again,” he said.
Related: Hawaii Announces New Fee for All Tourists Visiting Islands
