Whoops. Photo: Screenshot//Instagram
A kayaker in San Diego ended up pointing down a wave they didn’t mean to be pointing down recently, and the whole thing was caught on camera and posted on social media by SoCal Surfer.
About a decade ago, when supsquatching was all the rage, I was lucky enough to wind up on a large, inflatable surfboard with a gang of Navy SEALs and the legendary Brian Keaulana, son of the even more legendary Buffalo Keaulana. We paddled out at large Makaha and proceeded to have more fun than I’ve ever had on a wave, screaming in terror along with the hard-as-nails SEALs as we stroked our paddles manically into waves much bigger than I would ever be comfortable surfing. It was similar to kayak surfing, only with a bunch of other people, and on a huge, elf-shoe shaped board.
In the end, someone ended up with a hole through their lip and another with a shoulder injury, but all of us were positively giddy with excitement. If Brian was not there, guiding us in relative safety through the experience, I’m not sure that I would have been as giddy. Just as I am not sure how giddy the kayaker in the video you see here was.
While there isn’t too much information about what exactly happened here, it seems fairly obvious that a group of kayakers, likely on a tour of La Jolla Cove in San Diego — an achingly beautiful place — found themselves in a hairy situation when a sneaker wave reared its head and put one kayaker in a situation they did not sign up for. Fingers crossed no one was hurt and the only lasting impression is the footage.
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