Boogie Boarder Gets WRECKED By Wave, Launched 40-Feet, And Lands With A Burst Lung

Professional boogie boarder Jack Baker was launched 20 feet into the air and 40 feet forwards by a freak wave in Cronulla, Sydney, Australia. The accident took place when a freak outgoing wave collided with the wave Jack Baker was riding. Baker’s friend, surfer Craig Stroh, filmed the entire encounter from the beach and looked on in horror as his friend got absolutely demolished by the rogue wave.

The freak wave that caused the collision was caused by backwash, or waves crashing into the rocks on the shoreline and heading back out to sea. The backwash wave collided perfectly with the wave Jack Baker was riding and it crushed him, sending him flying 20-feet into the air.

When he landed, Jack Baker fell into the water at an estimated 16 mph and the impact caused one of his lungs to burst. This impact caused the 22-year-old professional body boarder to lose a liter of blood.

Upon first seeing ‘wave catapults body boarder 25ft in the air’ I assumed that this was filmed at The Wedge in Southern California, but I was sorely mistaken. The Wedge is one of the most peculiar waves on the planet, and a worldwide destination for extreme boogie boarders (is ‘extreme boogie boarder’ an oxymoron?). But this accident wasn’t caused by the freak geography of The Wedge, it took place across the globe in Sydney, Australia. It was all the result of a wage ricocheting perfectly off the rocks and colliding with a breaking 4-foot wave that a body boarder just so happened to be riding. What are the odds? (h/t Caters Clips YouTube)

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Cass Anderson is the Editor-in-Chief of BroBible. Based out of Florida, he covers an array of topics including NFL, Pop Culture, Fishing News, and the Outdoors.