Boat Surfing Wipeout Ends in Total Chaos (Video)

Surfing doesn’t always involve surfboards. There's heaps of different ways to ride waves – some conventional, some not so much. From inflatable rafts, to hydrofoils, to literal trays swiped from the nearest McDonalds. That’s the beauty of surfing, anything goes.

One of the oldest forms of wave-riding was done in boats. The ancient Polynesians were big into riding canoes on waves, and that tradition still lives on today, both in Hawaii and worldwide. Down in Australia, there’s a handful of boat surfing buffs, and just like on a surfboard – perhaps even more so – things don’t always go according to plan.

Prime example, this clip below of a surf boat wave gone wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IvQx5HOuOKs

The clip comes from Rob “Termite” Lowery, a fixture in the Australian Surf Rowers League. The crew of rowers paddle into a wave, then, because of the boat’s length and the steepness of the wave, they nosedive. That sends the crew flying overboard.

Lowery’s channel is full of mayhem like this clip, and it’s all good fun – mixed with a bit of cringe due to all the wipeouts – and it’s definitely worth checking out.

Think the first boat surfers were charging like this? Probably not. But they’d be proud that their pastime is still alive and well today. For more on the history of canoe surfing, here’s Matt Warshaw from his Encyclopedia of Surfing:

“Ancient Polynesian form of wave-riding, still practiced in most Pacific Ocean islands, and among a small number of devotees elsewhere in the world. Anthropologists regard the canoe as a defining item in Polynesian culture, with dozens of models and variations used for transport, fishing, racing, war, and burial, as well as recreation. With the exception of the great double-hulled canoes used for lengthy inter-island voyages, all ancient Hawaiian canoes followed a similar blueprint: a long and narrow koa wood main hull—just wide enough for a single person and ranging in length from 20 to 80 feet—with a parallel-running wiliwili wood outrigger attached by two booms of hua wood, and all connecting points fastened by braided coconut sennit.”