Watch: Drone video shows giant wave swallowing up swimmers on Mexican beach
The nearly 2 1/2-minute video shows walls of angry surf crashing onto the sandy shoreline of Icacos Beach, giving three swimmers quite the ride as they bobbed up and down – and sometimes disappeared beneath – the swells.
Swimmers in Mexico tossed by powerful waves after Tropical Storm Alvin neared western Mexico
Drone video shows walls of ocean water crashing onto the sandy shoreline of Icacos Beach, giving three swimmers quite the ride as they bobbed up and down – and sometimes disappeared beneath – the swells.
ACAPULCO, Mexico – A harrowing scene unfolded along a Mexico beach Sunday as drone footage captured swimmers becoming swamped by a huge wave in the wake of Tropical Storm Alvin.
The nearly 2 1/2-minute video shows walls of angry surf crashing onto the sandy shoreline of Icacos Beach, giving three swimmers quite the ride as they bobbed up and down – and sometimes disappeared beneath – the swells. At about the 1:13 mark, the trio are pushed under as a massive swell comes ashore, with surf covering the entire sandy beach.
A massive wave crashes ashore on a beach in Acapulco, Mexico on June 1, 2025 in the wake of Tropical Storm Alvin.
(@adolfokahan via Storyful / FOX Weather)
"A group of people swam despite warnings and were swept up by the swell," Adolfo Kahan Farco, who recorded the video, told Storyful. While there is no official word on their fate, Farco told Storyful it appeared they escaped unharmed.
The incident occurred after Tropical Storm Alvin, the first named storm of the eastern Pacific Ocean hurricane season, produced giant swells off the coast of southwest Mexico, thanks to peak wind speeds of 60 mph last Thursday.
Two of the three swimmers can barely be seen in the large waves.
(@adolfokahan via Storyful / FOX Weather)
By Saturday morning, peak winds dropped to 35 mph as Alvin dissipated into a post-tropical cyclone.
But the National Weather Service had warned that the swells left from Alvin would continue to create potentially dangerous surf and rip current conditions along the coasts of west-central Mexico and southern Baja California through the weekend.