Blair Conklin has seen a lot of river waves.
But even he seems stunned by this one.
Footage shared by Conklin, originally captured by his friend Emilio in San José del Cabo, Mexico, shows a staggering volume of water exploding out of an estuary and into the Pacific. See the video below, as it escalates from a trickle to a torrent.
The breach starts wide and violent, then quickly turns into a raging channel of brown water and foam. As the torrent meets incoming ocean energy, enormous standing waves rear up in the mouth—less like a playful novelty wave and more like a whitewater rapid emptying directly into the surf zone.
Calling it one of the largest river waves ever seen doesn’t feel like much of an exaggeration, although there’s no official measurement or record to prove it.
“He just captured one of the largest estuary breaches I’ve ever seen,” Conklin stated in the video. “What he captured is like Nat Geo style footage. It’s crazy how much water is moving. Probably some of the most powerful ocean currents and just most powerful water I’ve ever seen.”
The drone footage is terrifying. As the roaring river carves a massive 40-meter-wide canal through the beach, it rips giant trees and water lilies out to sea, colliding with incoming hurricane surf to create explosive standing waves. The sheer power of the water forced authorities to push spectators back from the crumbling sandbanks.
San José del Cabo’s Estuary—also known by surfers as La Bocana—is normally one of the area’s ficklest surf zones. After major storms, heavy runoff can wash through the coastal berm and radically reshape the rivermouth. Surfline notes that when the estuary really opens, floodwater can carry sewage, trees, debris and other hazards straight into the lineup.
Per Emilio: “As I’m filming with the drone, I want to show you guys what this looks [like] in the ocean, it’s so gnarly right now,” he marveled. “Locals must be tripping right now… one of the guys there, he’s been working here for 26 years, says he’s never seen it like this.”
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That kind of chaotic flow is exactly why Conklin knows better than most how dangerous these waves can become.
The Laguna Beach native is a three-time skimboarding world champion and one of the most experienced surfers at Southern California’s famous Aliso Creek standing wave. During a historic swell earlier this year, Conklin tried riding one of Aliso’s heaviest flows and later admitted, “I thought I was about to die. I literally thought I could’ve died. I thought I was going out to sea.”
Compared with Aliso, though, the Cabo footage looks supersized.
The entire estuary appears to be draining at once, with massive pulses of water stacking into chaotic peaks before racing seaward.
It’s simultaneously beautiful, violent, and mesmerizing.
Related: Hurricane Genevieve Awakens Legendary Novelty Wave in Orange County (Video)
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