A Weekend of Near-Deadly Misses Along the Oregon Coast in Video

Published 11/09/2026 at 4:58 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Garibaldi, Oregon) – It has been a weekend of wild and rousing breakers that have lived up to their promise – and warnings. Unfortunately, the result was perhaps a surprise to too many. Sunday's storm wave warnings created a flood of watchers who also got unlucky at times. Social media was full of some dire near-misses and videos of downright unwise decisions. (Above: Cannon Beach's Fire Department catches large waves right up to the seawall)

Wave warnings continue into today (Monday), but more are coming for the week.

First responder agencies on the Oregon coast don't usually work on weekends, so press releases about who was rescued and where are not even known yet. There may still be more unpleasant news on Monday.

Oregon Coast Beach Connection has collected a few of the videos and some actually get disturbing. For copyright reasons they are only linked to here.

At Oceanside, one of the more eye-rolling videos of this weekend's high waves showed tiny Tunnel Beach under these conditions, taken by Rock 'N Oregon. Oceanside is not a beach you should even be on at all during such wave events – much less wander into the tunnel and onto that strand. Both areas are extremely small and leave no room to run.

Sure enough, there's a group on and around a large rock at the skinnier end of the beach, and the waves are bonkers. At least one person gets trapped. They were able to make it out, says the videographer, but at one point – as he's narrating – he says he has to stop and perhaps assist.

Still shot from video by Chris Keller

In Manzanita, the video that's getting famous around the world is one taken by Chris Keller, where large, angry, foamy waves come darting onto the beach and into a pile of massive logs, picking up at least of them. The wave set reaches one group, and all are able to get away except for one man, who is not only weighed down by water (you can see him struggling) but one of the logs comes extremely close to him.

He was lucky.

At Barview (the north Oregon coast one), a couple got completely soaked, as seen in this montage from Scott Redd. The pair – as well as others – were reportedly a fair ways back from the surf in the parking lot, but a large wave came up far enough to grab them. It even touched on at least a couple of vehicles.

In the early 2000s, the parking lot there was closed during a large wave event but some went past the barricades and parked there anyway. At least one car was ruined by a massive wave.

The photos show various people running around, either from the wave or in an attempt to help.

It wasn't all gloom and doom.

Around Depoe Bay and Lincoln City, resident Tony Valente caught some amazing video. At Lincoln City's SW 32nd access, the waves race in close to the seawall and they start to climb the wheelchair ramp. The waves are spooky but impressive.

At Depoe Bay, he caught the Spouting Horn shooting off, which included a rather amazing double spout at the end.

Cannon Beach Fire District Ocean Safety Division (CBFDOSD) said it is issuing an extreme hazard warning for that part of the Oregon coast throughout the week.

“Powerful ocean surges are traveling unusually high up the beach, reaching areas that visitors may normally consider safe,” the group said. “These surges are have been powerful enough to move massive driftwood logs weighing hundreds of pounds as if they were twigs.”

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Look for more of these warnings and maybe conditions close to this. The coming week will keep up the pace and the force with large waves and a long timing period, said the National Weather Service. Coming Tuesday is another round of 13 to 16-foot waves with a long period between them, which means more sneaker waves. The storms come and go over the week, but it's possible even stronger wave systems may kick in.

“Winds over the waters begin to ramp up early Monday morning as the next frontal system approaches the waters,” NWS said. “ This will result in more wind-driven seas. On Tuesday, another system will bring another round of gale force wind gusts, and an increasing westerly swell will build seas to 13-16 ft at 13-15 seconds. An active pattern continues through the rest of the week with additional rounds of gale force wind gusts.”

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