(Newser) – Horrified onlookers watched helplessly as a Northern California man was sucked into a tourist-touted "blowhole" on the shores of Maui. David Potts was clowning around close to the geyser-like phenomenon when a sneaker wave knocked him off his feet and he disappeared down the spouting hole. He bobbed to the surface once, then vanished underground. "We all stared for like 30 seconds, and then I realized—he's gone," said a witness. "I felt like I was going to throw up." Maui police have called off a search for the body, AP reports. (Read more blowhole stories.)