Big Wednesday

Today was the culmination of a big, west swell that's slammed the California coasts from San Diego to Marin County. Reportedly longtime Monterey surfer Peter Davi, 45, drowned yesterday when the swell hit there. He was surfing paddle in when his leash broke on a "smaller" 10 footer (the waves were 30 feet plus), and they think he drowned trying to swim in to shore.

The first runnings of the swell hit yesterday afternoon, and I surfed some head high waves for about 3 hours before I came in totally exhausted. But the main force of the swell hit last night, and we were all out around 7:00 am at Sunset Beach near Gladstone's on the PCH to catch it. The waves were from 8-12 feet (this means a 16 foot to 24 foot face from trough to peak). None of these photos catch the truly awesome, giant waves that I saw and rode today, but they give an idea of what we were dealing with. My personal photographer couldn't make it due to her other job as a librarian, so I have some before and after shots of the breaks.



This is what I had to get past to get in the lineup. Luckily it was a point break, but it was high tide, which meant that if I timed it wrong, a fast set came in, etc., I could get slammed against the rocks.



I walked down these rocks and jumped in the water during a lull between sets around 7 am.



Another nice one.



Some were moving so fast, you couldn't catch them even with a longboard, which is what I was using.