Some wild ride!

[theonecalledtom]

And why run so close to the sea wall? The wave looks like it tapers off closer the camera indicating deeper water, or at least water as deep with less compression effect.

[svDragonfly]

There's another example here: Panoramio - Photo of [Untitled]. Looks like it happens regularly at that spot? Ugg!

[Minggat]

Yep. That would void the warranty on my underware.

[Ram]

the tides in that area as I recall are around 20+ feet-

[SurfNRG]

And the only person who knew how scared I REALLY was would be the woman who did my laundry..,

[rtbates]

wow is an understatement. I wonder how streaming a drouge off the stern would have changed things?

[johnnyreno13]

I was on the edge of my seat just looking at the photo's. Amazing.

God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

[bene505]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

You'll notice the last shot...it looks like he is turning around and getting the heck outta there!!!

There's a little bit of an optical illusion there. If you look at the radome, you can see that she's headed away from the camera when the wave is hitting her. She didn't turn after the wave hit, except for a slight turn to starboard.

[Kanani]

Originally Posted by rtbates

wow is an understatement. I wonder how streaming a drouge off the stern would have changed things?

You don't do that in a harbor entrance like that. Full throttle is the way to handle that situation.

I surfed into a similar harbor in Nysna, South Africa, just West of the Cape of Good Hope.


The harbor master sits in his car on a hill opposite the entrance and talks you through the entrance with his VHF radio. The breakers commonly run 30-40' and you just have to full throttle through them to keep steerage. There are under water rocks that don't show in this picture. If you get sideways, like that guy did, you're finished. There is no 2nd chance in this entrance.

The harbor master insists that everyone be in the cockpit during the entrance and that everything is battened down.

Our 45' ketch surfed at 22knts going in there. Biggest thrill of my life.

While we were there, we watched a 70' fishing trawler surf in the entrance. After watching that from shore, it scared the hell out of me. You don't have time to be scared when it's happening.

[Kanani]

If you look at pic #5 and #8, you will see that there is a small bay just to his SB, that offers protection from the breakers. It appears that he was making a turn to go into that bay and started a bit too soon. The last few shots show him turning up into that bay and out of the breakers.