Photo: Surfline
Boats and surf lineups have become an odd pairing in 2025. In August, we saw the 75-foot Discovery run aground on Oahu’s South Shore during a massive summer swell (after highlining it through the Kewalos lineup). Just last month, a California boater was given a citation for reckless operation of a vessel after blasting through the Lower Trestles lineup on an otherwise chill Friday afternoon.
Those incidents grabbed headlines mostly because they happened in places we’d never expect boats and surfers to mingle. Teahupo’o, on the other hand, is a wave that’s no stranger to boat traffic. Whenever the Pacific Ocean spits a heavy swell at Tahiti and hellmen from all over the world flood the lineup, we often see a boat or two scurrying over the horizon of a cleanup set.
Yesterday, Surfline’s camera at Teahupo’o captured a boat making its way through an empty lineup, only to get caught up by a sneaker wave. Even with nobody out surfing, the moment looked hectic. The boat got hung up on the lip, sent over the falls, flipped, and somehow ended right side up over the reef and (apparently) intact. After a little fast-forward through the footage, Surfline’s clip shows that same boat cruising away.
“Thankfully, they were OK and the boat made it off the reef,” they said.
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