Biggest wave you've seen at your local spot

I want to say Hurricane Bill, at its peak I believe wave faces were 15 - 20+ ft and clean, lots of nasty closeouts but some were makeable. I got denied and humbled. Not from a lack of trying though, I fought long and hard till I gassed out. I wasn’t in the shape I needed to be in and my talent level was kooky. I could have died that day. Memory is faded so wave heights are questionable, but that was what the wave report guy said when I called. I freaked out when I heard that and my heart didn’t stop pounding till later that night.

 

Hurricane fran. Took out a helicopter in hatteras. No idea how large, but estimating 30+

 

Maybe 8 years ago. Can't remember what storm but there were rollers coming in as far as the eye could see at the spot just to the south of me that normally can hold bigger surf. We paddled and paddled but never made it out there. Scary day.

I can always remember swells that I catch a few waves on. None caught that day.

 

Hurricane Dennis in 1999. Labor Day weekend. It was Yuge and it was a complete shit show due to several people who paddled out, or attempted to, that had no business being out there.

 

Does anyone have cam footage or screenshots of that guy doing tow-ins outside of Ponce right after Irma? That had to have been 20 foot + on the face.

 

Halloween Swell '92 was bigger than Sandy, alot bigger. Reef Road was surfable at DOH plus sets early, then it built to 20 foot faces, and we got out and watched. Pumphouse was breaking so far out to sea it was hard to estimate wave height, as no one wanted that.

A few random 30 foot faced peaks broke out past the end of the south jetty, I'd never seen it break there, it was actually going right against the grain, into the inlet and looked makeable but no one had the equipment. Except one gnarly dude in a 15' surf kayak. He was getting the bombs, and somehow not pearling on his well angled takeoffs. If he'd have dug the nose, he would have disintegrated into shards of fiberglass wrapped up in steering cable in seconds.

Boulders off the jetty were dislodged, rats scurrying.

A few kids were surfing way inside the inlet on an 8 foot stand up surge wave, held up by the out going tide. It would break as it felt bottom on the upper shelf of the the shipping channel, then go into the rocks, so you had to kick out.

 

like 1991 Hurricane Bob? wow...thats going back a ways, but I remember the swell well.

 

The entire week leading up to Labor Day weekend in 1999...Cat 3 Cindy well offshore the weekend before, and Hurricane Dennis coming up from the south and passing by on Labor Day weekend was an amazing week of swell. Good times I remember that as being one of the last major hurricane swells before the internet swell forecasting really started to change things, and make it much easier.

I'll never forget the weekend before Labor Day, Cindy was approaching Bermuda but the swell hadn't shown and forecasting models werent widely available, showing up at at dawn to my local jetty to completely unexpected 6 foot long period glass and 5 people out. On an August weekend. By noon there were 50 people out, but back then it was pretty much word of mouth

 

1985, Hurricane Gloria at Cape Hatteras. Easily 20 foot faces with makable rides. Paddle out was not too bad due to a good rip and the long period. My limo got stuck in the sand that day. Dew.

 

Wow, I forgot about Cindy. That was a crazy few weeks. Then Floyd came along. The flooding was epic. I had a newborn at home. I remember calling Brian Heritage's voicemail to get updates and John at Surf Unlimited up in Ship Bottom. I would ride my Harley down to check it out, ride back, throw the boards in the pickup, and go.

 

This springs nor’easters actually - for me anyway.
The white tops you see wall level were 10’. The wall of green water you see in the upper right was a quarter mile offshore and building. That day the buoy read four sets of waves over 35’, two miles offshore from here. I actually didn’t stay to see this one come in - I was running to the truck to get it out of the path because as you can also see, those 10’s were coming over the wall easily. That wave actually came over the wall, took that plow truck out and the street light controls box and went across four lanes of road. Rogue wave but it was HUGE and by far the biggest I’ve seen there.

 

The biggest wave I've ever seen was when your mom jumped in the pool haha.

 

I did not take this shot.......don't even remember where I grabbed it from. This is Chris Kelly a few blocks from my house. This shot is from about 10 years ago. Over the past 30 years I've seen it this size and do-able a half dozen times. Most of the time when it gets really big the area around me gets out of control.

 

Is this a trick question??

On the reg BELMAR is at least 23ft

 

Waves breaking over and damaging Ventura Pier.

 

Lol

 

Belmar was Fire this day. Maybe 24’

 

I remember surfing Juno Pier during the Cindy/Dennis love fest. Perfect 12 foot faces, easy paddle outs with long lulls, and almost zero wind. Each ride 300 yards. Perfection. Each walk back to the pier totally spent, then resting in the shade of the pier, then taking the conveyor belt out past the end of the pier, and here we go againne!