Jet Ski Gets Swallowed by Massive Wave at Nazaré (Video)
In big waves, it’s typically the surfers who suffer the worst wipeouts.
But there’s a lot more that goes into big wave surfing, besides the brave souls actually riding the waves. There’s safety teams, videographers, tow partners, etc. And occasionally, they find themselves in the line of fire as well – especially at spots like Nazaré, Portugal.
For instance, below. Laurent Pujol, the Emmy Award-winning cinematographer behind the hit HBO series 100 Foot Wave, found himself in a tricky spot while shooting Nazaré. As a result, the jet ski he was riding on was gobbled by a monster wave, sending everyone flailing. Hit play below for the harrowing footage.
“I gotta say that we've had a good run shooting every swell for the past 7 years with a few minor incidents,” Pujol explained. “Figured that one day we were gonna get it as it felt inevitable with the risk management we've adopted out there. Yesterday, the swell started picking up quick in the afternoon and we found ourselves in this situation just before dark. There was a nasty rip and a set of waves popped up out of nowhere and caught us off guard.”
At spots like Nazaré, where there is absolutely no channel, no safety route, occasionally, you’re gonna get steamrolled. Like Pujol mentioned, it’s inevitable.
Luckily, nobody got hurt. And others in the water jumped into action to help out one of their own. Plus, the jet ski somehow managed to survive the whole incident.
“Jet ski was also about to go into the cliff and a backwash pushed it north and it end up on the beach a little mangled,” Pujol added. “Hopefully we got that out of the way and we are good to go for the next few seasons.”
Nobody’s safe at Nazaré.