And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
When I first saw Mavericks I was tied up at the dock after having sailed in to the harbor. I looked out beyond the harbor breakwater and saw the terrific maw of brutal waves crashing on the jagged rock reef. But I noticed the symmetry in the wave which every surfer hunts for.
I said out loud, that could almost be surfed. They'd have to be highly skilled and crazy. The man I had been talking with, a local school teacher, surprised me when he said, They do surf it. We continued to watch in amazement as the waters reared up to expend the energy of a thousand miles onto the foreboding rock.
Jeff Clark is usually assumed to be the first person to have surfed Mavericks. That would have been in the 1970s. Get this, it is said he surfed it alone for ten years before anyone else dared accompany him.
The break holds its shape even as the waves get larger. I don't know if anyone knows how big it can get before the wave becomes unrideable. Guys have been out there charging on 40+ foot waves. To make it more forbidding, the water is nearly always 50 degrees F.
I learned how to serf in 3 to 4 ft waves at Fernandina Beach Fl. I got to serf some storm waves that were 6 to 8 ft when I was a youth. In my early 20's I had a gig that took me to southern California where 6 to 8 foot waves were common. I spent way too much time in the frigid water. When I was in my early 30's I was in Hawaii. When I saw the 20+ foot waves I wanted no part of it. The 8 foot waves in Guam were great when I was 50ish.
In scale from man to wave it looks more than 40 feet, can't imagine doing that.
ReplyDeleteHow did the photographer get that pictures?!
ReplyDeleteMavericks surfspot at Half Moon Bay, Pillar Point.
ReplyDeleteSince the 1970s, photographers have sat in the water with their camera. Sometimes the camera was on a pole between 2 to 4 feet length.
This wave is about 25 feet. Wave height is not measured from preceding trough to crest.
When I first saw Mavericks I was tied up at the dock after having sailed in to the harbor. I looked out beyond the harbor breakwater and saw the terrific maw of brutal waves crashing on the jagged rock reef. But I noticed the symmetry in the wave which every surfer hunts for.
ReplyDeleteI said out loud, that could almost be surfed. They'd have to be highly skilled and crazy. The man I had been talking with, a local school teacher, surprised me when he said, They do surf it. We continued to watch in amazement as the waters reared up to expend the energy of a thousand miles onto the foreboding rock.
Jeff Clark is usually assumed to be the first person to have surfed Mavericks. That would have been in the 1970s. Get this, it is said he surfed it alone for ten years before anyone else dared accompany him.
The break holds its shape even as the waves get larger. I don't know if anyone knows how big it can get before the wave becomes unrideable. Guys have been out there charging on 40+ foot waves. To make it more forbidding, the water is nearly always 50 degrees F.
Horizon out of whack; but not by much.
ReplyDeleteI learned how to serf in 3 to 4 ft waves at Fernandina Beach Fl. I got to serf some storm waves that were 6 to 8 ft when I was a youth. In my early 20's I had a gig that took me to southern California where 6 to 8 foot waves were common. I spent way too much time in the frigid water. When I was in my early 30's I was in Hawaii. When I saw the 20+ foot waves I wanted no part of it. The 8 foot waves in Guam were great when I was 50ish.
ReplyDelete