'World's craziest wave' leaves surfers in Australia baffled
WeirdNews
Surfers exploring a secret location somewhere off the coast of Australia stumbled across the bizarre phenomenon.
(Web Desk) - From 73ft waves off the coast of Portugal to square waves in the Aegean Sea, several strange waves have left viewers baffled through the years.
But the latest wave uncovered off the coast of Australia might be the most unusual one yet.
Surfers exploring a secret location somewhere off the coast of Australia stumbled across the bizarre phenomenon.
Aerial footage shows water approaching from four different angles in the middle of the ocean, before explosively meeting in the middle.
Chris Whitey, who first discovered it, described it as 'the wave that shouldn't exist'.
'25+ years hunting the wildest slabs on Earth — and then we found THE THING. Impossible shape. Impossible power. 100% real,' he explained on Instagram.
The footage has baffled viewers, with thousands flocking to the comments on Instagram and YouTube.
'I literally though it was Ai, unbelievable piece of reef,' one user wrote, while another added: 'Because the ocean isn't scary enough, here's two random waves smacking each other in the middle of nowhere.'
Mr Whitey first stumbled across the wave more than a decade ago at a location he's keeping a secret.
He spotted waves swirling from every angle, before meeting and breaking into a huge pillar of water, stretching more than 40 metres into the sky.
'The very first time I ever laid eyes on it, I wasn't filming, I just had my still camera. We just randomly ended up there,' he explained in a video posted to Tension Movies' YouTube channel.
Ten years later, he returned to the site with his friend, Ben Allen, and was amazed to discover the wave still in action.
'The second I saw it, I was like "that's AI". Even though I saw it in real life, I didn't know it could look like that. But I can assure you, that's not AI,' Mr Whitey said.
After witnessing the strange wave himself, Mr Allen took the footage to Arnold Van Rooijen, an expert in coastal engineering at the University of Western Australia, to see if he could get his head around it.
'This is a pretty unique combination of the geomorphology of the reefs and the symmetry of the water depths,' Dr Van Rooijen said.
Dr Van Rooijen suggested that this strange wave would be a one–time occurrence.
However, as the surfers witnessed, it appears to be a recurring feature.
Mr Allen joked: 'I'm pretty sure we captured it happening over and over and over again.
He just didn't believe it – and he's meant to be one of the best oceanographers in Australia!'
The baffling footage has garnered huge attention on both YouTube and Instagram, with thousands of viewers flocking to the comments.
