In November 2020, a freak wave appeared, lifting a lone buoy off the coast of British Columbia 17.6 meters (58 feet) high.

A few years later, the four-story wall of water was confirmed to be the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded.

Such an extraordinary event is thought to happen only once every 1,300 years. And if the buoy hadn’t been taken for a ride, we might never have known it had occurred.