Hawaii Jet Ski Accident Results in Surf Photographer’s Broken Back

Incredible footage of almost two dozen jet ski drivers desperately attempting to avoid a monster wave in Hawaii has gone viral in the surf world.

Jet skis carrying surf photographers and support drivers filled the water as the biggest swell of the year hit Oahu’s Outer Reef over the weekend.

The ever-present danger of surf that size was rammed home as the entire pack got caught inside of a wave that had a face of more than 10m.

Each driver scrambled to get over the top but some were too late and were either forced to launch themselves airborne – or turn back and attempt to outrun the wave.

Photographer Ryan Moss broke his back as the jetski he was a passenger on crash-landed.

“The whole morning was absolutely beautiful and insane. I had never seen waves like that on Oahu,” he told Surfline.

“That set came and really caught everyone off guard.

“I just remember feeling weightless and it taking a really long time to come down. I didn’t realise how fast Cam (his driver) sent us over the lip of that thing. There was no handle on the ski, so I couldn’t stand up and hold on and hope my legs would have absorbed some of the impact.

“So, I was just sitting on the back with a death grip on the leather seat. Next thing I know I hear a loud thud. It felt like the ski buckled in half. Along with that, my back sent a shooting pain and tingling feeling from my waist down to my feet. I remember saying, ‘[expletive, expletive, expletive] I’m paralysed.’ I legitimately thought I was.”

The jet ski drivers desperately scramble to get over or away from the monster wave.Source: Supplied

Moss is recovering in a Honolulu hospital with a 50 per cent compression fracture of his L4 vertebrae.

North Shore surfer Mike Latronic was the man on the white jet ski that went launching into orbit and explained how the wave had broken about 50m further over then where it had been breaking all day and was much bigger than any other wave they’d seen.

“We were having so much fun,” he said. “John John Florence was getting barrelled, Kelly Slater was out. But then this big-ass set comes in … we lost the ski, I lost my camera, I was, I don’t know, eight to 10 feet in the air above a frickin’ 20 foot wave … it felt like I was free falling for five, six seconds. I’m just happy to be alive.”

You can see the carnage at the two minute mark of the video below.