Warnings: Monster storm may take Great Lakes wave heights to 33 feet

[mrdmk]

41. Um! You Think... Ever been surfing in Southern California?

Here is a picture 15' to 18' feet in Newport Beach, CA 'The Wedge'



This place does get bigger and very dangerous...


Want L A R G E R, of course

Here is a place that has some of the biggest waves in the world

Cortes Bank is a shallow seamount - a barely submerged island in the North Pacific Ocean. It is about 100 miles (166 kilometers) west of Point Loma San Diego, USA, and about 50 miles (82 kilometers) south-west of San Clemente Island. It is considered the outermost feature in California's Channel Islands chain. At various times during geologic history, the Bank has been an island - depending on sea level rise and fall. The last time it was a substantial island was around 10,000 years ago during the last ice age. It is quite possible that this island was visited by the first human inhabitants of the Channel Islands - most notably San Clemente Island, whose seafaring residents would have been able to see "Cortes Island" from high elevations on clear days.

In the early 1990s Larry Moore, photo editor at Surfing magazine, and Mike Castillo, veteran surfer and pilot, made flights out across the bank on rumors of giant waves - and during a monster swell in 1990 that has been dubbed "The Eddie Aikau Swell," they were astonished when they found empty waves breaking atop the bank in the 80 to 90 foot range. By 1995 Moore had seen and photographed waves and that year he led an expedition with a small group of surfers out there (including Surfing magazine editors Sam George and Bill Sharp) and pro surfer George Hulse. The team found relatively small but very glassy waves in the fifteen foot range, and George Hulse was the first to catch one. "It was the only time I wrote out a will before a surf trip," Sharp said of the mission.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortes_Bank

In 1988, the Redondo Beach pier and Huntington Beach pier were victims of two storms. Waves were crashing on top of the piers. Both piers are over 25' high!