Absolute Carnage As Jet-Skis Got Pummeled By Enormous Rogue Waves That Broke A Rider's Back

iStockphoto / Vladimir_Timofeev

I didn’t expect to be writing about the same epic swell of waves three times in one week but here we are. We are once again looking back to last weekend’s once-in-a-decade swell in Hawaii that to Makua Rothman’s estimated 100-foot wave that could be a world record and some of the best/biggest waves ever surfed in Hawaii.

During the Saturday Sesh™ at Oahu’s outer reef, the same swell that was firing at Pe’ahi, a group of more than a dozen Jet-Skis carrying rescue crews and photographers got caught off guard by a rogue wave that led to another wave and then all hell broke loose. One photographer actually broke his back in the carnage, according to Fox Sports.

There was a drone flying overhead (footage below) that captured the footage from a wild vantage point. Photographer Ryan Moss told Surfline about what it was like at that moment:

“That set came and really caught everyone off guard. I just remember feeling weightless and it taking a really long time to come down. I didn’t realise how fast Cam (his driver) sent us over the lip of that thing. There was no handle on the ski, so I couldn’t stand up and hold on and hope my legs would have absorbed some of the impact.
So, I was just sitting on the back with a death grip on the leather seat. Next thing I know I hear a loud thud. It felt like the ski buckled in half. Along with that, my back sent a shooting pain and tingling feeling from my waist down to my feet. I remember saying, ‘[expletive, expletive, expletive] I’m paralysed.’ I legitimately thought I was.” (via Surfline)

The drone footage from Highseas Media shows how quickly things went from peacefully calm and serene to a nightmare scenario in a matter of seconds. Around the 1:30 point in this video the water is flat and everyone’s chilling. A minute later the jet-skis are going full speed to try and make it out of the impact zone and many of them don’t make it to safety.