Tag: big waves
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The Quest for a Monster 100 Foot Wave
Everyone’s trying to set a new big wave record by pushing the physical limits of wave riding. It’s extremely dangerous, and the world is watching to see who will set the next record, currently at 80 feet. It’s a sport where you can make a career out of a single giant wave. Many have tried.…
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The Biggest Wave Ever Ridden: Greg Noll at Makaha, 1969
When I moved to Pacific Beach in April of 1970 they were still talking about it: the epic swell of winter 1969. To the locals, I had just missed the swell of the century. A swell whereby three separate North Pacific storms merged to create near-hurricane force winds blowing across a broad stretch of the…
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Unbounded Courage: the First Surfers to Ride Waimea Bay
When I was a young surfer I read about the first surfers to ride Waimea Bay in 1957. Surfers at that time were too afraid to surf Waimea, and for good reason.From the beach Waimea appeared too big, too fast, too steep and just generally too treacherous to ride. Add to that a raging rip…
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Cortes Bank: the Largest Wave on the Planet
…Dawn’s early light revealed a shimmering plume of spray. A Himalayan peak rose to life far off the bow. It was shaped like a great, volcanic cone– 43 million pounds of water, terrible and unrideable. Its foam exploding an unknowable number of feet into the air and churned the surrounding water into a 360-degree maelstrom…