Jason Momoa's Near-Death Surfing Ordeal: 'I Felt I Was Going to Die' in Maui
SHOCKING REVELATION: Jason Momoa Opens Up About Near-Death Experience That Haunts Him to This Day
In a jaw-dropping revelation, Hollywood heartthrob Jason Momoa has shared a harrowing account of a near-death experience that left him gasping for breath. The 46-year-old Aquaman star revealed on the latest episode of the Smartless podcast that he came perilously close to drowning while surfing off the coast of Maui, Hawaii in 2007.
Momoa's brush with mortality is a story of survival against all odds, and one that still sends shivers down his spine to this day. The actor, who has been wowing audiences on screen as the demigod from Atlantis to Khal Drogo and beyond, was just 33 years old at the time of the incident.
"I was doing this paddle, we went in at Jaws," Momoa explained to hosts Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes. "We were taking a 13-mile route along the island's coast, and I was probably about seven miles into it when my leash snapped."
As if that wasn't bad enough, the brutal winds on Maui made things even more treacherous for Momoa and his group of paddle boarders. "It was so windy on Maui," he recalled. "I took quite a few on the head. They're pretty big, like 10-foot Hawaiian waves."
As the waves continued to batter him, Momoa found himself stuck in a precarious spot, which he believed might have been the outer ridge of a coral reef. "I was really on the outer reef and they couldn't see me," he said. "I had my paddle and I was waving it and they couldn't see me, and the waves were so big."
Momoa's voice trembled as he recounted the moment when panic set in. "I just lost it. I was like, 'Oh s*,'" he admitted.
As the actor struggled to stay afloat, his mind began to wander to his young daughter Lola, who was just three months old at the time. "I was thinking about my baby," Momoa revealed. "My heart stopped beating for a second."
In what can only be described as a miracle, one of Momoa's friends spotted him and swam out towards him for support. "He saw me and he came to get me," Momoa said, his voice filled with gratitude.
However, the ordeal was far from over. With his friend's help, Momoa and his group had to paddle for another seven miles back to shore, battling against waves that continued to assault them relentlessly.
"It was brutal," Momoa recalled. "My feet were covered in blood, and I'm just literally [with] my ancestors just paddling the rest of this way, head down."
The aftermath of the incident left Momoa shaken but also spurred him on to greater heights. He went on to land major roles in Game Of Thrones as Khal Drogo, Fast And Furious sequel Fast X, and DC Comics films as Aquaman.
Momoa's latest project is a miniseries called Chief Of War, which premiered on Apple TV+ on August 1. The actor stars as the real-life warrior chief Kaʻiana, who led a rebellion against Kamehameha I's attempts to unify the major Hawaiian islands in the late 18th century.
The ScholaryNote.com caught up with Momoa after his emotional revelation and asked him about the experience that still haunts him to this day. "It was a wake-up call," he said. "I realized how fragile life is, and I'm grateful for every moment I have on this earth."
As our conversation came to an end, we couldn't help but wonder: what drives someone like Jason Momoa, who has been through so much, to continue pushing himself to the limit? The answer, it seems, lies in his unwavering passion for life and a determination to make every moment count.
