Author Topic: would you be in the water if you know a tsunami is coming?  (Read 10867 times)

1tuberider

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would you be in the water if you know a tsunami is coming?
« on: March 02, 2010, 06:02:15 AM »
After last weeks tsunami warning thru out the pacific I have heard comments from a boating site

"surfers are morons for being in the water at the expected time of the tsunami."

I watched the harbor from a safe distance (1/4 mile) with keys to a fast car nearby.  While watching I saw people were lining up at beach front park to watch.  This area would have been the first to get blasted and I though what moron's. 

So what do you think   Bra you missed it you should have been here yesterday!

Lobes

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Re: would you be in the water if you know a tsunami is coming?
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2010, 06:40:20 AM »
No.

PonoBill

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Re: would you be in the water if you know a tsunami is coming?
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2010, 07:55:46 AM »
In a word, no, but that's mostly because I wouldn't want to be a pain in the butt to the harried emergency workers. In the water is a pretty safe place to be, if you're away from shore enough. You'd only see the Tsunami if you looked toward shore. The reason people call them Tidal waves is that they look like the tide. The wave period is two minutes and up so the only place they build a breaker or face is in a slowly shoaling place like a harbor.

Lots of energy in the wave though, they do very unpredictable things. You'd need to be way out, like several miles. Even then you'd be a lot better off up high.
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JC50

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Re: would you be in the water if you know a tsunami is coming?
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2010, 09:28:00 AM »
If you read some of the accounts of past Tsunami's, often some of the injuries/deaths were result of curious people walking out way past the low-tide zone because the waters' edge just receded far back, revealing a huge section of beach never seen before (especially low gradient shores)...then getting slammed by the unexpected follow-on tidal-wave.

As Bill said, if you went out to deep water, you wouldn't see/feel anything as the wave passed under you. However, if you ventured to an offshore reef, you have no idea of the shape the wave might take. Wave character at Peahi, Cortez, Mav's, and other big wave breaks are well known at the common heights they get to from the varying angles because they've been studied at those heights/directions, but for any given break, at a certain height/direction the wave becomes poorly shaped and unrideable. You wouldn't have any of that data behind you, unless of course you experienced a tsunami at that same spot.

But it sure would be fun, eh?

I remember reading an account of a surfer in South America (Chille, I believe...ironically) who said he happened to be out when a tsunami hit and rode it in. Not sure if it was true or not, but the account was an interesting read; fact or fiction.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2010, 09:43:12 AM by JC50 »

bigdom

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Re: would you be in the water if you know a tsunami is coming?
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2010, 10:06:26 AM »
faced with a nice looking kanaha
but an impending tsunami i headed
for the hills

was nice later small clean and empty

southwesterly

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Re: would you be in the water if you know a tsunami is coming?
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2010, 12:52:52 PM »
 Felipe Pomar rode a tidal wave in Peru in 1974. Here is a translated version of that account:

FELIPE POMAR
PERU'S FIRST WORLD SURFING CHAMPION.
His most memorable adventure was with Pitty Block when they entered the sea to surf after the 1974 earthquake. It lasted approximately two minutes and they entered the sea around "La Isla" (the Island) of Punta Hermosa with the idea of surfing whatever the ocean could produce. They did not count that the sea would retire and draw them back, which indeed happened. After living through some really terrific moments, they were able to cross the bay and catch a wave each; both of which were deemed "Tsunamis".

AZBuilt

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Re: would you be in the water if you know a tsunami is coming?
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2010, 05:22:38 PM »
Back in the 80's living in Kailua there was a tsunami warning.  Of course everyone headed for Lanikai Point (probably high enough) to watch, but there were several guys sitting on their boards out at Flat Island.  No Tsunami.

southwesterly

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Re: would you be in the water if you know a tsunami is coming?
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2010, 09:27:40 PM »

tautologies

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Re: would you be in the water if you know a tsunami is coming?
« Reply #8 on: March 03, 2010, 01:34:42 AM »

No, and this is not only because I don't want to be a pain for the rescue. A tsunami is not a traditional wave. It is a wave that is many miles long. If it is big enough it will lead to extreme current. We are talking something that can take you miles off shore. I do realize we have a paddle, but I am not sure if I think it be worth taking the chance.

I know most of you guys know this, but I do think it is really hard to imagine the powers involved. The tsunami itself moves at many hundred miles per hour. That is almost unfathomable power. The tsunami will also bring with it incredible amounts of debris and crap as it comes back from the inland. There were people that were taken many miles off shore after the tsunami in Asia some years ago.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Waves/tsunami.html


How about the infamous mega-tsunami's?

tautologies

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Re: would you be in the water if you know a tsunami is coming?
« Reply #9 on: March 03, 2010, 01:35:45 AM »
Surfer Surfs a Tsunami ( brave or stupid you decide

..or fake :-)

surfpainter

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Re: would you be in the water if you know a tsunami is coming?
« Reply #10 on: March 03, 2010, 02:45:01 AM »
Surfer Surfs a Tsunami ( brave or stupid you decide

..or fake :-)

Beyond fake..Haha

1tuberider

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Re: would you be in the water if you know a tsunami is coming?
« Reply #11 on: March 03, 2010, 05:20:36 AM »
Some of the comments reflected what pono Bill said about being another needed rescuing.

After seeing the footage of the sumatra tsunami I would feel that all exposed to the waves are going to be on their own as the rescuers not in helicopters will be to busy protecting their arses.  No one in the wave's path would be safe and you would be best to self rescue.  This is where the surfers have an advantage over the people on the sea shore.  The currents would most likely take them offshore where they might be able to wait it out.

Also mentioned by a geologist is that earthquakes could be a result of massive tide changes.  Last week we had them.  No earthquakes, yet the area I live in has major faults and a history of major quakes.  But since I don't have a time estimate for the wave, count me in for a surf session.

shapeshifter

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Re: would you be in the water if you know a tsunami is coming?
« Reply #12 on: March 03, 2010, 08:06:46 AM »
heard stories of suffers who've encountered tsunami and rogue waves but were able to survive because they opted to let it pass beneath them.

we weathered out this tsunami high up above the city of refuge. only later to be joined by a newly arrived chilean named giselle (talk about a rock and a hard place). seems like all the dolphins of the world converged there the next day to celebrate another day of living.

to answer the op's questune... yes, but it was only a quick shower due to the drought and water shortage in kona.

we're safe in the jungles near hilo again, aloha!
whoever invented the hole... knew nothing.
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PonoBill

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Re: would you be in the water if you know a tsunami is coming?
« Reply #13 on: March 03, 2010, 08:24:30 AM »
I've never seen the interference waves tsunamis can form, I hear they can break, but the video is not of a tsunami.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

Weasels wake

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Re: would you be in the water if you know a tsunami is coming?
« Reply #14 on: March 03, 2010, 06:20:04 PM »
Too funny, the tsunami was so gnarly at Camp One, they brought out the tiki torches!
Time Lapse of Tsunami 2010 from Maui North Shore
It takes a quiver to do that.

 


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