Near Miss in San Francisco Bay Print E-mail
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Written by Rob Mousley   
Tuesday, 05 December 2006

ImageTyrell Impson sent us a scary photo taken by Martin Sundberg of two surf skis in front of a fast moving ship.  The incident happened during the 2006 US Championships in San Fransisco Bay.

Greg Barton and Adam van Koeverden were focussed on negotiating the rough water when suddenly Adam realised that they weren't alone...

Greg tells the story:

 

"That's me on the left and Adam van Koeverden from Canada (2004 Olympic sprint Gold medalist and world champion) on the right. We were 5/6 in the US Champs at that time heading out towards the ocean."

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Greg Barton (L) and Adam van Koeverden avoiding the Tokyo Marin... Photo: Martin Sundberg http://www.martinsundberg.com

"I was focusing on the waves and paddlers ahead of us when Adam said "Greg, look over your right shoulder". The ship was coming directly up behind us at high speed (seemed like over 50 km/hr). We freaked out as we only had a few seconds to get out of the way and didn't now which way to turn. I started to turn left, and Adam said "No, go right". So we both turned 90 degrees to the right and sprinted at top speed."

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This is not a small ship, photo: Martin Sundberg http://www.martinsundberg.com
 

I asked him if they were hit by a big wave off the ship's bow.

"Oddly enough, we never even noticed the wake," Greg replied, "There was enough other slop in that area that once we got out of the way, we worked with the normal waves and didn't encounter a huge wake."

Photo is copyrighted by Martin Sundberg  http://www.martinsundberg.com
 

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when surfing is not enough
written by john, December 04, 2006
That pic leaves me speechless, only a guy like Barton could get thru something like that AND not notice any wake waves :eek
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look closely
written by flick, December 10, 2006
Look at the other picture of the ship in the US Surf Ski Nationals gallery and you can see Barton and Co in front of the ship. It puts them in perspective with how big the ship really was!
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