Update: Sion Milosky was pronounced dead at 7:46 p.m. Wednesday night at Seton Medical Center Coastside in Moss Beach. To read the full update, click here.
Julie Jag of the Santa Cruz Sentinel is reporting that Mavericks surfer Ken Collins from Santa Cruz said that Sion Milosky, 35, of Kalaheo, Kauai, Hawaii, was surfing the Wednesday evening and "apparently drowned" at approximately 6:30 p.m. after being held down by two big waves.
Reporting that the waves at Mavericks "were up to 60 feet," Jag's story says that Collins said that fellow surfer Nathan Fletcher -- one of the 24 surfers invited to compete in the surfing contest this year along with Collins -- took out a jet ski to the world-class surf break after Milosky fell in an effort to find him.
The story published by the Sentinel reports that Collins said that Milosky was discovered "about a mile" from the Mavericks break in Half Moon Bay approximately 20 minutes after the incident.
The Mavericks surf break, considered to be one of the most prestigious and powerful breaks in the world, is located less than a mile past just outside Half Moon Bay.
Milosky's reported death on Wednesday evening came just hours before the National Weather Service issued a warning at 9:24 p.m. for coastal areas in central California, including Half Moon Bay and the San Mateo County coast. The advisory is currently scheduled to be in effect until 11 p.m. this Friday.
This is the second known serious incident to have taken place at Mavericks in 2011; on January 22, Southern California surfer Jacob Trette surfing the break on a sunny Saturday morning. Trette was rescued by a visiting photographer on a jet ski and airlifted out to Stanford Hospital. After being treated while in critical condition, Trette's condition and he survived the incident.
Milosky is not the first well-known Hawaiian surfer to have reportedly succumbed to the strong forces of the waves at Mavericks. In December 1994, Mark Foo died while surfing the break after arriving from Hawaii just the night before.
To read the full story published at 10:07 p.m. and updated at 10:22 p.m. Wednesday evening, click here. Other publications reporting tonight's incident include Cyrus Saatsaz at SF Gate.com, Surfline, Surfer Magazine, and ESPN.
