Since this board is for sharing stories and experiences, I thought I'd share one with all of you, as when the horrible accident happened this past week-end I got shivers down my spine as I myself have been in that EXACT situation in Garibaldi! Yes capsized on the north side of the north jetty.
As it goes.....about 9 or 10 years ago (you can check public record), as a New Years eve tradition, I would go diving. This particular new years eve was no execption. December 31, the Oregon Coast was experiencing some of the highest tides in history.
I had my friend and grade school buddy Wes Maxwell with me. I started the day diving the south side of the north jetty, I was collecting Crabs and had taken a 65 lbs skate by hand with a knife. I was feeling pretty macho by then. At the end of the dive, a got back into the boat (a 15 foot 4 inch zodiac style inflatable with a 40 hp Tohatsu engine). I was in a full diving dry suit and Wes was in a 1/4 full wet suit. Although Wes has no ocean experience, he was following my lead.
Once I got back in the boat, we noticed 50-75 people on the jetty staring into the ocean side of the jetty from Barview. It seemed odd that so many people weer looking at the ocean. They must be looking at something.
I said to Wes, ' Lets go see what they're looking at.' Here is where may mistake started!. I looked at the bar and I thought it looked flat so I headed towarded the tips. As I got the to the tip of the North Jetty I guided my inflatable around the tips. Within seconds I knew exaclty what those people were looking at, it was some of the biggest surf in Oregon History slamming up against the shore as the tide was so high there was not any sand beach. I rode the waves into the shore and was getting hammered against the bank from the high tide. I then made the second BIGGEST mistake, that was going back out in that little inflatable to get back in through the jaws. I was dodging and weaving throught sets of 6 to 8 foot shore breakers for 5 to 8 minutes, taking huge walls of white water from every wave.
Then there was the slot, and I went for it! I crested a 10 to 12 foot breaker before it broke and was headed for the biggest wave about even with the tips of the jetty. The boat went up and over the big wave but when get came crashing down, THE ENGINE DIED!!! [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img]
I knew we were in BIG trouble, :shocked: at the north side of the north jetty in 15 foot breakers and no power. I pulled franticaly to get that damn thing started as we were so close to being in and around the tips. But not to be. I looked up and saw the BIGGEST wave of the day curling, being dead in the water we were at the mercy of the ocean.
I was screaming out instructions to Wes as I know he could feel the panic in my voice. About then the entire boat was sucked up onto the face of this wave and I knew it was over. I told Wes: "when I say go, hold your breath for as long as you can and stay with the boat! ( [img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img] ,this is what he was probably thinking) Then it happened, we were completely engulfed by this wave and flipped us completely over. As the wave came over, I was slammed to the bottom of the ocean and had my face rubbed on the sand bottom and had what looked to be "rug burns" on my face. I was holding my breath knowing that my dry suit would bring me to the surface. When I did surface, I was amazed at how long to took as to surface I was almost out of air. I was on my back swimming in NEVER taking my eye off the ocean, so as to take another big breath before the next wave hit. I knew this is exactly what those folks were going through. I have experience and am skilled in that environment and I was scared to death. I did manage to get a glimpse of the inflatable still up side down in the surf line with Wes stilling holding on for dear life. The boat and Wes were 200 to 300 yards closer to the beach.
As I reached the beach, the rescue personnel from Garibaldi and the U.S. Coast Guard were on scene. They were trying to cover me with blankets but I was far from cold. In fact I was emmiting steam from my suit as I was so hot from swimming for my life.
I made it out alive and so did Wes, and I filed it away as "just another adventure" until last week end, then as the story played out I had flashbacks of just how bad it really was and how so un-prepared those people were to enter a 50 degree environment.
When I say those survivors were "really lucky" I hope you all relize this is coming from that exact experience I went through and almost lost my life that day.
For those that read this, thanks for listening as I felt I needed to get this off my chest and share this with.
Capsizing in Tillamook
My little "Kujoette"
ANDYCOHO
Glad your here with us to share the experience.
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