wipeout
A ride-ending event; usually harmless, but can be dangerous, even deadly. Common forms of the wipeout include pearling (when the board's nose digs into the water), digging a rail (the board's edge catches), spinning out (the tail section loses traction), and the free-fall (board and rider go airborne), along with poorly timed turns and cutbacks, and collisions with other surfers. Wipeouts often look worse than they are; just a tiny percentage of them result in any kind of harm. The crowd appe...