How about a new thread called "Biggest Wave You Have A Picture Of Riding" Hmm I wonder what the biggest wave would be on that thread?
yea, here is the issue. In San Diego, I have surfed blacks maxing out at about 10 ft. ANything over that size can be ridable, but its not worth the trouble. Other than Blacks beach, there is not a beach break in this country I would really want to surf at a true 10-12 foot DOH. Especially in the mid-atlantic. You will get bamoboozled in sand pulling into that. Which is why once it reaches about 8 feet in San Diego, there is not a human being surfing any break breaks along the whole coast. Droppin into to DOH shorebreak sandbars is not fun. Its just crazy... Paddling out over reefs in a dry deep channel, then dropping into perfectly lines up A frames that peel for 200 yards is a different thing. That is the most fun you will ever haev, 12 foot reef breaks are SICK, then you look at your local beach break and its lethal out. Just dumping into sand... I dont really surf beach breaks all winter. Plus, only places like Blacks with deep water channels will stack up more than really DOH... on Sand, other than Puerto and stuff, beach breaks can only stand up so tall, with no point, reef or obstruction under water to make the wave jack up and double in size, stormy beach break surf really maxes out at a much smaller size... Just meaner and more dangerous though.
Photo: Probably about 12-13 foot reef surf. I have photos of that at home. I have video of me out on the 20 foot day at indicator, but its all on a DV tape and I can't figure out how to transfer it all to my laptop cause it doesnt have firewire.... I can't wait for the video. when I got out, i filmed for like another hour and recorded some of the biggest waves San Diego has EVER seen. No lie, I have video of empty, 30+ ft surf. And about 5 minutes of footage of total carnage when the sets rolled through. Demolished everyone out that day... Broke like 2 miles out... People got DESTROYED... I kept filming and have shots of teh Lifeguard cranes lifting Kooks out from the cliffs. Crazy... Once someone can explain to me how the hell to get my video onto my computer, I will upload all kinds of sh**/ I got like 8 years worth of tapes!
Head high maybe a little bigger. When I was younger I would paddle out in anything. Now - anything over chest high needs to be real clean. I can't take the pounding anymore. Give me a clean stomach / waist high day with a 12 sec+ interval and I'm a happy camper.
Yeah the dude at best buy said that to me when I called. He said it is like an external box that records all of the video onto itself? Then you plug the laptop into that? Im thinking that is how it works.... Rather than doing a Video Cam to PC transfer, it does a Camera to Dazzle transfer, then you can grab the data off the box... Its just WAYYY more confusing than I thought it would be. I have tons of software and everything else in place. I really want to pull a ton of the frames out of the video as still shots.... But i just cant get this data digital!!! Its killing me!
Biggest Wave 14'-15' caught a number of Texas Hurricane swells this size over the years but mostly real slopping wave that never completely jack and slam. Caught a great swell in El Salvador in the 15' range on a trip in 2005 to Sunzal, easy to paddle out channel, but a loooong way out. first day I get there and its a solid 8' but looks like a pretty controllable wave, surf it and had a blast, get back to my hotel that evening and check my surfline account on the laptop, in huge letters across the top of the screen, it reads, "Huge Swell to Hit Central America!" For the next 5 days the surf increased by 1 to 2' each day. I would have been totally intimidated had I flown into 12+ surf but because it increased a little each day, I was like "Hey I can handle this" it wasn't until I got the water camera photos developed that I realized how big it really was. Attached is a photo from one of the bigger (but definitely not the biggest) waves.
might have done a 16. i remember hurricane floyd being pretty big. it was probably at manasquan inlet. i was in down in central america this past november during the big noreaster. i heard it got pretty big, and thats probably the only time i'd rather surf jersey than costa rica.
id say take everyones biggest wave they said they rode on here with the exception of the few telling the truth and divide that by 2 or 3 then you will get the truth. Stop telling fairy tales on the forum.
Agreed with ScumNJ and the over-exaggeration. Hurricane Noel for me 8-10-12 ft SOLID in OC (any of you that were around there know what it looked like) and I got the ass-beating of my life. I thought I was gonna drown that day because I was terribly unprepared. The big difference is this: Like Zach619 said, he's been out in 15-20-25 ft size in southern CA because the waves break differently in different spots. You have point breaks and beach breaks. In Dec when they ran the Eddie contest, I couldn't believe they were paddling out from the beach. But when you think about it, that size only breaks at a particular point, unlike beach breaks which just break hectic. So having channels and open shoulders definitely will increase your ability to ride bigger waves. No wonder the Hawaiians and the Aussies are the best in the world, cause they don't have to deal with the BS us East Mid-Atlanticers deal with every time we want to go out to surf. We deal with beach breaks 95% of the time on the Mid-Atlantic so on those bigger days of 6-8-10 ft plus, those who can make it out through the consistent shore pound are that much more hardcore if you ask me. Even more so in the winter! We are a special breed of die-hards that a lot of people in the world look at us with raised eyebrows, wondering how we have the balls while to go out in water below the 50's (F). Hurricane Bill was a cinch because I never had to duck dive a wave, due to the fact that is wasn't breaking ridiculously hard everywhere you looked. It was easy to paddle though the waves and into position due to the long period and the lazily-developed sand bars. It was truly one-of-a-kind. (If you recall and were in OC or similar, the waves laid dormant for about 5-6 weeks before the storm arrived, allowing massive quantities of sand to slowly lap up and form smoothly along the shore, just like a lake.) Imagine if we got that amount of consistency here, especially in the summer! Imagine how much more people would be going out because they got more comfortable riding larger size waves like that. Imagine if every 10ft wave that broke on these coasts lasted for 8-12 seconds long. I'm sure the skill factor would seriously separate the hardcores from the wimps real fast in consistent surf of that size, But we are taught day to day in these waters, that no matter what the weather or the conditions be, if we want to surf here that day, then you still have to make it through the shore pound to get out there. Just the other day I was pushed inside and tried to get back out for about 6 minutes, consistently taking waves to the face and ditching my board so I could dive deeper. I was pushed down 3 blocks before I could regain control and pass though the sets. On a day like that it was just solid determination. And if you ask me, that's what it takes (sorry for the essay, I am not responding to anyone in particular's post)
not the biggest, but one of the best photos i've ever been in. shot by joe ewing. I have never been happier to see a photog on the beach. It was me and two other guys all morning. Winter, San Diego. You probably know where. or maybe not. This wave face was a LOT bigger before I was in this position after it hit the reef.
I going to guess Big Rock? I've surfed Blacks plenty big when I was living out there, but what about Moss Landing up north? IMO the biggest and best quality beach break there is would be Pascuales. I think it gets better than Puerto. When I was traveling through mainland mex I watched people surfing it 15+ and glassy; Even though I had a 7'6 pintail I took a pass.
Mainland Mex 2005 HH-DOH point - Long but easy paddle out CR 1995 OH+ - Hadn't surfed big waves in a while, got destroyed. Oahu 1989, Town OH+ - Late season south swell Honorable mention - MD 2009 hurricane swells AI during bill and bob was pretty beefy. The paddle out was BRUTAL.
I think it was October 1999, hurricane Irene. I feel safe calling it the biggest and best surf I can remember at any of the local spots in Monmouth County. Phillips Ave in Deal was macking DOH plus, and totally rideable if you had the right board. A bunch of us were out early one afternoon, when the wind was light, and people were getting some of the biggest and best waves of their lives for NJ. Scary because of it's size, but totally makeable. If you had confidence in your board and your ability, you were in for a real experience. One of those 2 or 3 wave sessions, but the size and form was unbelievable. Peaking outside the end of the jetty, and firing to at least half way to the Pump House. Clean, organized, and HUGE... at least for us.
