INTRODUCTION
<i>Weather maps look like battle charts, especially around here. When a Big One is
coming, the forecasters huddle around a drawing of the Pacific Ocean filled with
squiggly lines and circles and arrows while Chief in Command Sean Collins plots the
course of attack. "It'll hit Hawaii first," he pounds his fist. "We need backup PWC in case
Jaws gets too out of control. And we need to be ready to double back at Maverick's and
quickly jet down to Todos if the winds stay good." He looks around, steely-eyed. "Alright,
men -- break!"</i>
***
Nothing captures a surfer's imagination more than a big swell. When LOLA is a swath of
reds and purples, when the buoys are maxing out at 20 feet, 20 seconds, when your local
little beachbreak is whitewater to the horizon -- you're jolted out of your everyday, fun
(small, crowded, mushy, etc) surfing existence and forced to look at your stretch of coast
in a whole new way. It's temporarily rearranged, a completely new ocean. Time to
explore.
It could mean loading up the car for a pre-dawn drive to Rincon or Swami's or grabbing
your dusty 7'6" and paddling out at maxing Black's. (Or heading around the corner to
Makaha or up to the nooks and pointbreaks of New England, depending on where you
live.) You don't have to be a pro surfer or a he-man big-wave guy with frequent flyer
miles and PWC to get the sense of <i>urgency</i> that comes with a big swell.
I remember standing with some buddies in a parking lot in Ocean Beach, San Francisco
on October 28th, 1999 gawking at the rows of whitewater to the Potato Patch. (And
believe me, there were some <i>perfect</i> 80-foot a-frames out there.) Someone was
listening to one of those little weather cube radio thingies that everyone used to have and
the computerized voice coming from NOAA was sing-songing out the Northern Oregon
buoys; when he got to like Point Arena or somewhere, the voice said "53 feet at 17
seconds" and the whole parking lot started hooting. At a little weather cube, sure, but we
were also aware that something very special was happening that day. The ocean told us
so.
As you'll see later on in this feature, that day came to be known as the "Biggest California
Ever", where Peter Mel redefines California's unridden realm on the cover of
<i>Surfing</i> magazine on a giant, frothy Mav's monster. The computerized voice on
the weather box translated to brontosaurus-size surf with Mel, Flea and Skindog
swooping and pulling into tubes that most of us still can't imagine. (Video games aren't
<i>that</i> good -- yet.)
But there is danger in superlatives. What was the "Biggest California Ever" became "100foot Maverick's" a couple years later. Which is partly why we organized these 20 Best
Swells by date. We were going to rank them from most important to least important, but
quickly realized that was impossible. Not only would it cause much debate -- depending
almost entirely where the surfer was that day -- they're also completely interdependent on
each other.
Makua Rothman couldn't have caught his XXL winner at Jaws in '02 if Laird and the
boys hadn't started pulling into 60-footers on Thanksgiving, '95. And the tow in pioneers
wouldn't have gone anywhere if it wasn't for guys like Brock Little who paddled into the
smoker in the '90 Eddie at Waimea but said his board "couldn't keep up with the swell."
Hell, for that matter, maybe we wouldn't even be riding Waimea if it weren't for Greg
Noll and Pat Curren and all the other early North Shore Quonset Hut dwellers.
Best? Bigger? Biggest? We'll leave the squabbling for those with calipers and judging
panels. One thing's for sure, though. We do know the 21st Best Swell Since 1985: the
next one.
<i>(*Due to space limitations, this list only covers swells which affected the United
States. An international list would look somewhat different.)</i>
DECEMBER 9TH, 1986: THE BILLBONG PRO
Only sketchy data is available on this watershed swell. The day before, December 8th,
1986, started out small and glassy on the North Shore. Rocky Point was four-foot and
fun. By the afternoon, guys were riding solid 15-foot Sunset Beach, with, by all accounts,
an absolutely flawless west/northwest swell direction. The swell came up so fast that
waves were leapfrogging other waves and creating weird, swirling double-ups on the
inside. Water rushed over Kam Highway that night, and the morning saw two close out
sets at Waimea Bay before 9am. It was sunny and dead glassy all day.
Billabong Pro, '86. December 9th was far and away the biggest surf ever confronted by
the world tour at that point in its history. Waimea Bay was solid 25 feet with closeout
sets, and the best surfers in the world were confronted with very real, man-sized surf.
After watching fellow Aussie Rob Bain get swatted around the whole bay by a 10-wave
close-out set, Bryce Ellis and Gary Green decide to sit this one out. (Afterwards, Green
admits, "I felt like a bit of a wimp. I should've gone out.") Four-time world champ Mark
Richards comes out of retirement and surfs without a mistake in two heats, winning the
event the next day at 15-foot Sunset Beach.
Ken Bradshaw paddled to Outer Log Cabins 'cause he wasn't in the contest, and he and
Trevor Siftpon dropped into some bombs. Suddenly everyone saw there was a wave
beyond Rockpile. And despite the fact that the El Nino of '83 generated some huge waves
in Hawaii, it wasn't until this year that big wave surfing is totally reenergized and guys
start actually <i>surfing</i> big waves more than just <i>surviving</i> 'em.
FEBRUARY 2ND, 1987: TOM CURREN COMES TO TODOS SANTOS
A good-looking low slid off Siberia and into the ocean in late January '87. From there the
system tracked eastward across the West Pacific and over the Dateline while steadily
gaining size and strength. By the time the storm passed under the Aleutians it had an earpopping central pressure of 956mb and covered a large part of the east half of the ocean
with sustained 40-50kt winds. Those winds generated the major WNW(280-300+) swell
that rocked the entire West Coast from Washington through Baja and beyond during the
first week on February '87. California had great, summer-like weather to go along with
the big winter waves.
Even though Todos Santos had been unveiled the year before on another <i>Surfing</a>
mag trip with Mike Parsons, it wasn't until Tom Curren paddled out -- and ripped -- solid
20-foot surf off the coast Baja that the rest of the big wave universe stood up and took
notice. Maybe Waimea wasn't the only big wave spot in the world?
As Dave Parmenter wrote in the <i>Surfing</i> mag feature, "I believe surfing is
entering a grassroots revival of REAL surfing. The big-wave revival is the cornerstone of
this movement."
Surfline's Dave Gilovich (who still calls this the "best surf trip of my life"), remembers:
"The waves built all morning; peaked mid day. By 2pm, the tide dropped and the wind
switched offshore. The boat drivers, who did not want to motor in against the wind,
called for everyone to come in. Everyone got back on the boat, ready to leave, then
Curren jumped off and paddled back out, alone. He rode perfect, offshore barrels by
himself for an hour and a half with the boat driver screaming at him in Spanish from the
channel."
It wasn't all fun and games, though. On this same day a charter fishing boat from San
Diego called the "Fish 'N Fool" pulled up to a well known fishing spot -- Ben Rock -located just off San Quintin in Northern Baja, about 100 miles south of Todos Santos
Island. The water over the rock is very shallow to a depth of about 10 feet, so it is very
good for fishing, but can also see breaking waves.
As the boat pulled up to the rock around dawn on this day, the crew noticed a couple
large breaking waves from a distance, but the waves seemed fairly calm once they got
closer. They didn't realize that the swell was actually just beginning to show and would
be building strongly throughout the morning. The boat anchored just over the rock to
begin fishing, and within a half hour, massive 20 foot+ sets began to show and one wave
broke over the entire boat and the rock. The boat capsized and a few people died.
The United States NTSB (National Transportation and Safety Board) investigated the
incident. The final NTSB conclusion was that it was a "freak" rogue wave that came out
of nowhere to create the accident.
(with Chris Borg and Sean Collins)
JANUARY 21ST, 1990: BROCK LITTLE'S 30-FOOTER
A monster winter cyclone with a vacuumous 945mb core took over the middle of the
ocean in mid-January '90. This classic storm created a fetch of 50 knot-plus winds that
stretched over three time zones.
It made a few waves too.
Hawaii was the first spot to get hammered by the massive WNW swell, which closed out
most of the islands except for Waimea Bay. (Jaws, on Maui was yet to be on the bigwave radar, but would've been giant as well.)
Waimea was big enough to run the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau. Keone
Downing, (organizer George Downing's son) won the event by surfing flawlessly, but
2nd place finisher Brock Little made history by dropping in to what many people
considered a 30-foot Hawaiian scale wave. He made it halfway down the face and then
the sheer speed of the swell outran him and he got swatted. Then the Bay closed out.
The swell steamrolled towards the Mainland just in time for Flame to do his first aerial
reconnaissance over Cortes Bank with pilot Mike Castillo; he shot a wave estimated at 80
feet and started planning to return. Two days later, California's pointbreaks lit up and
stayed lit for three days. Brock Little flies over from Hawaii, marking one of the first
times a big wave rider actually leaves the Islands for big surf and Mike Parsons rides a
wave at Todos Santos on an 8'4" that is considered to be the biggest wave ever ridden on
the West Coast.
(with Chris Borg)
OCTOBER 31ST, 1991: THE HALLOWEEN SWELL
A major cold-blooded extratropical storm developed a few hundred miles east of Nova
Scotia on October 28th, '91. It completely swallowed the warm blooded Hurricane Grace
as she approached from the SE on the 29th. The beast thrived on the tropical warmth and
moisture Grace provided in the lower levels of the atmosphere and reached its maximum
intensity of 972mb with sustained winds of 60 knots early on the 30th. Not only did we
have a hurricane and a major extratropical, frontal type low now combined into one big
mother now -- but there was also a 1043mb high over Canada. The pressure gradient in
between produced some the strongest winds and highest seas ever recorded up and down
the East Coast at the same time. The Georges Bank buoy topped the pack with seas near
40' with wind gusts of 65kt.
The so-called "Perfect Storm" -- which inspired Sebastian Unger's book -- sent huge surf
pretty much everywhere from Maine through the Caribbean. Most spots, of course,
couldn't handle the size. Tres Palmas in Puerto Rico could. Tres had 30-foot faces for
three days from the tempest that sunk the <i>Andrea Gail</i>.
Another exception was Outer RC's in Satellite Beach, Florida where Bill Hartley, Charlie
Kuhn, Matt Kechele, Paul Reinke, Scott Bouchard, Aaron Smith and David Glasser
(sorry if we forgot anyone) surfed some of the largest surf ever seen on the East Coast on
Halloween Day. Scott Bouchard was actually towed into some bombs by Adam
Chatterhoff, predating the tow-in revolution by a decade. "It was nice to get up and riding
before the waves got too steep," Scott remarked afterward.
Florida experienced days of well overhead surf, but it wasn't all fun in the sun. The high
wind, storm surge, and large surf produced by the Perfect Storm destroyed hundreds of
homes, businesses, piers, sea walls, telephone poles -- you name it. Flooding was a major
problem too -- even President Bush's pad in Kennebunkport, Maine suffered extensive
damage.
Mother Nature's Perfect Storm made its swan song on November the 1st. It moved south
over the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream and regained tropical characteristics. It
actually became a hurricane again briefly, but the Hurricane Center decided not to create
any mass hysteria by naming the storm that had done so much damage already. A mess it
was, but the Halloween Swell at RC's is something that has earned itself a leading role in
East Coast surfing history.
(with Mark Willis)
MID-DECEMBER 1994: MARK FOO DIES AT MAVERICK'S
On December 19th, a massive storm bullied its way through a weakening mid-Pac highpressure system, paving the way for huge west coast swell. This was the biggest of five
big storms that generated the mid-December two-week run of huge surf at Maverick's. A
ridge of high pressure blanketed the mainland for epic weather -- clear, cool and offshore.
Surfline predicted the evolving event, alerting the traveling band of surfers doing the
"triple" at the time: riding big North Pacific swells as they migrated from Hawaii (Jaws is
unveiled to the surfing community during these swells) to Northern California and
catching the tail end at Todos Santos off Northern Baja. As the storm's powerful swath of
winds took over the Eastern Pacific aiming their fury at California, Surfline alerted
Hawaiian big wave surfers Ken Bradshaw and Mark Foo -- who immediately set out to
ride Maverick's.
December 23rd came at the end of a solid week of giant, clean surf in Northern
California. Jay Moriarity already had his famous freefall wipeout on the 19th. Peter Mel,
Evan Slater, Jeff Clark, Grant Washburn and the rest of the Maverick's regulars were
almost relaxed after riding days and days of huge, perfect surf. Of course no one
could've known this would turn out to be the last giant swell for one of the world's
greatest big wave surfers: Mark Foo.
On December 23, 1994, Mark Foo drowned at Maverick's. Mike Parsons and Brock Little
were also out that day. The story goes that Foo caught the first wave of the set. Brock the
second, and Parsons rode the third -- eating it on the takeoff. Underwater, Parsons
bumped someone, who he thought at the time was Brock. Later, when they were boating
out, Evan Slater saw Foo's board floating strangely inside-- upon closer examination they
discovered Foo -- still attached to his board.
Besides the major loss of Mark Foo to the surfing community, this was a major wake up
call to the dangers of big wave surfing -- no matter how skilled the rider. (Exactly one
year later to the day, Donnie Solomon died surfing Waimea Bay.)
(with Charlie Fox)
JUNE 1995: THE 10,000-MILE SWELL
A solid storm track developed during the last week in May 1995 deep in the Indian Ocean
between South Africa and Antarctica. The resulting storm peaked in the Southern Indian
Ocean, before weakening a bit, reorganizing, and then peaking again at the beginning of
June below Australia. After weakening again the storm reorganized into a huge quasi
stationary extra-tropical storm just east of New Zealand in the South Pacific. Strong high
pressure systems over New Zealand and near South America literally locked this storm in
place for a few days as it churned out 50 knot winds and 40 foot+ waves.
The life of this storm from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean was incredible. The
Quiksilver Pro at G-Land in Indonesia enjoyed classic 8-15 foot surf, for the first ever
remote ASP World Tour event designed to score the best surf anywhere in the world.
After the storm regenerated in the South Pacific, the consistency and duration of the wind
speeds in the storm off New Zealand sprayed huge waves everywhere throughout the
Pacific. Hawaii got thumped with one of the biggest south swells ever recorded with solid
25-foot waves (faces) at Outside Castles in Waikiki. The Pacific West Coast including
California and Mexico also enjoyed solid double overhead + waves. I even monitored a
solid 6-foot deep-water swell hitting the buoys all the way up in Alaska. (This inspired
Mike Stewart's swell-chasing journey the following year.) The only bad news was that
this was the only significant Southern Hemisphere swell Hawaii and California received
during the entire summer of 1995, which goes down in Surfline archives as one of the
worse California seasons ever. (The East Coast, meanwhile, was going off. See Felix
swell.)
Afterwards, tracing the track of this storm, the generated waves traveled some 10,000
miles from the southern Indian Ocean below Africa and Madagascar, to a point halfway
around the globe off Alaska. The 10,000-mile swell. Stock up on those frequent flyer
miles now.
(with Sean Collins)
MID-AUGUST, 1995: HURRICANE FELIX
Thought the recent '04 season was active? It was, but not as active as '95. The '95
hurricane season mustered up 19 named storms with 11 of those becoming hurricanes. As
we showed you in Surfline's <a
href=http://store.surfline.com/store/myProducts.cfm?parentcategoryid=5%7CPrints&pro
ductID=247&showDetail=1&categoryID=46|Surfline%20Posters&vendoridtodisplay=0
&filterFor=&collection=5%7CPrints>Hurricanetrak poster</a>, hurricane swell
generation is highly dependent on three main factors: the storm's size, movement, and
winds.
Felix was a case when all of these factors came together in harmony. Felix had a large
wind field especially on its north side, which is the most effective zone in generated East
Coast surf in westward moving storms. Gale force winds extended about 200 miles from
the center. Felix's movement was nearly ideal -- slow and towards us from the 8th-17th
and then it performed a clockwise loop off of Hatteras from the 18-21st, which allowed
an already large pre-existing sea state to get enhanced. The loop also provided a nice
extension to our swell. Felix was a strong storm at one time (CAT 3 with winds of
120kts), but most of its significant swell was produced when it only had winds of 50-75kt
when it was hanging just offshore the Southeast Coast while moving slowly and
erratically. The close proximity to the coast limited the swell from decaying much before
it jacked up on the East Coast sandbars. The end result was about a week worth of solid
surf from Florida to New England, with Rhode Island possibly getting the best of it.
Surfline's Mark Willis remembers, "Luckily, 1995 was the year I decided I wasn't going
to play football anymore so I wouldn't have to miss any more hurricane swells. We
scored more good surf on the Right Coast that fall than I can really remember. I do
remember Felix, though. I was on the Outer Banks with my grandfather boarding up our
family cottage yet again -- just in case Felix decided to have its way with Kill Devil Hills.
Felix sent us several days of overhead plus surf, some days with good wind, some days
with bad wind -- but the swell lasted so damn long it was good to have a few days of rest
when onshores developed." Rhode Island was the star of the show, with Little Compton
offering up solid ten-foot reef peaks for the lucky few.
(with Mark Willis)
NOVEMBER 23RD, 1995: THANKSGIVING DAY ON THE OUTER REEFS
This was a rather unique storm since it did a lot of development in the higher latitudes of
the North Pacific. It actually started a crucial part of its intensification over Kamchatka,
as a warmer tropical airmass was sucked north to mix with a strong cold airmass over
land. This new supercharged low headed into the Bering Sea and quicky built winds into
the 40-50 knot range. All of this activity would have been a moot point (at first) since the
storm straddled the Aleutian Islands effectively cutting off part of its fetch. Fortunately it
hit a solid ridge of high-pressure over Alaska and was suddenly forced into a right turn
and headed south directly towards the Hawaiian Islands in a two-day charge that built
nearly 30-40' seas.
On November 22nd, Buoy One started out at 13 feet, 14 seconds. Later that day, it gets
up to 15 feet, 20 seconds. Then 20 at 20. The following day, Thanksgiving, it peaked at
25 feet, 20 seconds -- plenty of deepwater energy.
Enough energy, in fact, to crank the North Shore's Outer Reefs into full, battle-cry, PWC
mode -- the first time ever. By 11am, Outside Alligators is packed with 8 tow teams.
"We've created a monster," says Darrick Doerner. "But we can't stop people from doing
what they want to do." DD ended up on the cover of the April '96 issue of <i>Surfing</i>
magazine towing into a big, blue bomb. (See sequence.) Meanwhile, over at Jaws, Laird
Hamilton breaks the unridden realm (again) tearing the bag out of a solid 60-foot wave.
You can bet the turkey tasted especially good that day.
(with Adam Wright)
JULY 26TH, 1996: MIKE STEWART'S INCREDIBLE JOURNEY
This storm actually happened on the 18th of July. Afterward, I tapped into the orbiting
ERS-1 satellite, which measured 47-foot waves and 55-knot winds in the midst of this
storm, located only 600 miles south of Tahiti. I told Mike Stewart, who was surfing
Teahupo'o at the time, to stay put and that this swell would be the one we could follow all
the way up from Tahiti, to California, and finally to Alaska. He was totally game to the
idea so we went for it.
Tahiti absolutely got rocked on this swell with waves well over 20-foot Hawaiian that
washed out most of the roads along the south shore. Mike surfed huge waves at
Teahupo'o, estimated to be well over 40-foot faces, and probably larger than any waves
surfed there ever since. That night we agreed Mike should fly straight to Hawaii to catch
the exact same waves a couple days later. Using the ERS-1 satellite data, I tracked the
daily progress of this huge swell as it passed through the Equator with a 15-foot pure
deep-water swell, nearly 2,000 miles away from the original storm.
Mike scored incredible 8-15+ foot waves (faces) at the super-fickle Malaaea on Maui.
This swell was perfect, very, very strong, and fit perfectly in the slot to get into Malaaea
between the Islands. We spoke again that night and Mike jumped on the redeye to fly
over to California to catch the same waves the next day.
On July 26, 1996, the Newport Wedge was all time with solid 15-25 foot faces and super
clean conditions. I met Mike at the Wedge and we shot some great video as he caught
most of the bomb sets that day. At this point, Mike looked a little tired from all the
traveling and it seemed questionable whether we wanted to follow it all the way up to
Alaska. I was pushing him pretty hard and he is an incredible athlete, so he agreed to
continue to go for it.
After a little jaunt up along the Central California coast the next day to catch the same
waves as the swell continued its track to the north, Mike arranged to fly up to Alaska the
following day with a couple buddies to complete the journey. After researching where the
best surf spot would be open to this southerly swell, once in Alaska they hired a local
bush pilot to fly them to the location.
The surf spot they picked was actually at the end of a glacier that extended down into the
water, and the pilot dropped them off on an adjacent beach that was loaded with fresh
bear tracks. They weren't too stoked to find out that the pilot would leave them and return
a few hours later to pick them up. Needless to say, they spent most of their time in the
water surfing 4-6 foot fun waves in 50-degree water, and stayed off the beach and away
from the bears. Fortunately, the pilot arrived as scheduled a few hours later to pick them
up off the beach to complete Mike's incredible journey.
Afterward, Mike felt he really got to "know" the swell and its personality. The rhythm of
the swell was consistent at every spot he surfed, whether it was 40 feet or 4 feet. So by
the time he reached Alaska, Mike, myself, and the swell were very familiar, and good old
friends.
(with Sean Collins)
AUGUST 4TH-10TH, 1997: HURRICANE GUILLERMO
The summer of 1997 is one permanently etched in the minds of those of us who chase
and crave hurricane swells. Powered by a strong El Nino event, water temps of 85-90
degrees were recorded near Southern Baja and along Mainland Mexico and Central
America. These warm temps provided ample fuel for a number of epic tropical swells
from June through October. In fact, the swell from Hurricane Linda (the strongest ever
recorded hurricane in the Eastern Pacific with 160 knot sustained winds) barely missed
making this list. (Though she did make a couple photos.)
Hurricane Guillermo, however, was a shoe in. He was, to put it bluntly, a monster. Not
only was he long lasting -- hurricane strength winds from August 1st through August 8th
-- but he was massive. Gale force winds extended out an incredible 400 miles with
maximum wind speeds topping out at 140 knots near the center. About the only thing bad
about Guillermo was the path that he took -- straight west. Fortunately Guillermo
meandered that westerly path slowly and produced surf initially tracking in from the SE
to S and eventually clocking to the SSW. This allowed for a long lasting, overhead swell
for just about any southerly exposed spot in Southern California from August 4th -10th.
Highlights included all of North Orange County, especially Newport Point which topped
out in the double to triple overhead+ range. The lifeguards were even nice enough to keep
the blackball flag down for a few days of the swell. Some heats of the US Open in
Huntington saw pros get bashed into the pier; Corky Carroll even surfed Long Beach.
Northern LA, Ventura and parts of San Diego also picked up their fair share of waves in
the well overhead range. The Southern Baja points reeled for miles and were surprisingly
uncrowded, as many feared Guillermo might come ashore. For those who knew better (or
those who were able to listen to the Surfline forecast), life couldn’t have been any better.
(with Kevin Wallis)
JANUARY 28TH, 1998: BIGGEST WEDNESDAY
This was a macker of a storm, another radical demonstration of extratropical energy. It
had good positioning, intense wind speeds, and incredible duration. Developing over by
Japan it drifted slowly towards the Hawaiian Islands while ship observations recorded 4050 knots of wind over a period of 4-5 days. Eventually the intense area of fetch dropped
close to the Islands, sealing the deal so to speak -- as it imparted just that much more
energy to an already impressive swell.
When it hit Hawaii the WNW swell was about as big as the North Shore can handle with
most spots completely maxing out. Fortunately the storm stayed a little to the north so
conditions very clean -- which allowed Ken Bradshaw to bag that ridiculously huge 80footer out at Outer Log Cabins. Down at Waimea, Jason Majors, fueled by K2 money,
busted past the police tape and attempted to paddle out, only to get swept back in. Jaws
on Maui, though not as covered, was as big as it had ever been, with Laird, Kalama and
Kerbox towing into some monsters.
This swell didn't just stop in Hawaii. It hit California pretty hard too, sending in some 40to 45-foot faces to Maverick's. According to Bill Martin, KTVU meteorologist ion
Oakland, some of the Mav's waves actually caused blips on the UC Berkeley
seismograph. Perry Miller and Doug Hansen towed into one giant wave at Mav's that
made the AP wire and sparked a tow-in debate that continues to this day.
The same swell continued south and generated some huge surf at Todos Santos and
Northern Baja's mythical pointbreak, Salsipuedes, chewing boards and bodies along with
dealing out some incredible, triple-overhead tubes. Still hungry, it lit up exposed spots in
Mainland Mexico and Central America before washing up in exposed areas of South
America. This swell was easily one of the biggest, most rideable, and area affecting
swells in the past 20-years.
(With Adam Wright)
FEBRUARY 16TH, 1998: TAYLOR KNOX'S $50,000 WAVE
This so-called "K2" swell was generated amidst the most powerful El Nino year on
record, a season already wrought with massive swells. In mid-February, one particular
North Pacific low erupted with a core of 45 ft seas, which hurled huge swell that rocked
Pacific shorelines for thousands of miles.
Under the direct counsel of Surfline, the Reef Big Wave Championship at Todos Santos
was given the go in mid-February. This event was organized and sanctioned by the
International Surfing Association (ISF) and featured national teams from the US,
Australia, Ireland, Brazil, France Japan, Portugal, Mexico and Venezuela. It was the first
ever big-wave event sponsored by the ISF and by all accounts a banner two days in big
wave surfing history. The first day (Feb 14th) weeded out those not up to tackling giant
surf, and the second day, the 16th, was the real deal. Taylor Knox rode a wave estimated
at 52 feet, netting him $50,000 for winning the inaugural K2 Big Wave Challenge -- far
and away the biggest check for a single wave ever.
It wasn't all paychecks and candy, though. Aussie hellman Ross Clarke Jones remarked
after his heat, "I got more smashed in those 20 minutes than I did all winter in Hawaii."
Carlos Burle and Rodgrigo Resende eventually won the Reef contest, disproving the
myth that all Brazilians are only small-wave wonders.
This swell was so massive, sightings of triple to quadruple overhead surf as far away as
Puerto Escondido Mexico were reported.
(with Charlie Fox)
OCTOBER 28TH, 1999: BIGGEST MAVERICK'S EVER
This bad boy was a relatively small, short-lived storm compared to other winter North
Pacific storms. It all came together very quick, doing most of its intensification and
development in about 48 hours as it hung on the edge of the Gulf of Alaska. The low
dropped nearly 40 millibars in pressure (going from a mild 1000mb to a screaming
959mb) as it built 50-55 knots of wind and 40-foot seas. At their peak, the NorCal buoys
read 53 feet, 17 seconds. The finishing touch to this storm -- which helped it make this
list -- was a high-pressure ridge that moved in and slammed the storm NW into Canada
leaving California with beautiful sunny conditions and a super-solid NW swell.
A side note about this swell: it came in from a steep NW angle so nearshore spots in
Southern California missed most of the swell's energy BUT with the light winds, good
swell direction, and long-swell periods Cortes Bank would have been going off.
Peter Mel and Jeff Clark are the stars of the '99/'00 winter season opener. Mel and
Skindog had spent the summer on PWC and tow boards, getting ready, and Mel ends up
surfing 25-foot Maverick's like a six-foot day at the Lane. He catches more than a dozen
waves, unheard of in waves this size without a PWC.
After paddling into a couple shoulders, Flea rides his first actual tow board on this day,
catching three bombs, as does Grant Washburn. Flea, obviously, is hooked. Washburn is
not so sure. Either way, this day marks the unridden realm with a PWC-assisted
exclamation mark. Every big swell since has seen a pre-dawn flotilla of PWC launching
out of Pillar Point Harbor.
(with Adam Wright)
JANUARY 19TH, 2001: PROJECT NEPTUNE AT CORTES BANK
Back in January 1990, <i>Surfing</i> magazine photo editor Larry "Flame" Moore
seized the opportunity to document a huge swell (see Jan 21st, '90 swell earlier in this
feature), and flew 100 miles over ocean to Cortes Bank in a small private plane with pilot
Mike Castillo. What they saw and photographed would eventually change big wave
surfing.
Over the next 10 years, Flame flew out to Cortes Bank on multiple occasions to
photograph and capture Cortes and various types of large swells that were forecasted by
Surfline. He even ventured out once on a boat with a few surfers on a medium swell and
they unsuccessfully attempted to paddle into a few 20-footers because the waves were
simply moving too fast through the deep water.
Flame and I reviewed all the dates and photos from all of his Cortes aerial reconnaissance
trips and we determined which swells were "good" ones, and which ones weren't. I
researched and hindcasted all of the storms that created the good swells, and we
developed a criteria of what exactly we needed for the special swell and the special local
condition -- the exact swell size, direction, swell period, tide, and local winds. The
biggest problem out there is the wind, which blows over 20 knots 360 days a year and
destroys even the best of swells.
Furthermore, the very special variable about Cortes Bank was the ocean floor.
Considering the shape and alignment of the Bank, the underwater bathymetry could take
the special swell we were looking for and magnify the deep-water swell height 3-5 times
into a humongous breaking wave. After plotting all the underwater gradients on a chart, I
developed a makeshift refraction diagram to calculate the best swell direction and period,
and compared that against our reconnaissance data. Once we had the criteria, we waited,
and waited.
Finally, during the third week in January 2001, the storm we were looking for appeared
on the forecast charts. Flame notified the crew of surfers and photographers to be on
alert, and we waited for the storm to actually happen. And happen it did up in the Gulf of
Alaska, with 50-knot winds and 45-foot seas.
Satellite data confirmed the swell heights, and the offshore buoys 100 miles off the coast
of California absolutely went Richter with pure, 25-foot deepwater swells. The afternoon
before we launched the expedition, the only negative variable was the wind, which was
still blowing 20 knots+ out of the northwest out at Cortes. And the models weren't calling
for much of a change over the next few days. Everyone was loaded on the boat and ready
to go, but waiting for the final call.
Sometimes it just all boils down to your sense and you have to throw all the data out the
window. Contrary to what the charts were saying along with most of the models, I could
see high pressure was building along the coast and my sense was that the northwest
winds would weaken by the time our crew reached the Cortes Bank the following day. So
I stepped up and made the call with Flame, and we went for it. The rest is history. <b>-Sean Collins</b>
Click <a href=http://www.surfline.com/mag/pulse/2001/jan/01_19_cortes.cfm>here</a>
for a history of Project Neptune and <a
href=http://www.surfline.com/mag/pulse/2001/jan/01_22_bank_one.cfm>here</a> for
<i>Into Thick Water</i>, the full report from January 19th, '01.
NOVEMBER 11TH, 2001: 100-FOOT WEDNESDAY AT MAVERICK'S
The so-called 100-foot Wednesday at Maverick's was generated but a large, very intense,
low pressure system that pushed very close to the California coast. The storm was a type
of storm system sometimes called a complex low pressure, which is when a single low
center-stalls and sort of anchors a broader area of low-pressure and following embedded
lows ride the "merry-go-round" of winds and pre-existing sea-state. This rapid-fire action
of storms basically kept slamming more and more energy into the building swell that
eventually hit California.
Northern California took the brunt of the wide-angled W-WNW swell and caught the
edge of the storm as it brushed the Pacific Northwest. (At its peak, the SE Papa buoy up
in Oregon was 42 feet at 20 seconds.) The swell hit late on Tuesday and had built big
enough by Wednesday morning that Carlos Burle managed to pick off the XXL winner of
the season.
The swell kept building through the morning and within a few hours Mav's was
completely closing out on the bigger sets. "It was scary to even tow out there," Skindog
Collins said later. By 1pm, Jeff Clark, Grant Washburn and Eric Nelson said it was the
biggest Mav's they'd ever seen. Waves were breaking 500 yards further past the main
bowl.
Around 1:30, a giant set rolled in, sending whoever was still out there scurrying to safety
-- most estimated it to be 80 feet. Shawn Alladio was going 50mph on a PWC trying to
outrace the things. At 2pm, she was out by the green buoy (3 miles out to sea) and claims
a behemoth -- way bigger than the previous 80-foot set -- steamrolled in and she was just
able to get over it. "The whitewater was three miles wide," she claimed. "No doubt a
hundred foot set. It was an amazing experience."
The same swell sent SoCal surfers towing out to Todos Santos the following day for a
Thanksgiving feast.
Click <a
href=http://www.surfline.com/mag/pulse/2001/nov/11_26_big_mavs.cfm>here</a> to
read more on 100-foot Wednesday at Maverick's.
(With Adam Wright)
NOVEMBER 26TH, 2002: MAKUA ROTHMAN WINS XXL AT JAWS
The storm that blasted Hawaii with swell on the 26th began as a low-latitude tropical
wave mixed with a colder storm moving off of Siberia. The warmer, energy-laden air
supercharged the new more powerful system as it drifted on the southern edge of the
Bering Sea. The storm grew very intense setting up 50-60 knots of wind and 40-45-foot
seas in the area of fetch aimed toward Hawaii. A ridge of high pressure filled in behind
the front and helped stretch the fetch nearly 1500 miles tapering it off just north of the
Islands.
The resulting swell had nearly 25-feet of deepwater energy with long swell-periods above
16+ seconds. What helped make this swell particularly unique was the tail end of the
front passed over the islands and set up clean conditions for most of the north shores
throughout Hawaii.
With the light winds and glassy conditions the session at Jaws on November 26th was
biggest and cleanest that anyone had managed to bag at that point. Several tow-in teams
jammed the line-up that day. Makua Rothman caught the 2002 XXL wave of the year but
the standout rider, was easily Laird Hamilton, whose mind-blowing session proved once
again while the surfing world considers Jaws his personal playground. Other standouts
include Garrett McNamara, who made the barrel of the century and Ross Clarke Jones
who got enough donuts on one ill-fated tube ride to last years.
(With Adam Wright)
JANUARY 7TH, 2003: EPIC WINTERTIME CALIFORNIA
When surf forecasters see the union of a warm, moisture-laden storm from the mid
latitudes and a cold low from the high latitudes, they tend to get pretty excited. The mix
of the two is akin to pouring gasoline on a fire and has a tendency to create some special
surf days. This scenario took place in early January of 2003 and created a powerful swell
that hit California's beaches by January 7th.
December of 2002 had already enjoyed a very good run of medium to large, clean surf
and forecast charts at the beginning of January looked like that trend would continue. A
large, complex low was anchored through the Bering Sea and into the Gulf of Alaska. At
the same time a small, but intense low was being pulled from the SW of Japan into this
"mother low" and when the two merged a super-charged storm was spawned with 45-65
knot winds well aimed at California and Baja from 265-290 degrees. So, not only was it
going to be a macker of a swell, but it would be very west as well, allowing just about all
spots through fickle Southern California pick it up.
(Ironically, January 7th 2002, exactly one year prior, another giant swell swept into the
North Pacific, creating enough surf for both the Eddie Aikau at Waimea and the Tow In
World Cup at Jaws to be held on the same day.)
The difference between a good swell and a great swell is only a matter of degrees. In this
case, the wind was the kicker. Thanks to building high pressure over Nevada from the
4th-8th of January, the swell wasn't the only thing that was epic: warm, sunny skies and
offshore winds greeted the evenly spaced, long period west swell on the 7th.
It was huge and clean. You could practically see the sets feathering at the Potato Patch at
outside Ocean Beach from the Bay Bridge in Oakland. Maverick's was massive and
glassy, Santa Barbara's points were all going off and the beachbreaks of Northern Baja
were out of control. Perhaps the most impressive spot of all, however, was Swamis. With
solid overhead to double overhead-plus waves and offshore winds all day long, the
normally mellow wave turned into a Sunset Beach-like barrel-fest. Word is, they're
actually still talking about that swell right now in the parking lot.
(With Kevin Wallis)
JUNE 18TH, 2003: SOUTH SHORE, OAHU
This was one of those few times that a solid south swell actually hit Hawaii harder than
California through Central America. It's all too often that quick moving storms Down
Under zip past New Zealand with most of their swell energy pushing northeast instead of
due north.
The storm that generated this swell slipped just east of New Zealand on the 10th of June
before intensifying significantly through the 11th and 12th. This storm combined forces
with a strong high to its west to set up a long fetch of 30-40kt+ winds aimed right at
Town.
Other key factors to this swell's generation was the duration (it hung out in the South
Shore window through the 13th) and the fact the storm actually moved slowly N/NE for
about a day which helped promote fully developed seas and long wave periods of 17-20
seconds. It slammed the Christmas Island buoy roughly 1,200 miles south of the Islands
with 6 feet of swell at 20 seconds early on the 16th of June By the time the swell arrived
on the 18th, just about everyone on the "Gathering Place Island" was there to greet it.
Fresh ENE tradewinds groomed solid 10- to 12-foot-plus faces at several locations in
Town that day, but the standout spots like Castles, Walls, etc. pulled in some much larger
sets. People were calling this one of the biggest swells of the decade, and the lifeguards
were calling it one of their busiest days ever as they had to rescue hundreds of people.
Surfline's Mark Willis remembers, "Oh yea, Pops was amazing too -- some of the best
rights I've ever caught in my life that day."
This was the biggest south swell to thump the South Shore since the Kamehameha Day
swell of 1995, where a huge storm parked east of New Zealand for days unleashing a
wrath of south swell that did pretty much the same.
Click <a
href=http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Jun/19/br/br03p.html>here</a> to
read the Honolulu Advertiser story about the swell.
(With Mark Willis and Charlie Fox)
APRIL 27TH, 2004: GIANT SOUTH SWELL LIGHTS UP ENTIRE PACIFIC
This particular storm, which started out on April 19th, benefited from both a minimal ice
pack off Antarctica, which set up a very long fetch, and a substantial influx of warm
tropical air into a very large cold core storm, which developed off Antarctica. Most good
swell producing storms have a central low air pressure of about 965 millibars, while this
storm dropped to an amazing 948 millibars. As a result, this storm has a very long and
very "wide" fetch, which was able to transfer a huge amount of energy into the ocean.
Surfline did tap into real time satellite data that confirmed wave heights near 50 feet in
the storm driven by 40-60 knots of wind over an extremely large area.
First on the schedule was Tahiti. After tipping off Laird, Dorian, Parsons, Gerlach, and
others, there was an impressive crew of extreme big wave riders on the way to meet the
swell at Teahupo'o. The swell began to fill in on Wednesday afternoon, April 21st, and
the deep-water swell peaked in the 10- to 15-foot range (15- to 25-foot faces) on
Thursday the 22nd.
The swell began to fill into South Shore spots three or four days after Tahiti, and peaked
between Sunday and Monday, April 25th-26th with 4- to 6-foot waves (8- to 12-foot
faces at the best spots). Rarely-breaking Malaaea on Maui was also good with solid
overhead waves.
On the other side of the swell, Peru and Chile in South America also benefited with great
waves. The better southwest exposed surf breaks enjoyed a peaking swell in the 5- to 8foot range (8- to 15-foot+ faces), which peaked around Saturday, April 24th.
Further up the coast in Central America, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador and
Mainland Mexico spots peaked on Sunday and Monday, April 25-26th, also with solid 8to 15-foot faces. Some of the premier long-swell period spots like Puerto Escondido were
ridiculously big with 20- to 25-foot faces or more.
Baja enjoyed epic waves on this swell with 8- to 12-foot faces in many areas and sets up
to 15-foot+ on the faces at some of the deep-water breaks down around Cabo. One
nameless Southern Baja pointbreak had mile-long waves sweeping into the bay. Half of
Surfline was on hand for field research, and Kevin Wallis remembers, "One set, near
double overhead, will indelibly be burned in my mind as the longest wave I have ever
seen in person."
Southern California also peaked on Tuesday, April 27th with 6- to 8-foot faces in most
areas and sets over 12-feet on the face at the best southwest exposed areas. Pointbreaks
were again the call with Malibu enjoying solid double overhead waves and the best swell
in years. Newport Wedge had some macking sets over 20 feet on the face. San Diego,
Southern Orange County, and Northern LA county spots grabbed most of the southwest
swell through the offshore islands but it was solid just about everywhere.
Nine days after the peak of the storm down off Antarctica on April 19th, our swell
continued fan out, peaking at Northern and Central California spots on Wednesday the
28th. Most spots open to the southwest were in the 5-8 foot range on the face but with
solid double overhead+ sets at the best spots like Pleasure Point and the Lane.
And finally, the south and southwest facing surf spots in Oregon, Washington, Canada,
and even Alaska also enjoyed solid overhead waves between the 28th and 30th of April
before this swell ran out of ocean, more than 11 days later and 7,000 miles from its
origin.
MORE SURFLINE COVERAGE:
<a href=http://www.surfline.com/travel/tripwire/05_south.cfm>Swell overview</a>
<a href=http://www.surfline.com/travel/tripwire/05_teahupoo.cfm>Tahiti</a>
<a href=http://www.surfline.com/travel/tripwire/05_wedge.cfm>The Wedge</a>
<a href=http://www.surfline.com/travel/tripwire/04_27_la_jolla.cfm>La Jolla</a>
<a href=http://www.surfline.com/travel/tripwire/04_santa_cruz.cfm>Santa Cruz</a>
(With Sean Collins, Kevin Wallis)
SEPTEMBER 4TH, 2004: HURRICANE FRANCES
Hurricane Season '04 season was epic if you were in the right place, but it sure was a
bitch if you were in the wrong place. There were 15 total storms and 6 major hurricanes,
but it often seemed like every time there was tropical swell in the water, much of the
coast was blown out. Florida really cursed the '04 season with four landfalls and billions
in damage. There were several diamonds in the rough though, but one of the most
memorable gems was September 4, 2004 in South Beach, Miami.
South Beach is about as <a
href=http://www.surfline.com/newsletter/wt_April03_04.html>fickle of a surf spot</a>
as they get. Miami's swell window is tiny. There'e extensive swell shadowing from the
Bahamas and also swell interactions with the Gulf Stream to deal with. Hurricane Frances
must have taken all this into account. Frances was a typical Cape Verde storm that
developed off the coast of Africa on the 25th of August. Frances held Category 4 status
for 3 days during its life, but it weakened to a CAT 2 as it moved through the NW
Bahamas.
There were a few things that made this the perfect storm for South Beach. First, the
steering patterns weakened and Frances slowed down considerably as it moved through
the NW Bahamas. This allowed tropical storm and hurricane force winds to sit in the
narrow South Beach window. Second, the storm was so close to South Beach the swell
didn't have much time to decay. Finally, since the storm was north of the area, local
winds were offshore. Some say it was the biggest swell ever in South Beach, and some
were comparing it to Puerto Escondido and Off the Wall.
As it tracked northwards, Frances churned up swell in other unlikely areas. Folly Beach,
South Carolina served up serious wedges for breakfast; most of North Carolina was blow
to bits -- except for one secret sandbar than saw <i>Surfing</i> mag photo DJ Strunz set
up camp for a few days. New York and New Jersey were unremarkable, but Rhode Island
pulled in the south swell quite nicely; its reefbreaks were four- to six foot and reeling. As
Frances dissipated over land, it actually turned into a low pressure system that brought
gale force winds -- and you guessed it -- surf to Lake Ontario, Canada.
(With Mark Willis)