Teaching troops to ride out fears

An Australian big-wave surfer is showing special forces soldiers how to conquer their emotions.

Australian surfer Mark Visser is a big-wave expert.

Elite military units are turning to an Australian surfer famed among big-wave riders for coping with fear in life-and-death battles with the sea.

Mark Visser cemented his reputation when he became the first to ride Hawaii’s towering surf break, Jaws, in an event known as the Night Rider.

He rode 9m to 12m waves 14 times for more than three hours in darkness to quell the fears he had felt in the water since childhood — even as a renowned big-wave rider. He says he finally felt at peace in the water.

Special forces from Western nations have since turned to ­Visser, 36, to learn how to live with fear and understand the effect of terror on the body.

“Basically, I am expert at getting flogged, wiped out and hammered paddling out in huge surf,” Mark Visser says.

He cannot name the nations or the units that he is engaged with except to say that they are the most elite special forces from “a variety” of countries.

But he knows why they have come to him.

“Basically, I am expert at getting flogged, wiped out and hammered paddling out in huge surf,” he says. “They are skills I’ve learned trying to prevent myself from being scared every time I’ve had to deal with it.

“So for them (military units) they’re dealing with an individual who has been out in the roughest sea states that they will never have to go into. The greatest benefit is the ability to stay mentally calm under extreme physical pressure.”

Visser, who has had to hold his breath for more than six minutes, says his team has customised some of the skills needed for “heavy ocean ­scenarios”.

Surfers can often be held under water for several minutes as towering waves crash on top of them. Visser says that after expelling all the air in his lungs he can sink and wait for 1½ minutes before swimming along the bottom of a 50m pool.

“The science of what we are doing is learning to move the body and use less oxygen,” Visser says.

Visser, right, doing underwater training.

“It’s also about understanding what your body is capable of and dealing with barriers. It’s not dangerous if you are doing the right work with the right ­guidance.”

He tries to impart the discovery that has surprised him the most — that 90 cent of the ability to survive a fall on the biggest waves lies in the mind rather than physical strength.

His theory, he says, is proved in water exercises that he has conducted with members of the most elite military units operating alongside other people who are less physically capable but mentally tougher.

“That’s when you understand how good a listener some people are,” Visser says. “How they are able to detach themselves from fear or ego — and how that affects their performance.”

He almost drowned as a toddler when he fell into a sheep trough on the farm outside Wangaratta in Victoria, where he grew up. His brother pulled him out by the hair.

The experience left Visser frightened in water — even as a teenager when his surfing prowess began to develop.

“I always wondered why I had this overwhelming urgency just to come in (from the water) or why I just felt way more panic than everybody else,” he says. “It sucked for me.”

The fear remained even as his career as a big-wave rider developed until at 2am on January 20, 2011, he began riding the Jaws break — a dangerous Hawaiian reef pounded by 40ft waves.

Mark Visser makes history by achieving a night ride on waves measuring 30-40 ft at Jaws, off the shores of Maui, Hawaii, at 2am.

For illumination he had only the LED lights on his buoyancy vest and his surfboard.

“It was so dark,” he says. “You couldn’t see anything until this massive shadow appeared 10m behind you. The waves that night were 40ft plus (12m) but even when I was riding them I couldn’t see how big they were. I could only gauge that by how fast I was ­moving.”

When it was over he felt an unexpected deep calm.

“It was like I’d been carrying this massive weight on my shoulders and after that night I felt I could have sat out in a field of hay for months without ever saying a word,” he says. “I learned that you are never going to eliminate fear. But you can learn how to use it to your advantage.”

The Times