I've said it before a company i managed completed the Ski rescue work for the Margaret river masters for a few years, Just before they changed the big wave ruling to make it compulsory to have ski rescue. I never actually did the rescue work as i had a team of guys who worked for me who spent the entire week down there. (i would just go down for the parties and all the glory

) and it is harder than it looks. The biggest issue they found was the water movement. You would be dead on only for a slit second side ways surge and you'd be off. We found a lot of it came down to the Surfers to get a good hold but there were a few memorable picks up that had praises from most of the pros on tour
Often for us the biggest issue was to pick them up if they got caught on the inside after going right. In a big set you didn't get a lot of time to get in, pick up and get back out before the next wave hit pushing you all onto the table..
Ski's have opened up big wave surfing like you wouldn't believe and IMHO i don't get Laird's opinion (i haven't read it other then the headlines). She made the wave, broke her ankle and needed to be recused and passed out due to exhaustion. She was picked up, resuscitated and live to tell the tail. Should she have been out there, why not, she proved it was with in her skill and so did her team
Just shows the danger involved, and i guess a few may be upset because they feel a girl is out doing them. Who knows why
Still nasty footage to watch though..