There are so many times I watch canoes try to take a short cut back to the harbor. I’m sitting in the lineup at Bowls watching this on a daily basis. Most times they are lucky, and sometimes they aren’t so lucky. In Saturday’s case, the steersman of the canoe thought it would be faster to go through the waves. I was watching his eyes as he passed by and he never once looked towards the horizon. I was in disbelief as the cut very close to the surfers. There is absolutely no reason to do so. 
This is way to close! You have the entire open ocean and you need to come this close to us surfers? Absolutely no excuse for that! 
I’m sitting on the left side of this photo watching everything that’s about to happen. I see the canoe way too close, I see the set building from the outside, and I see what’s about to happen. 
Once the swell hits the reef, it will suddenly break. And when you’re trying to cut across sideways like this, you have zero chance of success. 
This is about when the steersman finally sees the wave, but it’s way too late. Look at the 5 surfers paddling out and trying to get out of the way. 
The wave breaks, the canoe flips over, and all the passengers fly out. That’s when the panic starts. The steersman is telling his crew to hold on to the canoe. They were basically holding on for their lives. But it’s the most dangerous place to be because if the canoe hits someone, they will get hurt. So I’m yelling to his crew to get away from the canoe because more waves were coming. I could tell that some of the crew couldn’t even swim. Nobody in life vests, nobody knew what to do, not even the steersman. It was chaos. People don’t realize how bad that situation could have turned out. Thankfully nobody got hurt but I’m sure a few will be traumatized for the rest of their lives.
