Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 30, 2013 - 08:39am PT
Kinda on topic, almost need a belay to surf this wave
Enormous wave dwarfs surfer Garrett McNamara along coast of Portugal
By Natalia Jimenez, NBC News
Surfer Garrett McNamara catches what could be the largest wave ever surfed, off the coast of Nazare, Portugal, on Jan. 29. The estimated 100-foot wave, if confirmed, would beat the current world record of 78 feet, which McNamara has held since 2011. According to SurferToday.com:
Garrett McNamara traveled from Hawaii and hit the water with Kealii Mamala - with whom he surfed waves generated by glacier blocks in Alaska - Kamaki Worthington and Hugo Vau, as their support team on the jet ski. The conditions in Nazaré were heavenly perfect. Light southern winds and strong swell coming from northwest and hitting the local canyon as it should.
Judges with Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards will work to determine the actual size of the wave.
McNamara's surfing skills developed when his family moved to Hawaii from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, when he was 11 years old. As a professional big wave surfer, he regularly seeks out the largest waves in the world.
Going over he falls on one of these would hold you down under the water for a long time, assuming the impact didn't kill you you might go unconscious. I would carry a pony bottle strapped to my leg if I had to surf that wave, but I am a pussy.
Sorry .... that I'm so stupid. What's a pony bottle?
Werner, you know the poster who goes by Da Dweeb? And all those wonderful happy fun ponies he posts pictures of? Where do you think he gets them?
From a pony bottle, of course.
Just imagine being crushed to death by a million tonnes of surging water. Wouldn't you want to be able to pull the cork on the magic pony bottle and have hundreds of rainbow-colored ponies whisk you to safety?
That's huge, for sure. Respect for the surfer and the ocean.
While XXL contest organizers try and figure out the actual size, they are faced with the dilemma"how do you measure a wave that doesn't break?"
Worthy OT. I know these elite big wave riders do breath training. A local I met while underwater rock running at Waimea Beach last summer who told me Ken Bradshaw could hold his breath for 5 minutes in a pool.
I remember as a little kid at Santa Monica getting over my fear of bigger waves - learning to swim through them and all that. It was a good feeling. I dreamed about them for years - big towering walls of water that were going to get ya! It was funny, my mom would be tanning on the beach and have no clue what I was doing out there......kind of like the climbing later.
This is unreal, the biggest wave I've ever been on was 8ft (12-15 ft face) and I was pretty sure it was a tsunami and I was never gonna get to touch land again. It was terrible. I can't even imagine what that would have felt like!
I bet even if he had a pony bottle the power of the wave would prevent him from grabbing it and getting it to his mouth. The airbags that some surfers use seems like a good idea, I wonder if he had one of those?
The thing that impresses me is that as he is coming down the wave, it looks like he is not moving all that fast. I am guessing that the wave is so large, and it's pulling in so much water, he is fighting a ton of resistance.
I'm more impressed when they don't use those cute little tugboat things.
Surf much?
You ever seen anyone paddle into anything 60 foot plus? no? because you can't.
It's impossible to generate enough speed to catch the wave.
Amazing feat. Thing about the ocean is, you don't get to stand on top of it and think about it. You either are there at the right time and send it, or not.
rlf, yeah, he didn't look to be going so fast but he was sure hitting a lot
of bumps it seemed to me. The speed thing is, as you implied, relative.
If you go to the airport and watch the jets landing the 747's seem to be
going a lot slower although they're actually going faster than the smaller
jets.
It's true. The appearance or rather the experience of height out in the water is so incredibly different than what we have on the rock. It is ridiculous how different.
But because the stuff is moving and falling, it is ever so much more intimidating "per foot".
Often the rides are rather simplistic by necessity-- a run for the shoulder basically---and by the stark horror and scale of the situation. People often overlook what is involved however in merely being in the lineup when it is this big. It is insanely grim at times. Getting caught inside is one's greatest fear, that and going over the falls on the takeoff--- easy to do in windy choppy paddle-ins.
The inflatable vests are changing how we think about all this though. Pros are training with experts to hold their breath for unheard of lengths of time. The jet skis are essential in mitigating the rescue issues that really are now part of the sport at this size.
With so much of this "solved" shall we say, people are finding surf all over the globe that had been completely ignored. And as you can see, the stuff is really horrifying.
For folks who have never tried surfing or experienced the power of waves - it is inconceivable what a wipe-out on a 20 foot wave is like, let alone a thing like that.
I grew up by the beach, boogie boarding or surfing every day. Some injuries I experienced and size of waves: 2 foot wave breaking in 2 feet of water, I nosedived and hitting the bottom twisted my spine so much the wings of my vertebrae were poking up through the skin pulled into the close-out barrel of an 8-10 foot wave with thick lip, breaking in ~10 feet of water, I smashed the bottom with my face, maybe broke my nose, blood shooting everywhere on my chest and shoulders by the time I popped to the surface
It is routine for surfboards to get snapped in half by waves ~6 feet or more if the lip pitches out and hits the middle of the board before the surfer can duck dive.
If there's only a 6-10 foot wall of whitewater in front of you, and you can't dive deeply enough to get under it, your body tumbles around like a rag doll in a washing machine. That's getting off easy though if you don't hit anything except water. If you hit something underwater, it's the difference between taking a 20-foot lead fall on an overhanging face versus decking from 20 feet.
If you try to dive under such a wave just as it's breaking, and get sucked back by the vortex of water pulling over the top ("going over the falls") it's a much worse effect. Not so bad if the water is deep and you don't hit anything, but if it's shallow, it's like a groundfall in climbing but with a huge amount of force beyond gravity driving you into the ground.
All that said, it is strange how much more or less powerful waves of similar height can be, based on other factors like how thick the lip is (the part that pitches over on top), or how fast the wave is moving, or whether it hits you like a hard slap in the face versus a mushy foam.
All said, these guys surfing waves bigger than 20 feet are definitely putting their lives on the line similar to a free solo climber, except they must go with the speed dictated by the waves and no taking rest breaks and no backing off after you commit. Maybe it's more similar to speed simul climbing with minimal pro, because you have a chance of surviving 80-100 feet falls versus free solo falling a thousand feet to the ground where you're gonnna die no matter what.
i was in some HUGE water on FOLSOM lake one time, in my 12' al fishing boat (ol swampy) with a six horse wizard on the back.. I would be just like a surf board at times skitering down the wave into a valley of nothing but water. SOMEHOW, i managed to get it back ontop of a wave and rode it all the way to the marina break.. A guy setting on the doc fishing said that was one of the best boat handling jobs he had seen.. I acted all calm and said,, yeah,, no prob if ya know what yur doin..Then i went up to my rig to pry the piece of the seat outta my ass from whence it had become permanently clenched ! Those were only eight to ten foot swells lol!
I don't surf, never have, but thought the video was pretty damn awesome. I tried to show it to my boss who is a surfer or grew up surfing and he wasn't impressed because of the tow in and the straps, he called it wakeboarding. Glad to know that climbing isn't the only sport with ridiculous ethics battles.
I think it is worth noting that Praia do Norte where the wave was surfed is actually on the island of Faial in the Azores about 1000 miles west of the coast of Portugal. It is a pretty cool place with an active volcano just down the road. It is also a very popular place for sailors from around the world to harbor.
I climbed with a lot of surfers, been a body surfer all my life. Saw some big waves break right next to me. Got held down by some 10 foot waves in India, so I can at least in a small way relate.
I have nothing but complete respect for these guys, and the bond between the jet ski guy and the surfer reminds me of some great partners, who I feel closer to than any friend I've meet on the horizontal.
I still want to see Al dude take that wave without a ski. LOL
try mavericks sometime. 1/2 second pop up then over.
aqua violence. 45 sec hold down. carry big rocks underwater for training.
who here wants to dish kelly slater?
i surfed a 35 footer at mavericks in my dagger crosfire kayak with slater in an RPM, did the paddle in myself since yaks are faster than boards, did i make newsweek?
hell no. some jack-azz from portugal makes it but not me.
my friend rick shafaer from moss landing has the pics.
he built a submarine in his back yard for inspecing the nuke plant run off incog-nito.
I recently read a really good book called Chasing Ghosts. As a person that has only body surfed in 5-6 ft. waves off the coast of Peru, (finding that to be quite scary) and never spent that much time in the ocean, the book was very entertaining and educational. Those guys chasing after the big waves are every bit as determined, focused and nuts as the most crazed alpinist.
I was under the impression (again I know almost nothing about surfing) that the next step in the evolution of extreme surfing was paddling into these monsters. I read that many of the purists were adamently against tow-in, until they started hearing about the size of the waves getting surfed using this technique. However, more recently people were starting to paddle into the really big ones. What is the current thought amongst the elite surfers in regards to tow-in.
It also occurred to me that some of the attitude that we have as rockclimbers in terms of ethics probably originated in the CA surfing community.
yeah i've almost had my left arm dislocated wiping out on about a 10-12 footer. I've probably also come close to being knocked out a few times on similar size waves.
I read that many of the purists were adamently against tow-in, until they started hearing about the size of the waves getting surfed using this technique. However, more recently people were starting to paddle into the really big ones.
it all depends on the break and the dynamics of it. some can be paddled into, some not.
You can get seriously f**ked up on a double overhead. If you fell off of a late take off on anything over 40'...getting whacked is a distinct possibility. On a 100'er? You're going to die, if you're lucky.
Cortes bank is an underwater island that comes within a few feet of the surface. It can hold up in the biggest swells. Potential for massive waves however it is 100 miles out so logistics are problematic. There is some good videos in the link below
Cortez Bank was the main focus of the book I read, that I referenced upthread. Greg Long was a main character in the book, that was largely about the discovery of Cortez Bank as a big wave surfing destination. I don't remember Garrett's name coming up in the book.
If you consider how few surfers can handle waves that big and match it up with the hand full of the top climbers soloing hard stuff I think the man factor would be about equal (off the charts)
I think a big difference between solo climbing and big wave riding is the odds are much more in your favor of surviving a fall on a wave than on a solo climb ( surely dependant on how high up the route you are). . Also it doesn't take uber big surf to kill you, I was at Pascuals' in mainland mex, a very heavy beachbreak , and a kid was killed with a broken neck on the very shallow sandbar. Wedge in newport takes people out as well. not to forget pipe as well.
the speed of the waves has a lot to do with the use of tow-ins
basically the surfer has to "phase lock" with the wave, that is, be moving at roughly the wave velocity, then manage the riding down a moving hill...
for small waves, say 3m water depth and 10 m wave length, the wave speed is something like 3 m/s
(7 miles/hr) my guess is that you can sprint that fast to catch the wave
for a 15 m depth and what, 100 m wave length? the wave speed is 10 m/s, or 22 mph... difficult to get to those speeds without assistance...
Peahi was a little better than 60' that day.
Greg Huglin and I were shooting 35mm movie film from the cliff.
Here's what greg had to say about that shot,""Hey Olaf,
Yup this amazing shot keeps on popping up and I think it's the most widely watched shot online.
It was shot by Pete Fuzard in Super18 from the helo.
I was shooting from the spot you built me and ran thru twenty 400' film mags (80 minutes) that day, the most I ever shot in one day, ever.
I begged Pete to let me do the helo shooting since I had already done almost 200 hours in the past but he was the director and it was his call.
It was Pete's very first time of using the Tyler Mount in a helo and he friggin nailed it!
The shot of Parsons is jaw dropping and will live as one of the best ever.
That was an amazing day we all had courtesy of the Brazilians.
I just ran into Ricardo Fonseca, the Brazilian producer of that event here in Santa Barbara.
He was visiting a rich Brazilian surfer who is a mutual acquaintance and Ricardo came over to my house and visited.
He still has a surfing TV show in Brazil.
Hows the Maui life for you?
Cheers,
Greg
Arguably, the hardest part of riding a wave is the takeoff, the drop.
With tow ins that is eliminated but the challenge comes in being in the right spot, with the right speed when the wave finally does break and navigating all that water and power. Oh, and surviving.
I have towed in once, on waves the size of one of the bumps on these XXL waves.
We were not towing because it was too big to paddle into but rather, the wave would not allow an easy entry before it broke.
So there's no take off, but as the wave builds and you get down the face, the feeling of "my god, what have I done" comes over you. It was fun, not much consequence.
Big props for anyone riding large waves in whatever style and whether the wave is mushy or barrelling. It's all big, all powerful, and could be deadly.
That guy GMac has been charging the heaviest and biggest waves for years and years now. He's gnarly.
That being said, I think the modern paddle in big wave movement is awesomer.
Hawaiians always ask if i am related to him... not to my knowledge but maybe way back. wish i could charge big waves like that, but BIG OB is plenty big for me.
2 foot wave breaking in 2 feet of water, I nosedived and hitting the bottom twisted my spine so much the wings of my vertebrae were poking up through the skin
Let us know!