Giant Wave Crash Lumaha'i Beach in Kauai, Hawaii

Giant waves, spurred on by El Niño, crashed into the northern shore of Kauai today. No one was hurt in this scene but many cameras and phones were lost to the Pacific Ocean. Spectators (further inland) were knocked over by powerful knee high currents and fumbled their belongings into the receding waters. Jukin Media Verified (Original)
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[yaazizoful]

Wow. That is amazing and so scary at the same time.

[Makkaronii]

The scary part is not the wave coming towards you, its when the wave is pulling you.

[hopalongcassidy]

It's fun until it drags you into the rocks and out to sea

[robertroth]

Never swim where you don't find locals.

[joepromedio]

I've been to this beach many times. First time it was calm and there was a very nice pool in the rocks that hung out in all day. We liked it so much we came back the next day only to find it was very rough. I watched a family of tourists get dragged across the lava rocks. By the time they got back to the beach they were all scraped up and bleeding.

[dr.vamshikrishna]

I am more surprised and impressed with those stones, withstanding that brutal force 24*7 for millions of years

[dans]

0:41 lmao that 1 person just causally waterbending

[RJPaul-pxvt]

The couple getting the hell out of there: I'm with them.

[jonasdalbakk]

Wtf, these kids are playing with these waves like it's a water sprinkler! If I was there, I'd shit myself lmfao

[kristinab]

When I lived on Kauai, the only drownings I heard of were tourists. Sad and unnecessary. They underestimate the power of these waves and don't know the currents like the locals. They were likely all tourists in the water that day. Those waves will wash you out to sea in an instant and the locals know where and when to avoid certain beaches.

[laraisokay]

This is one of the most dangerous beaches in Hawaii.

[inscrutablewut]

Props to the engineers who designed those bikini pieces, not a single one displaced.

[noble]

A dangerous combination, if they get caught in the rip current, they will be thrown around underwater, get slammed against those rocks and get seriously injured. And don't forget the shorebreak...

[sushimamba]

On a day like this it's a very fine line between a fun day at the beach and a search for bodies.

[silvercharm]

A lot of travellers to Kauai don't know, but there are many fatalities in a typical year on the island. Incidents are not broadcast to the world at large so as to avoid alarming people, but if yoiu do not take time to investigate where you are going before you actually arrive, or at least ask locals for safety tips, you could become a statistic.

[lavapix]

The unseen danger are the possible large boulders being thrown at them in all that rushing water. Happens more often then you might think. More so on the Big Island. You stopped the video too soon :-)

[geoffreytownsend]

Lumaha'i Beach was made famous in the movie, "South Pacific." It's very dangerous, all the time, especially in winter. The beach is very long and wide, but almost entirely empty because the water is so dangerous. In summer, swimming at one end to the beach (near where this video was taken) is possible because of a large rock formation 30-40 yards offshore that provides fairly good protection.

[Elver_Gon]

0:44 guy is literally standing on a rip tide

[SR-zpje]

As someone who's nearly drowned underestimating the sea, this is genuinely terrifying.

[fartsimpson]

Was in Kauai years ago when even bigger waves were coming in from a hurricane (Kenneth, I believe was the name). Was about to test the waves with some other guys when we saw a sign on the beach a hundred yards to our left. We walked down to see what it said. I appreciated the obvious message: "If you swim here You will die!!"