Scuba diver caught in a scary rip current (video)

2/14/2013 11:30pm by 11

A short video of a scuba diver caught in a sudden and scary rip current.

Apparently some people questioned whether the video was a fake, and simple being run in reverse. So someone reversed the video, and you can see that when the video is actually reversed, the diver’s feet are moving wrongly.

Here’s the actual video, below is the reversed video:

And here’s the reversed video – check out the divers’ feet:

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@aravosis | Facebook | Google+. Editor of AMERICAblog, joint JD/MSFS from Georgetown, worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. A frequent TV pundit, he has been on The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Full bio and .

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  • http://twitter.com/WTHella Tornado

    Watch this video – > http://youtu.be/H1pVsgtuLj0
    This is what the woman on the video says. “Author John Hoover was diving off the Hawaiian island of Maui when a huge wave created an underwater vacuum that pulled him backward over the rocks. Hoover was not hurt.”
    It was just a wave. It was a big wave, but still just a wave and not a riptide or rip-current. A riptide is something else very specific and deadly because you can not see it unless you’re very familiar with it’s very subtle characteristics. I live on the coast and have seen many riptides and this isn’t one.

  • SkippyFlipjack

    is this actually a “rip current” or just the reverse flow after a wave? seems to me they’re different things, but I don’t know

    • The Dark Avenger

      This diagram from the Wiki explains it to you:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Backcomp-clean.gif

      • SkippyFlipjack

        right, but I’m not sure that’s what’s happening in this video.

        • The Dark Avenger

          I think the water is going away from the viewer from below the rock you see at the end of the video, so that adds to the backward current, so that’s what makes it a rip tide.

          • http://twitter.com/WTHella Tornado

            It’s just ordinary wave action on a rocky shoreline or reef. You can tell from all the disturbed water above the diver. The diver was carried foreword by a wave, and if more video was included with this clip, i’m sure you would see the diver brought back as the wave reseeded. The clip is shortened probably in an attempt to pass this off as some sort of freak rip tide current when all it is is a single wave. I’m sure if the clip were longer you would see another wave and it would be clear what this is.

            • SkippyFlipjack

              thanks, yeah I was thinking along the same lines

  • SkippyFlipjack

    lol.. that’s really funny how obvious it is when run backwards that the footage wasn’t run backwards. evidence for the win!

  • http://www.rebeccamorn.com/mind BeccaM
    • http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

      The Mayans were only a month off!

  • http://twitter.com/WTHella Tornado

    He’s just in relatively shallow water in the wave action in the surf near shore. As the waves roll in it tosses him around a bit. Nothing unusual about it.

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