Mick Fanning helps rescue drowning surfer

Earlier this morning, Evan Geiselman stroked into a monster wave at Pipe, pulled into a cavernous barrel, but then didn’t surface.

A ginormous wave at the Pipeline on O’ahu’s North Shore crashed over Florida pro surfer Evan Geiselman, throwing him from his board and knocking him unconscious.

Fanning helps lifeguards with Geiselman.

Botha today appeared to visit Geiselman in hospital, posting a photo of him throwing up a “Shaka” hand motion as he recovers from the incident in the Queens Medical Center in Honolulu.

Fanning was on the shore at the time of the accident and ran over to help.

“He was lying eyes closed gasping for air like a fish out of water on the beach”, witness Dashel Pierson told theinertia.com.

Compatriots Owen Wright and Julian Wilson are also in the title hunt, along with Brazilian trio Filipe Toledo, Adriano De Souza and Gabriel Medina, the reigning world champion. After Geiselman was held under for a massive three-wave set, bodyboarder Andre Botha spotted a clearly-in-trouble Geiselman drifting rapidly through the impact zone toward the violent Ehukai shorepound. Other surfers, including Mick Fanning, and lifeguards formed a flotilla to get Geiselman to shore.

Globe surf team manager Eric Tomlinson said in a statement provided to The Inertia website that Evan Geiselman is now in a stable condition after suffering a very serious wipeout at Pipeline.

The Pipeline Masters will decide whether Fanning wins a fourth world crown. The surf community needs to keep in mind to always take a minute to consider the consequences of every wave.