A recent visitor to Cape Spear learned an important lesson about the power of nature after narrowly avoiding being swept out to sea.

The woman, who is lucky to be alive, had climbed down over the rocks at North America’s most easterly point, past fences and warning signs, to take in the huge waves crashing onto the coastline.

Darrell Churchill had some family members visiting from the mainland and decided to bring them to Cape Spear to view the powerful surf rolling in.

He was recording the spectacle when he spotted the woman down on the rocks, close to the rolling waves.

A huge wave came down on top of the woman and swept her off her feet. “That was quite shocking,” says Churchill who feared he had just witnessed the worst. Moments later he saw her helmet pop back up out of the water and she managed to climb up over the rocks to the shore.

The woman retrieved her bicycle and passed along by Churchill and his companions who wanted to make sure she was okay.

He says she was wet, had a cut on her knee, her pants were torn, and she appeared to be in shock. She made a self-deprecating remark about young people thinking they’re invincible, says Churchill who observed, she “came close to challenging that.”