Full-sized runabouts have found quite an audience with professional surfers – in fact, they have for quite some time, dating back to years prior to their invention, when Randy Laine used a wheezing two-stroke Kawasaki 550 to tow his brother behind him into the face of Hawaii’s monster waves.
Since those pioneering days, tow-in surfing, as it has come to be known, has become a major component of the sport of surfing’s evolution. Not only have the athletes raised their game to compete on waves that previously were off-limits to paddle-in surfers, but so has the equipment improved.
All of this though, is to successfully ride waves that were so massive they were considered fatal to fishermen and boaters half a century earlier. Now, they are coliseums for the world’s mightiest watermen, daring Neptune to throw his mightiest swing. Unfortunately though, the Old King of the Sea has a lot left in that arm of his.
Watch as one such wave utterly obliterates a tow-in runabout PWC that apparently looks to have stalled directly in the impact zone at Hawaii’s infamous Jaws big wave destination. Filmed by Garage Entertainment, they write:
“Yep, it’s a jetski going over the falls on a solid 50ft mountain of water at JAWS, the driver managed to press eject just moments before impact, hit that play button and watch the chaos unfold!
“This video gives you a good idea of how heavy JAWS can be with both the waves and the crowds, pro stand up paddleboarder Rob Naish talks about the wave and it’s popularity over the past few years, quite the circus.”
Below is a brief teaser of the carnage. To watch the full, unedited version of the video, click HERE.
