Surfers 'battered and bruised' after spectacular boat wipe-out

Surfers 'battered and bruised' after spectacular boat wipe-out

A spectacular boat wipe-out filmed at a Gisborne Beach has been described as "carnage" by the man who filmed it.

Nelson man Dean Foote was filming his friends surfing at Tuamotu Island when a boat carrying surfers was capsized by a freak set of waves.

Tuamotu Island is popular with surfers for its left-hand reef break, but it takes a long paddle from shore or a trip by boat to reach it.

Mr Foote was in Gisborne for the weekend to enjoy the waves before one of his best friends went overseas.

He was filming his friends, who have been described as not "high performance" surfers by one surf site, when he noticed a nearby boat struggling with a "freak set of waves".

"I noticed them just make it over the crest of one wave and turned the camera and hit record in time to capture the next one taking them out. It looked like the anchor held when it first hit them, which was really lucky, otherwise the boat probably could have ended up on the shore."

Several people, along with their surf boards, were sent flying as the wave capsized the boat.

It was a close call -- the camera pans down to capture a large rock jutting out of the water next to the boat.

In the video, Mr Foote utters a few swear words before describing the wipe-out as "a complete yard sale".

Mr Foote told Newshub he's "never seen a boat taken out like that before".

According to Mr Foote, the boat was anchored up in a "fairly standard" spot.

Mr Foote says the capsized surfers were injured, but "got off lightly in the end".

"Teddy was pretty battered and bruised. He had a pretty bruised and bloody face and on his leg and stuff, but I think he was just stoked that he wasn't worse off."

Since Mr Foote posted the video, it's been shared by a number of surf sites and viewed millions of times across various platforms. The full five-minute video can be viewed here.

"We got a lot of hilarious comments paying out the boys for being crap surfers...so we got our money's worth in that sense."

"It was a really interesting lesson in just how quickly information can be shared and how un-private the internet is."

Though, he reflects:"you'd expect nothing less, really, these days".

Newshub.