Rogue Boat Plows Through Surf Spot, Capsizes With Family Of 6

A family of six - two parents, four kids - had a really bad end to a boat outing at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz over the weekend, and while they all made it out alive, their boat did not. Just as the biggest set of waves of the day came through, so did the boat.

According to Darryl “Flea” Virotsko, who shared video to Instagram, it seemed it was just as surprising for the 30-40 surfers in the water as it was for the boaters.

Darryl “Flea” Virotsko

"I saw the boat coming as I was outside dodging a big middle peak set. He zoomed by me and I saw he had his family on the boat. As I watched him drive straight into a big white wash I knew they went down and it was time to paddle In As quickly as possible to help save the family," he wrote on his post.

In the video, the boat comes over. the top of the middle peak set, and then rides down the wave, reaching high speeds as surfers tried to get out of the way.

As he cut across the water, in what looks like an attempt to get around the people, the boat gets blindsided by white wash, which shoved the nose of the boat into the water, causing it to flip.

Darryl “Flea” Virotsko via Instagram

Flea and other surfers all jumped to their boards, and got into the area to rescue the family.

"The dad was freaking out asking about all the kids and there was a language barrier so it was hard to understand. We got there were four kids so we starting yelling around the lineup," he wrote on his post. "All kids got saved. We drifted down towards the Santa Cruz wharf channel. Harbor patrol showed up and we got everyone on board safe."