ya... for me, bout 8-10. Paddle out on some crazy days between here and the obx. Caught Cali over the winter on some rock reefs like 7 foot, that was the easiest bigger wave I had ever surfed. Puerto Escondido this august looking for some mackers...
IRI...Dub O Head? I have been surfing in delaware my whole life. i never saw iri double over head. i have caught fun waves there, but measuring waves is something to be left to a certain crew. it really does max out around here. ernesto was the last giant day (delaware standards) in the last ten years. on the clean up day, it was 1-3 foot over head. in fact i surfed sun up to sun down that day and it was still not that big. ss did go ape crazy that evening, but not dub-o-head. the biggest waves i ever surf was dub-o-head on the escondido scale...that to me seemed about 20 foot...but the local boys assured me that it was only 10 foot. i learned to watch my measuring from there are on out.
On the north shore a couple years ago while we were out there pipe was 40'+, needless to say we went down south some more to double overhead waves b/c the north shore was just too gnarly. 2 days later we went back to the NS and surfed Sunset and the sets were 15'+ (faces), pretty insane, that was the first time that a bigger board was ever a necessity and it was scarry compared to our sandbar bottoms. Later that day we went to Haleiwa and it was about the same size there, pretty rad. The insane thing though, is that there were way way way less guys in the water than say 48th street on a good day.
Large Caballos, 40 years ago this spring, is the largest I have been out and ridden. So sweet, big accident, never happened again. It is about a 3/4 mile paddleout and looked to me a very manageable 8 to 12 from the shore. More recently the largest I have ridden was a small Tres Palmas (10-12') about 5 years ago.
Ernesto was my biggest ever, some other storms were large around here, but not like Ernesto. Best waves of my life so far. I got crushed on one and rolled on the bottom for a bit only to come up with the lip of another macker about 3 feet from my face. Took it and got rolled for another 15-20 seconds. I had to rest up for a few minutes after those. What a beautiful day!
Nosara is such a weak wave, it can be twice that size and not be as powerful as a few feet over head in OC, MD. It can be a fun wave but has to be at least several feet overhead to be any fun, unless you like longboarding.
your a fool, thats why people traval from all over the world to surf oc right? nosara is not as heavy as hermosa or marbella but still a very ripable and hallow wave on the right tide, swell angle and swell period www.surfingnosara.com check out the daily swell reports
Pura Vida Hermano! Finally a gringo who understands, I grew up in Dominical surfing those puta 12' footers in the morning then moved up North to Nosara which is really for Nicaraguan women who can't swim. Finalamente I came to Maryland and realized what surfing was all about. Boardwalks, Cold Water, funnel cakes and ten days of surf a year are what ducle suenos are made off. Now I work in Kitchen at night, an exploited lawn worker by day so I can afford my one room palacio, but it's all worth it, I get to surf Ocean City Maryland when the lifeguards say it's okay too. Thank you for understanding my plight Hermano Miguelito
15' Praia de Nazare Portugal. Passed on the 25-30 ft perfect praia do norte on the otherside of the cliff though.
1-3 feet over head on 9/1/08 not sure what hurricane it was but it was blowing like 30 kts offshore best waves ive ever surfed tho
I agree ..neither side of IRI holds that kind of size. Anything more than a couple feet overhead and NS starts washing out and folding over at random. Ernesto on Saturday obviously overloaded OC so everyone headed North. IRI looked to me to be a few feet overhead and not especially organized..other jetties in Delaware were better that afternoon.