Most who were there would agree that Waxhead’s performance on the Patagonia Stage was one of the highlights of last weekend’s excellent San Sebastian Surfilm Festibal. Shortly before their Saturday evening set the Australian band’s frontman, affectionately known as Froggy, sat down with Ain’t That Swell host Jed Smith to discuss a bizarre mishap of the anal variety that befell him in Portugal a year or two back.

What happened was this. Froggy paddled out one day for a hungover surf at left-hand reef break Pedra Branca, one of Ericeira’s best waves. The surf was pumping, but Froggy’s famously lightning-quick reactions were somewhat impaired by the alcohol still lingering in his system, and he was sucked over the falls as he went to take off on his very first wave. He landed on his arse, and the reef ripped through his wetsuit and went right up his bum-hole, causing his sphincter to fall out.

“I’m not exactly sure how it happened,” he told Surf Europe the other day, “I just knew I was in heaps of pain, and obviously couldn’t move very easily. I managed to paddle back to the shore, and then pretty much just lay there dead on the beach.”

Froggy had passed out with the pain; meanwhile his mate started dry-retching at the sight of the displaced sphincter staring back at him.

“I got ambo’d, taken to hospital, and had surgery that night.” He spent the next ten days in a diaper, having his bum wiped by impossibly beautiful Portuguese nurse-goddesses — which he describes as “great” — and was out of the water for a total of three months. Gnarly.

Hear Froggy tell Jed all about it, starting around the 46 minute mark — but you should really listen to the whole thing, it’s awesome. Founder of the Inertia Zach Weisberg, Patagonia filmmaker/team-rider/conservationist Kyle Thierman, and all-round legend Chris Malloy are also on the show, talking to Jed about the changing state of surf culture and the changing state of our environment.