‘Whoa!’ Diver ducks oncoming boat in narrow escape, Hawaii video shows

A spearfishing trip turned into a moment of terror for diver Christopher Lastra when he surfaced almost directly in front of an oncoming boat in Hawaii, video shows.

In the YouTube video, the 30-year-old Oahu man curses loudly before diving back underwater as the boat roars over him. He surfaces to see the boat speeding away.

“Whoa!” Lastra shouts as he yells and whoops. The boat propeller tore up his swim fin, but Lastra was unhurt.

In text with the video, Lastra says he heard the boat approaching and foolishly decided to surface to check it out. He pushed off the boat to try to avoid the propeller.

“I’m grateful to be alive,” Lastra told HawaiiNewsNow. He took the blame for the near-miss, explaining he decided to dive without a buoy to warn off boaters after having lost his a week earlier.

“Your life flashes before your eyes when you face death, but for me, I was just thinking ‘I’m an idiot,’” Lastra told the station. “I should have had a buoy out here.”

This story was originally published December 12, 2022 at 12:15 PM with the headline "‘Whoa!’ Diver ducks oncoming boat in narrow escape, Hawaii video shows."