[y66]

HALF MOON BAY, California -- The image of the quintessential American surfer -- a bronzed slacker in board shorts -- may be firmly entrenched. But that surfer dude bears little resemblance to the athletes known as big-wave surfers, a small community composed of men and women who often become amateur oceanographers and experts in wave dynamics in order to ride waves that can be more than 50 feet high.

On Saturday, this community will gather here for the Super Bowl of big-wave surfing: the Mavericks Surf Contest, which pits 24 surfers against one another — and against some of the most treacherous surfing conditions in the world.

For the rest of the story ... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/sports/o...?pagewanted=all

[pclayton]

I've surfed once in my life, but my oldest son Alex is an accomplished bodyboarder and is starting to surf. During the past few months, the Santa Ana winds created some pretty big surf. A usual day on our local beaches has 2' to 4' waves, but during the winds we'd regularly get 15' to 20' and higher.

[y66]

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — Big blue waves heaved under a bright blue sky for the sixth Mavericks Surf Contest at Pillar Point in Half Moon Bay on Saturday. After all the tall wave faces were carved and wipeouts endured, Greg Long, 24, gripped the coveted first-place check for one of the world’s premier big-wave surfing competitions. Then he announced that the six finalists had decided in the water during the finals to split the $57,000 in prize money evenly ... rest of story

[Winstonm]

I don't know if this is the same type of competition, but I've seen examples where the surfers had to be dragged into the wave via jet ski just to catch the wave, and by my estimations based on a 6' tall surfer, the waves appeared to be in the 40-60' tall realm.

I would guestimate that from that volume of water the survivability of a serious wipe out at about 50/50.

On the psychological side, I'm not so sure how heroic are these riders - if my death-to-risk ratio is accurate, I would think they would have ego-gratification deficiencies more in line with alcoholics and drug-addicts.

[pclayton]

Winstonm, on Jan 13 2008, 12:01 PM, said:

I don't know if this is the same type of competition, but I've seen examples where the surfers had to be dragged into the wave via jet ski just to catch the wave, and by my estimations based on a 6' tall surfer, the waves appeared to be in the 40-60' tall realm.

I would guestimate that from that volume of water the survivability of a serious wipe out at about 50/50.

On the psychological side, I'm not so sure how heroic are these riders - if my death-to-risk ratio is accurate, I would think they would have ego-gratification deficiencies more in line with alcoholics and drug-addicts.

Waverunners are commonly used to tow the surfers into these monsters. You simply can't paddle quickly enough to drop in.

With the pros fatal accidents happen but are rare. They have amazing lung capacity and can stay under for 90 - 120 seconds without a lot of problem. The waverunners are also used to pull the surfers out of the path.