Rumor is there were surfers in the water so he couldn't go south like he planned which forced the U turn to try to outrun the breaking swell.

The inlet is not ideal but here is a 50 turbine NT cat going out out on a regular day (2:33 mark is going under the fixed bridge, out the inlet)

when the tide is going out these inlets get nasty, I agree the route south may have been the option to get below the inlet current. Its easy to armchair this one but you cant see what he saw at that moment.

She seemed to be listing to port over those first waves!! I think they had problems!!

FWIW thats my local inlet. Boynton Beach Inlet sucks on good days... Coincidentally, I went to breakfast on the beach that day and the surfing conditions were amazing. The waves were breaking close to 100+ yards offshore and they were 10 footers, very rare for us.

The Boynton inlet has really really fast current on days that the water is calm outside. Not defending this dude, but there is a break wall, he is about 50 yards past it.

Cant tell you how many times I came thru there and there were either 1. Dude and his entire family on a 18 foot jon boat with a 15 HP outboard going 6 knots or 2. Ten Jet skis jumping wake and creating a slow-down bottleneck situation. (keep in mind, its only 30 feet wide so you can-not plausibly pass without being an A-hole, so in the meantime, the current can easily push you into the wall)

That never happens..........oh wait:

BTW- Billy Joel has a house a few hundred feet north of the Inlet, he should stop by for some new song material!

Lake Mead! Classic... Guy busting a U in those swells had to have been having problems. If there was something up ahead that he couldn't pass I think I would have held steady bow pointed forward until it was clear to pass. Thats just my opinion but I wasn't there. I hate that for him and his boat. Hopefully the damage was minimal.

Directly ahead of him were surfers....he saw them last second, pulled the u and should have put it to the pins....could have happened to anyone.