Jason Momoa is opening up about a near-death incident that still haunts him to this day.
The 46-year-old Aquaman star revealed on the latest episode of the Smartless podcast that he nearly drowned while on a surf outing off the coast of Maui, Hawaii, in 2007.
‘I was doing this paddle, we went in at Jaws,’ Momoa said, referring to the surf break located on the northern shore of Maui, which draws the world’s top surfers to its enormous — and potentially deadly — waves.
Momoa — who is currently dating the Andor actress Adria Arjona — explained to hosts Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes that his group of paddle boarders were taking a 13-mile route along the island’s coast when his situation took a dire turn.
‘You’re kind of almost a mile offshore, and then my leash snapped. We’re about seven miles into it and my leash snapped, and it’s so windy on Maui,’ he said.
Momoa, who was at the time starring on Stargate: Atlantis, said he was ‘trained pretty well’ at the time, so he initially felt ‘fine,’ but things took a turn for the worse as waves began to batter him.
Jason Momoa, 46, recounted on the latest episode of the Smartless podcast how he nearly drowned during a 2007 surfing trip off the coast of Maui, Hawaii; seen August 1 in Oahu, Hawaii
‘I took quite a few on the head. They’re pretty big, like 10-foot Hawaiian waves,’ he shared. ‘But I’m probably half a mile at that point offshore.’
But as he began to tire from staying afloat in the chaotic sea, Momoa got to a point where he was ‘stuck in this crazy spot,’ which he thought may have been the outer ridge of a coral reef, which kept him out of sight of his friends.
‘I was really on the outer reef and they couldn’t see me,’ he said. ‘I had my paddle and I was waving it and they couldn’t see me, and the waves were so big.’
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The actor — who was still two years away from his breakout turn on Game Of Thrones — began to panic as he thought about his three-month-old daughter Lola.
Momoa shared his daughter, now 18, with his ex-wife Lisa Bonet, and the former couple later welcome their son Nakoa-Wolf, 16.
‘I just lost it. I was like, “Oh s***,”‘ Moma admitted.
Momoa said he began to just drift in the water as he feared that he had been left behind by the rest of his group.
‘I was out there for a while, and I just couldn’t see anyone coming to get me. I couldn’t move anymore, and my arms and my legs gave up,’ he recalled. ‘My body stopped. Like I couldn’t move my arms anymore, and I bubbled down. Then my toe hit the outer reef.
Momoa said he was six miles into a 13-mile paddle board route with friends when his ‘leash snapped.’ He friends couldn’t see that he was left behind because of the massive waves buffeting them; seen in 2018 in London
Momoa said he ‘lost it’ and his ‘legs gave up’ after he couldn’t see his friends anymore. He started to bob under the water, and he cut his foot on a reef hidden below the surface, which prevented him from swimming the half-mile distance back to shore; seen in 2018 in LA
In his panic, he thought of his three-month-old daughter Lola. But then a friend discovered him in the nick of time, and they managed to swim the remaining seven miles to the end of their journey; pictured with daughter Lola (R) and son Nakoa-Wolf on August 1 in Hawaii
‘I literally gave up, and I’m screaming inside,’ Momoa said of his moment of despair.
But he got the motivation to go on at the last possible moment when one of his friends spotted him and swam out toward him for support.
‘I get back on the board and we start paddling,’ he recalled, adding that it wasn’t possible to just swim the shorter distance back to shore. ‘He’s like, “You got to go out,” so we just keep paddling out.’
Momoa and his friend still had seven more miles to go on the journey, even as the ‘brutal’ waves battered them the whole way.
By that point, the Dune actor was bleeding profusely from cutting himself on the reef lurking just below the surface.
‘My feet are covered in blood,’ he recounted. ‘And I’m just literally [with] my ancestors just paddling the rest of this way, head down and we get out.’
Momoa’s near-death experience was followed by an incredible career resurgence that he’s still in the midst of today.
He become one of the biggest stars on the planet after scoring a major role on Game Of Thrones as Khal Drogo, and he followed that part up with his role as Aquaman in multiple DC Comics films.
After surviving the journey, Momoa went on to have a career revival started by his iconic role on Game Of Thrones. He followed it up by playing Aquaman in multiple films, as well as starring in the Dune and Fast And Furious series; still from Aquaman (2018)
He can currently be seen on the nine-episode miniseries Chief Of War (pictured), which began airing on Apple TV+ on August 1
The actor — who is also an executive producer on the show — stars as the real-life warrior chief Kaʻiana, who in the late 18th century rebelled against Kamehameha I’s attempts to conquer and unify the major Hawaiian islands
Momoa also tried his hand at playing in the Fast And Furious sequel Fast X and was part of the ensemble cast of the hit video game adaptation A Minecraft Movie earlier this year.
He also earned rave reviews as Duncan Idaho in 2021’s Dune: Part One.
After skipping the second film in the Timothée Chalamet–starring series, he’s set to return to the for the sequel Dune: Messiah, which is now filming.
Momoa can currently be seen on the nine-episode miniseries Chief Of War, which began airing on Apple TV+ on August 1.
The actor — who is also an executive producer on the show — stars as the real-life warrior chief Kaʻiana, who in the late 18th century rebelled against Kamehameha I’s attempts to conquer and unify the major Hawaiian islands.