Cortes Bank
March 3, 2001 1:39 PM Subscribe
Cortes Bank is a 17-mile underwater mountain range that comes to a head 3 feet below the surface at a spot called Bishop Rock, about 100 miles off the coast of San Diego. When open ocean waves encounter this seafloor anomaly, they break with stunning speed and size. This is the story of a "tow-in" surfing expedition to Cortes Bank, with jaw-dropping Quicktime movies of surfers riding 30-40 foot waves in the middle of the ocean...
i grew up surfing in Hawaii myself, and the only time i saw anything like these waves was one winter, when Kaena Point on the north shore was breaking at 50+ feet. even so, those giant waves were traveling nowhere near the speed of these Cortes Bank monsters. in one of the videos you can actually see one of the surfers' boards go into a sort of oscillation because of the high speed. very intense. their hearts must have been in their throats. and remember that the peak of the underwater mountain is only 3 feet underwater! yep. you could die out there.
posted by cfj at 4:54 PM on March 3, 2001
posted by cfj at 4:54 PM on March 3, 2001
I think Evan Slater and one other guy tried to paddle into some of the waves. They failed. The lack of line up points probably multiplied the spookiness factor. Beautiful waves though.
posted by rdr at 6:51 PM on March 3, 2001
posted by rdr at 6:51 PM on March 3, 2001
Thery do this all the time off the coast of Maui, at a spot called "Jaws". Due to wave refraction in this case, rather than undersea mounts.
posted by Hackworth at 11:19 PM on March 4, 2001
posted by Hackworth at 11:19 PM on March 4, 2001
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posted by crawl at 4:25 PM on March 3, 2001