EXCLUSIVE Deadliest Catch preview: The Wizard swallowed by Super Typhoon Nuri waves
Discovery’s 13-time EMMY Award winning series Deadliest Catch always lives up to its non-hyperbolic title, but this season is even deadlier than usual as the crews battle through hurricane-force winds and waves up to 50 feet courtesy of Super Typhoon Nuri. On Tuesday night’s episode things go from bad to worse for the boats choosing to remain at sea through the storm, and we are extremely excited to share an exclusive, jaw-dropping preview clip of the Wizard and her crew being swamped by two massive waves!
“Holy smokes!” says Captain Keith Colburn in the beginning of the clip as we see footage of a wall of water heading toward the Wizard. “It went from bad weather to serious weather,” he adds before a long series of bleeped out profanity. He warns the crew of a massive wave approaching on the port side just before it crashes over the deck.
Everyone appears to be OK as Keith says, “Wow! Man, my crew is just getting hammered this year. This is crazy weather.” And things were only going to get crazier.
“Yep, one more coming,” Keith warns his crew. “You guys hang on. Hang on.” After the wave crashes over the deck and crew he asks, “Everybody good?” Unfortunately the answer appears to be no. “It got Freddy!” a crew member yells back, in reference to Freddy Maugatai, who can be seen in the clip laying on the deck. (You might have seen that coming base on the title of the clip: “Massive Wave Crushes Freddy.”)
As I mentioned, the Wizard isn’t the only boat braving the high winds and waves of Typhoon Nuri. Discovery tweeted this montage preview clip last week in which you can see multiple crews are seriously earning their paychecks by putting their lives on the line:
Go big, or go home. #DeadliestCatch
https://t.co/We5xEWiwZ2
— Deadliest Catch (@DeadliestCatch) May 8, 2015
(I think that’s Freddy holding his left leg right around the 12-second mark.)
Discovery News reported on the captains braving the weather back in November:
The storm was one of the most intense to ever hit the North Pacific, meteorologists said, and the NWS reported late Friday a gust of 96 miles per hour on Shemya Island in the western Aleutians. The storm, which tracked north through the Pacific Ocean, constituted a meteorological “bomb,” which is a pressure drop of at least 24 millibars in 24 hours.
The Weather Channel said of the storm, “On Saturday morning, U.S. time, the low was analyzed to have a pressure of 924 millibars, which makes it the strongest low-pressure system ever observed in or near Alaska since October 25, 1977, when a 925 millibar pressure reading was recorded on a ship docked at Dutch Harbor, Alaska. This system may also potentially be one of the lowest sea-level barometric pressures ever observed on Earth outside of tropical cyclones and tornadoes.”
Deadliest Catch Executive Producer David Pritikin stated three of the crews were at seas during the storm. “Thankfully the captains and crew were able to avoid the brunt of the storm, but not without experiencing high winds and rough seas,” he said. “Unpredictable moments like these are a part of what makes Deadliest Catch the most authentic show on television.”
Be sure to tune in Tuesday night at 9/8c on Discovery for the all-new episode of Deadliest Catch to discover the fate of Freddy and the rest of the crew members braving the storm!
