Boats are fun, I have been told. Personally, the endless night of the ocean floor has been enough to dissuade me from finding out for myself. Boats also happen to be really, really easy to hoon and then subsequently get in deep trouble with, if this Youtube channel Wavy Boats is any indication.
(Viewer Caution: Although no one in these videos dies, it does show people in risk of drowning.)
The channel features a lot of videos that variate on the theme of DON’T DO THIS, which is a great indication of the footage to come, as people keep doing it. In this case, “it” is generally driving boats head-on into massive waves their vessels are either not designed to tackle or that drivers (Eds note: Sailors?) are not skilled enough to navigate, which results in uncomfortable passengers at best, or overworked bilge pumps and overboard riders at worst. Pleasantly, the channel also features purely captured audio of boats slapping waves, rather than America’s Funniest Home Videos-style commentary.
The locales featured are from a variety of popular boating areas around the U.S. but usually focus on inlets and canals, where waves that pleasure-boaters encounter are typically the most intense, and the boat pilots (Eds note, again: Mariners?) are less experienced. It’s my understanding that when the boat is pointed at the sky and passengers (Eds note, again, again: Shipmates?) are flying overboard, something in your day has gone wrong, and yet for dozens upon dozens of boaters, it appears to be a typical weekend. The first footage from the video above, which features the Haulover Inlet in Miami, shows a woman being dumped overboard and rescued by nearby jetskiers. The current is so strong that even staying still in the water is virtually impossible, and virtually no one featured in any of these videos is wearing a life jacket, including her.
If you’re curious about the location in that video and why it’s so rough, Haulover Inlet is a favorite destination for Wavy Boats for exactly that reason. It’s a narrow channel connecting the north end of Miami’s Biscayne Bay with the Atlantic Ocean, and a combination of strong tides, ferocious winds, and rock walls make its waters a notoriously dangerous place for inexperienced boaters—of which Florida has plenty.
All told, the channel appears to vindicate my decision to stay on terra firma. My search through the videos shows that while there are close calls, no one appears to die despite the lack of life jackets, but it also doesn’t look like what I would describe as fun, either.
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