Mother Nature, and specifically the ocean, has a habit of reminding people who’s boss. And in China, apparently, it doesn’t even need a beach.
An alarming video circulating on Instagram shows a fisherman getting absolutely swallowed by a raging surge on the Qiantang River. The man is fishing when a wall of churning water bears down. Within moments, the tidal bore engulfs him, turning what appeared to be an ordinary outing into something resembling a disaster movie.
Check out the video, linked here, and below.
The video provides no date or precise location along the river. There’s also no confirmed information about whether the fisherman was injured. What it does show, though, is the astonishing violence of a natural phenomenon known as the “Silver Dragon.”
The Qiantang River, which winds through eastern China before emptying into Hangzhou Bay, boasts the world’s largest tidal bore. It happens when the incoming ocean tide funnels into a narrowing, shallow estuary, piling up into a wave that barrels upstream against the river’s current.
Related: Watch: 130-feet Wide River Wave Just Erupted in Cabo
And this isn’t some ankle-high novelty. According to Guinness World Records, the bore can reach an extraordinary 30 feet and charge upstream at speeds approaching 25 mph (40 km/h). Essentially, it’s an enormous moving wall of water with very little interest in what’s standing in its way.
Naturally, surfers have tried to ride it.
In 2010, Jamie Sterling, Mikala Jones, Robert “Wingnut” Weaver, and Mary Osborne tackled the Qiantang bore. A few years later, Jamie O’Brien won the 2014 Red Bull Qiantang Shoot Out, a contest held on the muddy, unpredictable river wave.
“It’s definitely an obstacle course,” O’Brien told NPR, describing boats, piers, and concrete pilings scattered along the route. Unlike an ocean wave, the Silver Dragon can deliver rides lasting minutes rather than seconds.
But the fisherman in this video wasn’t chasing a record-setting ride. He appears to have found himself in the path of a wave that doesn’t take no for an answer.
Related: Watch: Massive River Wave Sweeps Surfer Out to Sea in Portugal
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