Gerard Butler’s surfing movie set disaster

By his own admission, actor Gerard Butler was afraid for his life when he was struck by a 30 foot wave on the set of the movie “Chasing Mavericks.” Surfing is the central theme of the movie so naturally Butler spent much of the time shooting the movie in the chilly ocean waters of Santa Cruz, California. It was during one of these times that the actor made a dangerous mistake. “I had paddled way too far out,” said Butler, “and I saw these big hard waves coming in, one after another, so I started paddling back as hard as I could.” But it wasn’t hard enough. The wave overtook Butler and pushed him under. He lost his board but managed to get his head above water only to be taken down by yet another giant wave. He was rescued and quickly taken to the hospital in an ambulance. “The ambulance guy said, ‘You’re lucky. The last guy we picked up from here was dead’,” Butler recounted.