Author Topic: Holy Tsunami Batman  (Read 11777 times)

Zooport

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Re: Holy Tsunami Batman
« Reply #15 on: January 21, 2017, 09:37:57 AM »
I'm going into my seventh full day of gnarly flu symptoms.  At least it doesn't feel like somebody is wiggling a spear in my chest every time I cough, now.

My wife is a very pissed off sick person.  I have never seen her this sick like this in our whole 36 year marriage.

Maybe it's the wave gods' way of keeping me from doing something stoopid.

Cheat, I feel your pain.  I'm just now getting over a 20 day battle with this thing.  Did you have bubbling in your lungs?  It's just now clearing up for me.

I don't know, Zoo, but I think it is a "long haul" flu.  I suspect at least 10 to 14 days for symptoms.  Cough is more productive now, my lungs creak, headache and sore throat now.  My brain is so swollen I can't think.  I probably just got my coordination back to 75 percent or so.  I didn't do anything for four days because I was flailing and dropping things like a broken bot. The intensely painful skin and joints have diminished, but I am still getting periodic sweats and chills.

Risks with flu are always longer term, persistent bronchitis.  It's also boring, because it is hard to read or play computer games.

It would be hard to believe there won't be a pretty good body count with this varietal.

It's more like routine misery now rather than intense, painful drudging misery.

It would be nice to keep the appetite suppressant part of it, though.

Sorry again for the hijack.  Cheat, the headaches were like your brain is going to come out through  your ears.  It's full on misery.  Advil didn't touch it. 
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southwesterly

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Re: Holy Tsunami Batman
« Reply #16 on: January 21, 2017, 03:44:15 PM »
The end of an era.
I used to fish off the end of the Cement Ship as a 10 year old kid. Every decade since then, big storms would limit more and more access.
Today January 21st, she officially died.

SUPcheat

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Re: Holy Tsunami Batman
« Reply #17 on: January 21, 2017, 04:10:14 PM »
The cement ship succumbs.  Still looks like plenty of room for seagulls and pelicans.
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lucabrasi

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Re: Holy Tsunami Batman
« Reply #18 on: January 21, 2017, 04:22:33 PM »
Holy cow. What a bummer. I used to go there quite often when I went over the hill. I always remember this old Asian woman fishing out there off of it most every time I was there over the years and she always seemed to be catching stuff.

surfercook

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Re: Holy Tsunami Batman
« Reply #19 on: January 21, 2017, 04:32:04 PM »
Maybe this should be in the shitstorm thread. 20-25' faces with deepwater big wave spots more than doubling those sizes.
I just saw a 10 wave set break 300 yards OUTSIDE the Capitola Pier. Yikes.
"The sea was angry that day, my friends"!  :P Would love to see some pictures or video! 
You west coasters are getting the total opposite of what we have on this side. Quite nice conditions here today. Too bad I'm benched w/a banged up shoulder from taking two fins hard on a beat down.
One could go into a mall in Kansas and ask a teenager "What is a surfer looking for?, and the answer will always be, "The perfect wave"
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Subber

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Re: Holy Tsunami Batman
« Reply #20 on: January 21, 2017, 06:43:44 PM »
From today's Santa Cruz Sentinel,

Quote
APTOS >> As big wave surfer Jeff Clark mulled his 30 percent chance of making the paddleout at Pleasure Point Saturday morning, triple-overhead sets ripped the stern from the historic Cement Ship at Seacliff State Beach about 5 miles away.

Clark stood in his wetsuit, watching the righthand sets roll across the ragged Capitola shoreline. Despite a slight break in the waves, the current would make the trek a challenge, he said.

“I’m just assessing the possibilities of actually getting out. It looks more like 70-30 in the ocean’s favor,” Clark said. “I drove down the whole coast, and I looked around town at the Harbor, and there’s a couple waves at the Harbor, but getting out there’s no easy chore either.”

Pleasure point provided clean faces during a lull in storms Saturday morning through the early afternoon, but the calm is not expected to last after a month of rain and strong winds have battered the Central Coast.

I wonder if Clark went out?


Around 1:30, I saw one guy out off Pleasure Point, a few minutes later one off of Privates -
- I think it might actually have been the same surfer - maybe he got a couple long rides while I was parking.
No one else out there.

Pretty decent shape but big bumps on the surface & loads of white water.
« Last Edit: January 21, 2017, 06:54:50 PM by Subber »
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supthecreek

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Re: Holy Tsunami Batman
« Reply #21 on: January 21, 2017, 06:45:39 PM »
Beasho
Thanks for the report... holy crap!

I agree.... pics, vids and your inside take on it all is awesome... can't wait!

SUPcheat

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Re: Holy Tsunami Batman
« Reply #22 on: January 21, 2017, 10:54:00 PM »
On days with a huge west to east shore rip (L41 coast faces south, west to east shore rip carries you east), you could drop somebody off at Pleasure Point, they could tack surf along the L41 and be picked up at Capitola like a conveyor belt.  Kind of like a "down surfer".

Trying to fight that rip AND the waves looks really hard except for the most steely toned bodies.
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Subber

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Re: Holy Tsunami Batman
« Reply #23 on: January 22, 2017, 07:57:11 PM »
Yes, Cheat, that is what I was thinking.

Here is an update from Today's Santa Cruz Sentinel talking about Saturday.
I probably saw one of those guys who planned to surf from the East end of Pleasure
Point and get out at New Brighton.  Seems like the best plan to me,
although I'd have gone down to New Brighton to see how harry it was down there first.

Quote
Biggest swell since 2001,” said Mavericks pioneer Jeff Clark. “On the drive to Santa Cruz from Half Moon Bay, I saw waves breaking a mile off the beach all the way down.”

The swell was so large, in fact, it shut down nearly every surf spot on the Central Coast. Yet when the front’s strong southerly winds eased up and the tide dropped, a handful of Santa Cruz County spots suddenly appeared rideable.

At about 9 a.m., a handful of surfers, including Nat Young, Darryl “Flea” Virostko and Isaac Campbell, paddled out through a forest of bobbing tree trunks to surf 12-foot faces at the muddy mouth of the San Lorenzo River.

“That was a lot of work,” said Young after launching a huge air on his last wave and carefully picking his way back through the flotsam to shore. “Exhausting.”

Meanwhile, a mile or so east, the real show was just getting started.

“I’ve never seen waves that big at Pleasure Point,” said Clark.

At 10:15 a.m., just as the swell was peaking, Shawn Dollar caught a wave with a 20-foot face, electrifying the crowd gathered along East Cliff Drive.

But for every Shawn Dollar who copped glory at Pleasure’s Point’s first peak, 10 other surfers were blown unceremoniously back to shore.

“We waited too long and the tide got too low,” said Clark, 59. “We were denied.”

Perhaps the most audacious feat of Jan. 21 was mounted by a crew of big wave veterans led by Tyler Fox that included Chris Cortez, Taylor Paul, Tyler Joseph and Kyle Thiermann.

“I’m not sure whose idea it was; maybe mine. We tried to surf from Pleasure Point to New Brighton Beach,” said Fox.

The five paddled out through a channel between Rockview and Sewers at roughly 1:45 p.m. and into the teeth of one of the afternoon’s larger sets.

“I was farthest out and the set broke another 100 yards beyond me. I got pounded by the first two waves and the third broke my leash,” said Fox.

Fox, a standout surfer at Mavericks on even the biggest of swells, is no stranger to heavy water, but found himself shocked by the punishment dished out by the normally demure spot.

“I’ve never felt that kind of power at Pleasure Point in my life,” said Fox. “When I was underwater I was kind of laughing to myself thinking, there is no way I’m going to die at Pleasure Point.”

After Cortez was sucked toward Rockview and blown back in, that left Joseph, Paul and Thiermann — all three of whom managed to sneak out to first peak and paddle into triple overhead waves.

“After the first wave, we stuck to the plan and caught waves to New Brighton Beach,” said Joseph. “I caught maybe six and they were pretty much consistently double overhead all the way down.”

The roughly two mile trip took an hour and a half, according to Joseph, 27, who has been surfing Mavericks for the past six seasons.

“By far the largest swell I’ve seen,” said Joseph
.
« Last Edit: January 22, 2017, 07:59:00 PM by Subber »
Jimmy Lewis Black & Blue Noserider 10'1"x31"x4.25," 164 liters, 24 lbs, 1 box
Pearson Laird Surftech Longboard 10'6"x23"x29.75"x18"x4.375," 154 liters, 24 lbs, 3 boxes
Takayama Ali'i II Surftech 11'x21.375”x28.5”x17.25”x 4.25,” 162 liters, 26 lbs, 3 boxes

lopezwill

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Re: Holy Tsunami Batman
« Reply #24 on: January 22, 2017, 08:38:01 PM »


  Hey Subber...


Great article!  Thanks for posting!

That swell really means something when somebody like Jeff Clark comments on it.

southwesterly

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Re: Holy Tsunami Batman
« Reply #25 on: January 22, 2017, 08:51:29 PM »
East Cliff drive at Moran Lake yesterday morning. This is about the same time they were paddling out at Pleasure Point, right around the corner.

lopezwill

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Re: Holy Tsunami Batman
« Reply #26 on: January 22, 2017, 09:06:08 PM »


Crazy photographes and video starting to come in with this swell.

This guy tried to paddle out at Steamer Lane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG53qBjXVeo

Beasho

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Re: Holy Tsunami Batman
« Reply #27 on: January 22, 2017, 09:31:20 PM »
I saw Jeff Clark this morning.  I asked him about how the swell played out and he gave me a similar version to what was reported above.

He also showed me this picture of Shawn Dollar.  Grainy maybe but he said "Check this out here is Shawn Dollar on a 20 ft face at outer middles." 

I said "You mean that little spec thing?" (see the Ant-Man below).

Then I said "I thought Shawn had broken his neck or got hurt and had retired surfing entirely."  Jeff said "Yes he retired from Mavericks.   Like it matters when he is out in stuff like this  :o :o :o "

Beasho

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Re: Holy Tsunami Batman
« Reply #28 on: January 22, 2017, 09:34:24 PM »
A video posted by Powerlines on Facebook.

I took my daughter to check it out from the cliff above Ross' cove and out to mushroom rock.  The swim passed mushroom looked like it had 12 - 20 ft faces that would be difficult to navigate.  Jeff said "Yes you can't swim out in conditions like this."

Frankly I was surprised that there was a ski team out there even if just doing reconnaissance.  This video shows a few clips of the madness.  It includes some scenes with Luca Padua.  More on him later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJIk5X1J960

LaPerouseBay

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Re: Holy Tsunami Batman
« Reply #29 on: January 22, 2017, 09:39:39 PM »
Very cool Beasho,  Jeff Clark-living legend. 

Maybe Shawn grew up on Kauai like these crazy kids.

http://youtu.be/4nuzUOuYEjs
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