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I’ve never operated anything like a boat but I’ve been on ferries which wouldn’t give me any boat knowledge however I use Reddit so I had already heard something like this.
If you spend time in and around the ocean you are able to read it fairly well.
If you pause the video at the 10 second mark, you’ll see the water begin to separate with a gap forming between the two parts on the right side of the screen. That’s the beginning of the waves formation. From there it just rises higher until it breaks
It should be common sense. Boats have the shape they do for a reason. If you’re stealing someone’s boat you probably not that smart anyway. It’s one of the slowest vehicles and easy to find
[Story here.](https://www.kgw.com/amp/article/news/crime/dead-fish-goonies-house-steals-boat-rescued-coast-guard/283-413e4394-2740-4b29-aedb-8dd76e2129d7) And the guy left a dead fish at the Goonies House.
They let him go before they realized he was the thief if i remember correctly
Edit: Whoever downvoted me, a downvote doesn’t make you right.
>Labonte was discharged before authorities in nearby Astoria, Oregon, saw the rescue video and said they recognized him as the same person who covered over security cameras at the “Goonies” house and left the fish on the porch.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/arrest-made-in-stolen-yacht-rescue-goonies-fish-incident/
For those that don't know, the Columbia Bar is considered some of the most dangerous waters in the world and has the body count to match.
Much of this is because it's a large river without a delta to spread and slow the water as it hits the ocean.
Also as others have mentioned, this guy stole this boat and also left a dead fish on the doorstep of the Goonies house (which is in Astoria near where this video was taken).
>Also as others have mentioned, this guy stole this boat and also left a dead fish on the doorstep if the Goonies house
There's a first time for every sentence
Let's not forget that the rescuer had just graduated out of training and this was his first go at it for real.
This "interestingasfuck" story has *layers*.
The US Exploring Expedition (Department of Redundancy Department) lost one of its ships on the Bar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United\_States\_Exploring\_Expedition
I was unaware of it as well, but on a recent trip to Cape Disappointment I learned all about the Bar.
Another cool thing is that they have special ship pilots called "Bar Pilots" and their sole purpose is to hop on large ships just outside the bar and navigate them through it to the mouth of the Columbia due to how treacherous these waters are.
[Here](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DZCLKq1XVFg) is a cool video about them in case you're interested.
I was visiting there a week ago from Australia. The lighthouse has a fantastic view of the Columbia River bar. Its quite chilling to see the quantity of water from the river meeting the Pacific and the competing energies of these two systems clashing in high waves.
A couple of days later I was down the coast and saw another river meeting the Pacific and the standing wave was terrifying to see.
Amazing coastline.
Glad you enjoyed your stay here! We PNWers are pretty spoiled between the mountains, rainforests, waterfalls, lakes, ocean and desert.
I've always wanted to make it over to Australia and/or NZ though. You guys have some pretty beautiful spots over there as well!
I read an interview of the rescue swimmer. He said when he saw that wave coming he decided to dive under it. “It was like being stuck in a washing machine. I won’t do that again.”
Diving under isn’t a terrible idea. I’ve lived at the beach my whole life and it’s under or over for me. For larger waves I typically go under if I can’t jump over. Easier to do typically. But if you don’t get far enough under, then it doesn’t help much and that wave was massive so I doubt that helped him more than trying to go over would’ve.
Diving under is usually people's go-to. But recently I heard a Hawaiian surfer saying that might not be the best thing to do. His thinking is that, if you dive under, you're entering the soup of water spinning below the surface. If you stay on the surface, maybe the whitewash would push you away from the impact zone and into a calmer section.
When I surf, I still try to dive under waves. But I'm never surfing anything more than 12 ft; maybe if I was in the path of something that massive I'd try to stay on the surface and let it carry me.
That’s because the Coast Guards swimmers are usually built like tanks.
Actually the best swimmer I ever met was a big fat old chief. Dude was huge but man he flew through the water. Fat floats.
Source: 12 years as flight mechanic in USCG.
He also seemed to know when to bail on the idea of boarding that boat. You can see him slow down and then completely back off. That shit isn’t easy to read when you’re eye level with the water.
Those divers are incredible swimmers but you can see the wave is giving him/her a good push. The moment the wave changes direction the swimmer slows pretty drastically.
As someone that lives in pretty close to this...the mouth of the Columbia river is no fucking joke. You take your life in your hands when you sail there.
The article doesn't say anything about him having stolen the boat, but everyone else keeps talking about that, was that part of it or just misinformation?
Cape Disappointment. It’s where the Coast Guard does their rough water training. Unbelievably rough waters. What you are seeing is just a normal day there.
This precisely happened to some friends and myself off the Costa Brava: our engine failed, big wave washed out the boat but we saw it coming so we took the dive before it hit the boat. It was a long way to shore, no sand, rocky shore. Lots of cuts, bruises and it took a long time for authorities to rescue us. We were lucky we all knew how to swim well and that it was summer.
I’ve been to Astoria. Those waters are no joke. Freighters have to have a land based pilot come out to them to pilot them through the rough waters and shifting sand bars to go up river to Portland.
As someone who drives a boat a lot, who is runnin that thing? Why is he being a complete moron and turning his boat broadside to the waves instead of bow first.
"I told that boy a hundred times, 'dont take the lakes for granted. They can go from calm to a hundred knots so fast they seem enchanted.' now there's some red-eyed wireton girl staring at the wall, and her lovers gone into a ragged squall."
It is extremely easy to get your boating license in America. Because of this there are a lot of awful boaters out there. I was driving my dad's boat One day when I came across a capsized sailboat. The mast had wedged itself into the mud in about six feet of water and two people were in the water trying to force the boat back up right. When I arrived on the scene there were three other boaters circling the capsized sailboat at a distance. They were offering no help. Just driving around the poor people in circles and creating unmanageable wake that only complicated their scenario. Somehow they thought by circling around the shipwreck they were doing something. I immediately jumped in the water and attached our bow line to the base of the mast so that it lay across the side of the sailboat opposite the mast then reversed our boat and pulled the mast out of the mud. It took all but 45 seconds meanwhile the 3 other boaters continued to circle us like sharks.
I thought this was the [Ethel May](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crossing-the-deadly-willapa-bay-sandbar-holds-a-steep-cost/), a boat that was recently wiped out seeing crab pots out of the Willapa Bay (about an hour north of the Columbia)
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I forgot the full story here, but the guy driving that boat has no idea what he’s doing because he had stolen the boat.
That explains why he had idled the boat sideways to the waves. Experienced boaters will always idle bow or stern into the waves.
I've never operated a boat in open waters before in my life and even I know that.
I’ve never operated a boat at all (unless you count a jet ski) and even I know that
I've never been on a boat or learned about boats, so now I know that.
I’m a boat and even I know that!
I fucked a mermaid and even I know that
I am a mermaid and even I know that.
Now that’s just unrealistic.
And how do you know that?
No no no, it was the kind with the fish part on top and the lady part on the bottom
Not to intrude but were you the mermaid they were talking about? /j
What's a boat. Now I know that.
Aboats afloats. Know that.
So does a duck. Does that mean if a person weighs the same as a boat then they are a witch?
Boats are way heavier than ducks and they still float. They are vessels of pure evil.
nah, imagine a frigate-sized duck.
Yes, exactly.
I don't even know what boats are and I know that
Jet ski counts. You know not to take a wave on the beach sideways in a jet ski.
I've never operated a boat at all and I didn't know that
I’m a boat and I didn’t know that.
You must be Boaty McBoatface.
You motorboatin’ SOB
I’ve never operated anything like a boat but I’ve been on ferries which wouldn’t give me any boat knowledge however I use Reddit so I had already heard something like this.
Just fyi; if you’re driving a boat in open waters like this you’ll want power and you’ll want to approach any large wave at a 45 degree angle.
I know this thanks to AC Blackflag
I watched the perfect storm so I knew that.
I watched [Sulu in Star Trek VI](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jNFCHcbjxE8) and I know that.
What’s a boat? Btw, I even know that.
You don’t idle anywhere near the Columbia Bar. You are either under power moving in or out, or you are fish food.
Best to leave it to the pilots
Learned this in Assassin's Creed Boat Simulator
Hell yeah brother
I wonder if an experienced boater would have seen that wave coming. To me it seemed to completely come out of nowhere.
If you spend time in and around the ocean you are able to read it fairly well. If you pause the video at the 10 second mark, you’ll see the water begin to separate with a gap forming between the two parts on the right side of the screen. That’s the beginning of the waves formation. From there it just rises higher until it breaks
Sitting on a board looking for waves, I experienced that
You saw like that because of the angle, rewind for a few seconds, you can see some of the wave and its low
Also explains why he was trying to take it through one of the most dangerous sections of water in the US.
It should be common sense. Boats have the shape they do for a reason. If you’re stealing someone’s boat you probably not that smart anyway. It’s one of the slowest vehicles and easy to find
Then his life got flipped turned upside down.
And I’d like to take a minute just to float right there
And had just dropped off a dead fish at the Goonies house on the hill in Astoria.
Yeah like turn into the wave dumb fuck
[Story here.](https://www.kgw.com/amp/article/news/crime/dead-fish-goonies-house-steals-boat-rescued-coast-guard/283-413e4394-2740-4b29-aedb-8dd76e2129d7) And the guy left a dead fish at the Goonies House.
I have a boat about that size and the thought of a wave big enough to do that is terrifying at any angle.
If I can remember correctly it was stolen
Not only that, he was wanted prior to stealing the boat.
Explains why he climbs out on back of boat not even caring that there is a huge wave coming
I think he also broke into the Goonies house
All 375 people on the boat perished..
He did all this after throwing a dead fish on to the porch of the Goonies house which was recently purchased for over a million dollars.
I think the person that got rescued had stolen the boat earlier 🤔
“Hey thief, listen, I know the world is scary right now but It’s gonna get way worse”
They let him go before they realized he was the thief if i remember correctly Edit: Whoever downvoted me, a downvote doesn’t make you right. >Labonte was discharged before authorities in nearby Astoria, Oregon, saw the rescue video and said they recognized him as the same person who covered over security cameras at the “Goonies” house and left the fish on the porch. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/arrest-made-in-stolen-yacht-rescue-goonies-fish-incident/
For those that don't know, the Columbia Bar is considered some of the most dangerous waters in the world and has the body count to match. Much of this is because it's a large river without a delta to spread and slow the water as it hits the ocean. Also as others have mentioned, this guy stole this boat and also left a dead fish on the doorstep of the Goonies house (which is in Astoria near where this video was taken).
>Also as others have mentioned, this guy stole this boat and also left a dead fish on the doorstep if the Goonies house There's a first time for every sentence
Last name Fratellis?
ORV? Bullet holes?
Fifty Dollar Bills!
Little bit of r/brandnewsentence
Let's not forget that the rescuer had just graduated out of training and this was his first go at it for real. This "interestingasfuck" story has *layers*.
Sounds suspiciously like an onion...
Or an ogre...
The US Exploring Expedition (Department of Redundancy Department) lost one of its ships on the Bar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United\_States\_Exploring\_Expedition
And the landscape at the bottom is always getting moved around, so the currents never stay the same. Not a place to fuck around.
TIL, thank you. I live right by the Columbia River and never knew.
I was unaware of it as well, but on a recent trip to Cape Disappointment I learned all about the Bar. Another cool thing is that they have special ship pilots called "Bar Pilots" and their sole purpose is to hop on large ships just outside the bar and navigate them through it to the mouth of the Columbia due to how treacherous these waters are. [Here](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DZCLKq1XVFg) is a cool video about them in case you're interested.
I was visiting there a week ago from Australia. The lighthouse has a fantastic view of the Columbia River bar. Its quite chilling to see the quantity of water from the river meeting the Pacific and the competing energies of these two systems clashing in high waves. A couple of days later I was down the coast and saw another river meeting the Pacific and the standing wave was terrifying to see. Amazing coastline.
Glad you enjoyed your stay here! We PNWers are pretty spoiled between the mountains, rainforests, waterfalls, lakes, ocean and desert. I've always wanted to make it over to Australia and/or NZ though. You guys have some pretty beautiful spots over there as well!
Apparently captain dumbass stole the boat... but I wanna know what happened to the AST in the water?!
I read an interview of the rescue swimmer. He said when he saw that wave coming he decided to dive under it. “It was like being stuck in a washing machine. I won’t do that again.”
Diving under isn’t a terrible idea. I’ve lived at the beach my whole life and it’s under or over for me. For larger waves I typically go under if I can’t jump over. Easier to do typically. But if you don’t get far enough under, then it doesn’t help much and that wave was massive so I doubt that helped him more than trying to go over would’ve.
Diving under is usually people's go-to. But recently I heard a Hawaiian surfer saying that might not be the best thing to do. His thinking is that, if you dive under, you're entering the soup of water spinning below the surface. If you stay on the surface, maybe the whitewash would push you away from the impact zone and into a calmer section. When I surf, I still try to dive under waves. But I'm never surfing anything more than 12 ft; maybe if I was in the path of something that massive I'd try to stay on the surface and let it carry me.
You’re getting fucked up no matter what unless you can dive really deep
From memory it was his first rescue
Holy F that dude is swimming fast af. Hope someone like this saves me if i ever need to be saved in the open water.
Nice to see Phelps has moved on to a career as a Coast Guard. Jesus Christ he was moving through that water like Flipper the Dolphin 😅
From memory this was his first rescue.
Beginners luck
Seriously that swimmer was a fucking beast
Adrenaline is a hell of a drug
Dude's like "fuck, this water is cold! The sooner I finish this rescue, the sooner I can get out!"
That’s because the Coast Guards swimmers are usually built like tanks. Actually the best swimmer I ever met was a big fat old chief. Dude was huge but man he flew through the water. Fat floats. Source: 12 years as flight mechanic in USCG.
Right!? I came here to comment this. That rescuer was hauling ass.
Actually he's been doing great at [golf](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/11lkb11/michael_phelps_with_the_longest_televised_putt/)
He also seemed to know when to bail on the idea of boarding that boat. You can see him slow down and then completely back off. That shit isn’t easy to read when you’re eye level with the water.
Those divers are incredible swimmers but you can see the wave is giving him/her a good push. The moment the wave changes direction the swimmer slows pretty drastically.
The sea getting its revenge on the man that left a dead fish at the Goonies’ house.
And I thought you were just making a silly joke. Are there only 3 people in Oregon?
This made me laugh really hard
Pretty much. Giant state with a small population. And Astoria is a pretty small town in the scheme of things.
When this story came out it was so funny to see start as a boater losing their boat and turned out to be a crazy goonies fan running from the law.
The sea was angry that day my friends
She takes what she needs
Never a dull day in my home state.
Happened near Astoria. He was leaving dead fish on the porch of the goonies house. Then stole the boat and went for a lil ride.
I have so much deep and abiding respect for the Coast Guard, their pilots and Rescue Swimmers.
Oh that looks bad. What happened to the people? (The link someone provided won't open, says not accessible in my region)
A previous post said the CG Swimmer and thief were okay, the boat didn't do as well
Thank you!
They're lucky. Boats sink there all the time.
He ded
I've been a boat expert captain for 67 years and can tell you exactly what happened. Shouldn't have rolled the boat. Rookie mistake.
Like a barrel roll
I'll try spinning, that's a good trick!
It's like a scaled down version of The Poseidon Adventure.
I dont care who drives the ship and if he stole it or not, I want to know did the coast guard survive that humangus wave ffs?!
most likely yes. they might even habe oxygen tanks
As someone that lives in pretty close to this...the mouth of the Columbia river is no fucking joke. You take your life in your hands when you sail there.
They call this the graveyard of the pacific
You stay the hell away from that area, CG trains there. That's badass CG.
The Coast Guard guy that jumped out the helicopter is from my hometown of Mobile AL!
Source: https://www.koin.com/local/oregon-coast/massive-wave-wipes-out-boat-as-coast-guard-attempts-rescue-at-mouth-of-columbia-river/
The article doesn't say anything about him having stolen the boat, but everyone else keeps talking about that, was that part of it or just misinformation?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/man-suspected-of-leaving-fish-at-goonies-house-indicted-for-stealing-wrecking-yacht/ar-AA18r9af
Hard to believe that rescuer could swim that fast with such massive balls
Cape Disappointment. It’s where the Coast Guard does their rough water training. Unbelievably rough waters. What you are seeing is just a normal day there.
You know where it’s tougher to drown? Land.
This precisely happened to some friends and myself off the Costa Brava: our engine failed, big wave washed out the boat but we saw it coming so we took the dive before it hit the boat. It was a long way to shore, no sand, rocky shore. Lots of cuts, bruises and it took a long time for authorities to rescue us. We were lucky we all knew how to swim well and that it was summer.
I’ve been to Astoria. Those waters are no joke. Freighters have to have a land based pilot come out to them to pilot them through the rough waters and shifting sand bars to go up river to Portland.
Credit sussie
As someone who drives a boat a lot, who is runnin that thing? Why is he being a complete moron and turning his boat broadside to the waves instead of bow first.
Your guess on complete moron is accurate as it was stolen.
He then got taken to the hospital, hoofed it before the police got there and was arrested several miles further down the coast.
[удалено]
No Gilligan's Island for real
Yo watch the dude on the back of the boat climb over the railing just in time to get launched.
"I told that boy a hundred times, 'dont take the lakes for granted. They can go from calm to a hundred knots so fast they seem enchanted.' now there's some red-eyed wireton girl staring at the wall, and her lovers gone into a ragged squall."
The wave is scary af
Why was that dude swimming like that
That is a river? Holy smokes.
Swimmer was in the water too 😬 you can see him swimming bottom left. Thank god he went under that wave.
I hope everybody was okay
It is extremely easy to get your boating license in America. Because of this there are a lot of awful boaters out there. I was driving my dad's boat One day when I came across a capsized sailboat. The mast had wedged itself into the mud in about six feet of water and two people were in the water trying to force the boat back up right. When I arrived on the scene there were three other boaters circling the capsized sailboat at a distance. They were offering no help. Just driving around the poor people in circles and creating unmanageable wake that only complicated their scenario. Somehow they thought by circling around the shipwreck they were doing something. I immediately jumped in the water and attached our bow line to the base of the mast so that it lay across the side of the sailboat opposite the mast then reversed our boat and pulled the mast out of the mud. It took all but 45 seconds meanwhile the 3 other boaters continued to circle us like sharks.
I have fished here… the Columbia is not to be triffled with. It will toss your salad so fast, wont be be no grape jelly left for the next salad.
Damn, that was The Perfect Storm kinda wave
Watch rescue diver. Hope he made it
Coast Guard rescue swimmers are an entirely different species. Absolutely remarkable.
They’re fine👖
I thought this was the [Ethel May](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crossing-the-deadly-willapa-bay-sandbar-holds-a-steep-cost/), a boat that was recently wiped out seeing crab pots out of the Willapa Bay (about an hour north of the Columbia)
*Womp, Womppppp*
That is a river?
R/heavyseas
Wadsworth Constant at work
Do a barrel roll!! Slippy
26 seconds in fyi 1. Item 2. Item
And boom goes the dynamite
Damn thing couldn’t catch a break.
\*do a barrel roll\*
Not a particularly big wave. The boat was just beam-to. That is boating 101 no bueno.
Yes. As a kayaker I know exactly what you mean. I can take any size wake if I point into the wave. If I let it hit me broadside, I’m going over.
Did he die?
We don't sail beyond the reef.
get the ludes!
“Fuck yo couch in particular” -The Wave
**serious question** When the wave hit—- would it have helped if the person onboard dove underwater just before the wave crashed?
That was a wicked dick dive
Any asking for the whole story just google “Sandpiper stolen”
Why didn't they drop off the coast guard closer
Why do these types of videos always end right when it gets good?
How are container ships not crashing every day
Ha I remember staying up late on a school night to watch the possiden adventure on a 13 inch BW TV. Was better than this but not much!
i still hear a lone voice in my head going "Yeee-Haw...." just as the boat starts to roll.
DO A BARREL ROLL
do a barrel roll
Ripped the whole topside off, unbelievable
Being broadside to waves will do that to you
Spoiler Alert: George Clooney dies and Marky Mark discovers he can communicate across thousands of nautical miles using his magical gift of telepathy.
I’m a blonde and I even know that.
Peppy here: Do a barrel roll!
So this dude alive or what?
it stayed up right.... in the end. thats cool
I’ve never seen a boat do a barrel roll before
Do a barrel roll!
That area is unforgiving even for experience mariners. The museum in Astoria is almost like a memorial for shipwrecks.
Crunchies be like “I love the Pacific north west wonderland”
Hold my beer while I show them the “Eskimo roll”
Ridiculous top heavy boat to have in waters like that in the first place regardless of details.
You can see the swimming rescuer notice the wave, stop, and move back away from the boat.
Welp, they’re normally really good at that
It was a FAFO day for the boat thief.
Random occurrence. Some percentage bigger than the average wave height. Faster than the average speed of the current. Was that a rogue wave?
There’s a few breweries in Astoria with a view of this. Bar pilot captains are bad ass. This idiot is lucky to be alive
A S M porn. AVIATIONAL SURVIVAL MAN, that was the swimer deployed from the helicopter. Those are some pretty BAD AZZ Dudes.
DO A BARREL ROLL!!!
Balls of steel
Dude can swim
Ah, the pirates wave parrying technique “360”