Near Miss in San Francisco Bay
Tyrell Impson sent us a scary photo taken by Martin Sundberg of two surf skis in front of a fast moving ship. The incident happened during the 2006 US Championships in San Fransisco Bay.
Greg Barton and Adam van Koeverden were focussed on negotiating the rough water when suddenly Adam realised that they weren't alone...
Greg tells the story:
"That's me on the left and Adam van Koeverden from Canada (2004 Olympic sprint Gold medalist and world champion) on the right. We were 5/6 in the US Champs at that time heading out towards the ocean."
"I was focusing on the waves and paddlers ahead of us when Adam said "Greg, look over your right shoulder". The ship was coming directly up behind us at high speed (seemed like over 50 km/hr). We freaked out as we only had a few seconds to get out of the way and didn't now which way to turn. I started to turn left, and Adam said "No, go right". So we both turned 90 degrees to the right and sprinted at top speed."
I asked him if they were hit by a big wave off the ship's bow.
"Oddly enough, we never even noticed the wake," Greg replied, "There was enough other slop in that area that once we got out of the way, we worked with the normal waves and didn't encounter a huge wake."
Photo is copyrighted by Martin Sundberg http://www.martinsundberg.com