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“Hogan, a seasoned triathlete, was body surfing with his daughters when a wave slammed him face down into a sand bar. “

The entire Outer Banks Island(s) are one big shifting sandbar sticking out into the Atlantic ocean. At high tide and under certain conditions the waves only break right on the beach. For example, at tide changes - either low or high - the waves come up to the beach and rise up quickly while preparing to break. The water from the previous wave rushes down the beach and washes the bottom out of the wave your on. These conditions leave you suspended 4 to 12 feet in the air, staring down at sand with only a few inches of water covering it. When you find yourself staring at rapidly receding water at the crest of a wave and staring at sand it’s to late. You are going to get slammed.

People regularly break their necks because they try to boogie board or body surf on steeply inclined beaches during high or low tide changes at the wrong section of beach because of its pitch. The waves rise and break right on the beach. You can’t ride that kind of wave! You are gambling with your life. I see people do it all the time. They go in head first, the wave collapses underneath them, there head hits the beach and the wave pushes there body over top of themselves and breaks their neck. Mr Hogan was lucky, very lucky.

These conditions may not be present when you enter the water but can arise while you’re out in the water. You are better of returning to the beach by floating on your back with your feet first when it’s rough like the video at the link shows. I’ve also seen debris in the water from recent storm damage that lacerate and/or knock people out.

Getting slammed usually occurs on “steep” beaches as opposed to sandy beaches that gradually recesses into the water. Winds blowing into the face of the wave can make it worse.

People have no idea about the power of moving water.

I’ve been out in the water at the OBX when the most dangerous thing I could do was to attempt to get back to the beach. The water was deep right at the shore breakers and just beyond. If you timed your entry wrong you were going to be raised up in the wave, suspend in the air at the crest of the wave and slammed onto the beach. The only thing you can do is curl into a tight ball and hold it as tight as you can, try not to land on your head, pray you don’t break your neck or get knocked out and role in with it. Don’t forget to take a deep breath it may be your last ( for a while ).

The waves are often like that during normal weather at the Outer Banks. When the waters are rough its deadly.

Wrightsville Beach may be on a barrier island but it’s not part of the Outer Banks. Wrightsville is a sort of fashionable and fairly expensive beach, nice old business district dating to the old days of the Lumina Pavilion, filled now with great restaurants and popular music venues. Houses and condos there are among the most expensive outside of private islands on the entire NC coast. It’s just across the ICW from Wilmington, a beautiful old Spanish moss-draped historic city filled with magnolias, oleanders, palmettos and azaleas, with a booming restaurant and microbrew scened. The ocean there is not known for being particularly rough, in fact Wrightsville is known for unusually blue, clear water, unusual on the east coast where waves typically churn up sand making the surf appear green and somewhat murky. The weather pattern has been odd in the entire state since early July, with very heavy rains and flooding, lower than normal temperatures and thunderstorms. It feels like a tropical system is just offshore, and surf conditions reflect that as well although there is not exactly a tropical system offshore. It’s an unusual summer for us here in NC. Very wet, flooding, there were people requiring rescue from submerged cars again last night, with heavy localized rains continuing through at least Thursday. So, whatever’s going on, it appears that surf will continue to be rough even in locales not known for that.