Surfing can be a dangerous sometimes deadly enterprise, there’s no question. But imitating surfing on a motorized form of transport, be it a boat or a car, is not just dangerous it can be deadly, and it borders on idiotic.
Just a few days ago we reported the tragic story of a New Mexico woman that died in a car surfing accident. As it happens, she was intoxicated, which isn’t an excuse but offers an explanation. People do stupid things when they’re drunk. And it’s sad that instead of sending hundreds of unrequited messages about getting back together with an ex-boyfriend, this dumb thing also happened to be extremely dangerous.
This video is proof that deadly imitations of surfing on motorized transport are not unique to the United States. Here a boat skipper speeds by a cameraman perched atop the outboard motor of his aluminum skiff in a Top End river in the Northern Territory of Australia. He doesn’t appear to be wearing a kill switch cord, which is especially problematic should he have happened to fall off – the boat would theoretically go on hurtling toward oblivion until it hit another boat, or rode up on the banks of the river.
The video was submitted anonymously to NT News. The man who submitted explained that not only was the daredevil boat operator risking his own life, but he was also endangering the river by creating a large wake at that speed. “I’m totally against that and those bow waves create erosion in the banks and mangroves are nursery for fish,” he told NT.
Apparently this area also has a significant crocodile population. NT labeled it, quite poetically, as “croc infested.” The fines for such behavior are two-fold and add up to a whopping $8600. That’s Australian dollars, but still. The video has been submitted to the authorities, and the incident is reportedly under investigation.
