I think this guy was fine - but it's not always the case. Although one falls into water, the amount of danger you're in when coming off your board depends on the depth of water the possibility of collision with immovable or hard objects - like the seabed, rocks, a surfboard, large marine life, and other surfers. If you're starting off with surfing, I suggest you read this commonsense guide to surviving a wipeout.

Perhaps on the lighter side - I found a post in the Surfing Waves forum suggests the following to be the greatest losses surfers experience:

This is perhaps an exaggeration, but surfers, how accurate would you say the quote is?

Take a look here at a few more surfing photos taken on this outing to Mouille Point (map).

Our boogie-boarder friend stood observing the water for a while before venturing in. It's good to have a healthy dose of respect for the ocean - it's able to turn nasty fast!

This particular part of Mouille Point is right next to large concrete breakwater walls against which the ocean waves relentlessly thud, sending sprays of water and foam flying into the air. The boogie-boarder carefully watched the way the ocean was moving to find the most efficient route by which he could reach his surfer-friends who were about 100m away at the time (map).