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The Chinese call it the Silver Dragon, and it is the largest tidal bore (178 KB) in the world. The Guiness Book of Records states, 'at spring tides the wave attains a height of 7.5 m and a speed of 24-27 km/h.' In the twelth and thirteenth centuries, suicidal surfers would ride the bore on small planks of wood, in an attempt to placate the dragon's wrath. It has wreaked havoc in the country side (195 KB), killing many thousands. It was only in 1988 that the Chinese finally permitted strangers on the Qiantang when the dragon roared.
Four years earlier, Stuart Matthews and a team from England, had been refused their request to ride the bore. In September 1988, the Chinese government gave the English team their full blessing, and the scene was set.
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'We saw a ten foot wave out there and that's the small one. Behind that it was fifteen feet and there was an enormous hole. The size of the wave matters in increments of fear, but the most important thing is the safety of the shape of the wave. If the wave's a shape where I can handle it, then I know in my own mind
that I can handle it. If it's just going to crash down (181 KB) like that, then there's no way you could ride it.'
'We feel there are places upstream, where in fact the bore dose lose a bit of it's power, but, we can ride it. Just not here!'
And so, it was left to the morning of the 18th of September, in the Chinese lunar calender, for the team to attempt to placate the dragon. It was an official public holiday, and the banks of the river were lined with a quarter of a million people, who had come to pay homage to the Dragon, just as they had done for centuries.
Once in the water, Stuart was scopped up ferociously by the bore, and engulfed in the Jaws of the Dragon. Against the odds, he managed to stand up and ride the Qiantang bore for eleven seconds, at which point he decided he'd done enough. Then, disaster struck for Fred Larkham, Andy Long and Nick Shipley in the camera boat.
The crew were tossed from the boat, and Nick's camera was ripped from his hands, swallowed up by the Dragon, and his footage was lost. Thanks to the quick reactions of John Biddell, driving the support boat, everyone survived the ordeal in one piece, their pride slightly dented.
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