'Could've Been Fatal': Boat Wipes Out at Teahupo’o (Video)

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated Oct 8, 2025 2:36 PM ET

It’s been somewhat quiet in Tahiti lately, as expected, since the seasons are starting to change, and the South Pacific is beginning to quiet down for the winter.

But that doesn’t mean there’s no swell at Tahiti’s famed lefthand widow-maker, and host to surfing in the historic Paris 2024 Olympics, Teahupo’o. As captured by Surfline cameras, a boat got caught by a wave while attempting to motor through the channel, and ultimately went over the falls in dramatic fashion. Watch the clip below:

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The clip shows the boat as it steers towards the channel with an incoming wave approaching. It barely misses, and the wave catches it. From there, the boat practically does a full barrel-roll, while falling down the face of the wave. It recovers, however, and the apparent two-man crew start to assess the damage from farther inside the channel. Later, the boat is captured motoring back to shore with everyone appearing to be okay.

As Surfline reported: “We’re just thankful that nobody was injured.”

Seems like, lately, there’s been lot of boats-in-crazy-situations across the surfing world. Last month, there was the boat that careened through the lineup at Lower Trestles. (And the driver was later found, and charged with reckless driving.) Before that, a boat got caught inside during a Fiji bomb. And then, of course, there was the 75-foot tour boat that accidentally caught a wave during a big day at Kewalos in Hawaii. In that instance, fortunately, no passengers were aboard at the time, and no crewmembers were injured.

As for Tahiti, it’s also not the first time that a boat has found itself in a hectic situation while navigating the safe zone from the reef to the channel. There was that time, back in 2022, that a taxi boat went straight vertical while navigating over a giant wave. They got lucky in that situation, too; really lucky. Relive that iconic moment below.