Tom Dosland: Surfer 'lucky to be alive' after falling from top of 40ft wave

"I would say 99.9% of the people in the world would've died right there."

A surfer has been called 'lucky to be alive' after falling from the top of a 40ft wave and crashing into the water.

Tom Dosland was competing at the Jaws contest in Pe'ahi Hawaii before finding himself freefalling off an enormous wave.

Billy Kemper, the reigning Pe'ahi Challenge champion told The Inertia that Dosland was incredibly lucky to survive.

"I would say 99.9% of the people in the world would've died right there," he said.

Dosland recalled to Surfer Mag how hitting the water was like "being in a car crash".

"It looked like a sea monster rising out of the ocean when it came my way," the surfer said.

(YouTube)

"But I was going. No matter what. So I flipped around and started paddling to get into it."

"You can't really tell from the video, but there was some wind blowing spray up the face as I was about to drop in, which pretty much blinded me for a few seconds. I could only see out of one eye, and only partially."

"I was free-falling for a while. It felt like I jumped off a cliff. That's when my leash stretched out all the way and flipped me over head-first. From there, I hit the face and it was just a brutal beating, like I was in a car crash."

The fall isn't stopping Dosland from returning to the water though, as he told Red Bull, “It kind of gives you some more confidence, you know?”

“I think there’s some more swells lining up, so we’ll see.”