UTMC

http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/17/53/23/41 ... 28x471.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Surfers are simply a different breed

I can just about picture why someone decides to start surfing.
"Hm, skiing is pretty dangerous, cyclists get run over all the time, and motorcycles, that's just suicide...I know, I'll surf, at least I'll fall soft!"
Then, a few seasons in, this.

It's 'shopped.

goose wrote:
Surfers are simply a different breed

and no one here would know anything about that ...

Sisyphus wrote:It's 'shopped.

Perhaps, since I'm a luddite, but . . . .

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2 ... foot-wave/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sisyphus wrote:It's 'shopped.

No, it's actually not...

Where is it, then?

Sisyphus wrote:Where is it, then?

Please read Goose's last post...

reminds me of Shel Silverstein:

Dave McGunn was a surfin' bum, half-crazed by the blazin' sun.
From Waikiki to the Bering Sea, he rode 'em one by one.
Now he hung offshore 'bout a mile or more, out where the dolphins played,
And his wild eyes gleamed as he schemed and dreamed
To ride the perfect wave.

Oh, ride the perfect wave, Dave, ride the perfect wave.
If you wait it out and you don't sell out, you may ride
The perfect wave.

He crouched in the spray and he waited all day till the sun gave way to the moon,
And his legs grew cold and he grew old and wrinkled like a prune.
And the years rolled by and the surf broke high and the 40-foot breakers sprayed.
But he sneered at 'em all, sayin', "Too damn small; I'm waitin'
For the perfect wave."

He was sleepin' on his board when he woke to a roar as thunder shook the sea.
'Twas the dreaded California quake of 1973.
And he stared at the reef in disbelief, then paddled with tremblin' hands
As a monstrous crashin' tidal wave came roarin' 'cross the land.

It was 12 miles high and it filled the sky, the color of boilin' blood.
And cities fell beneath its swell and mountains turned to mud.
Its deadly surf engulfed the earth and left not a thing alive.
And high on the tip with a smile on his lip was Davey hangin' five.
He hit the top of the Golden Gate at a thousand miles an hour,
Over the top of the Empire State and the tip of the Eiffel Tower.
And as he wiped out, you could hear him shout as he plunged to a watery grave,
"Hey hi dee hi, I'm glad to die -- I've rode
The perfect wave."

Yep, they were talking about McNamara on NPR this evening on the way home. Interviewed some fellow who runs a surf shop in that area of Portugal. He said McNamara is nuts too.

--Jaeger

Holy god in heaven.
The foreshortening of the photo makes it look shooped. My bad. It doesn't even look like there's room for a bottom turn in there, what the hell was he thinking?

And he's still older than me. Gives me hope.

found this vid of the surfing glitterati at the same spot on 11 January:
http://paddleathlete.com/2013/billabong ... y-11-2013/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sisyphus wrote:Holy god in heaven.
The foreshortening of the photo makes it look shooped. My bad. It doesn't even look like there's room for a bottom turn in there, what the hell was he thinking?

The fellow they interviewed on NPR who knew that spot on Portugal's coast said he's much farther out than it looks, and that, for example, the fort in the foreground has been there for centuries and is still in one piece. He's farther out than it looks... but that just means that wave is fuckin' HUUUUUGE.

--Jaeger

The thought occurs...those people on that fort. At least one of them must have had his cellphone out and taken a picture, surely. A picture which might show the through in front of that breaker and giving a better idea of the ridiculous scale. But how to find it?
Also, a question for the ocean-folk. The article mentions that this is a 100 foot wave. Is the amplitude of ocean waves measured peak-to-peak, from the bottom of the through to the peak of the crest, or absolute, just up from where the flat surface of the ocean would be to the peak of the crest?

The way surfers measure waves and the way mariners (are supposed to) measure waves vary widely. But a quick glance into Bowditch here says that waves are measured trough to crest. Trough being below the mean sea level and crest of course being above it. Either way it's a fuckload of water.

I thought it was something like 88ft, but perhaps I read wrong. I'd say 88 feet is big enough. fuck, in my day I could barely handle six.

12ci wrote:reminds me of Shel Silverstein:

Dave McGunn was a surfin' bum, half-crazed by the blazin' sun.
From Waikiki to the Bering Sea, he rode 'em one by one.
Now he hung offshore 'bout a mile or more, out where the dolphins played,
And his wild eyes gleamed as he schemed and dreamed
To ride the perfect wave.

Oh, ride the perfect wave, Dave, ride the perfect wave.
If you wait it out and you don't sell out, you may ride
The perfect wave.

He crouched in the spray and he waited all day till the sun gave way to the moon,
And his legs grew cold and he grew old and wrinkled like a prune.
And the years rolled by and the surf broke high and the 40-foot breakers sprayed.
But he sneered at 'em all, sayin', "Too damn small; I'm waitin'
For the perfect wave."

He was sleepin' on his board when he woke to a roar as thunder shook the sea.
'Twas the dreaded California quake of 1973.
And he stared at the reef in disbelief, then paddled with tremblin' hands
As a monstrous crashin' tidal wave came roarin' 'cross the land.

It was 12 miles high and it filled the sky, the color of boilin' blood.
And cities fell beneath its swell and mountains turned to mud.
Its deadly surf engulfed the earth and left not a thing alive.
And high on the tip with a smile on his lip was Davey hangin' five.
He hit the top of the Golden Gate at a thousand miles an hour,
Over the top of the Empire State and the tip of the Eiffel Tower.
And as he wiped out, you could hear him shout as he plunged to a watery grave,
"Hey hi dee hi, I'm glad to die -- I've rode
The perfect wave."

That was excellent!