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Beautiful Mutant ... Ocean Wave

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These gentlemen have a lot of Faith in their Health Care System.

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"Recorded History" for Shipstern's Bluff doesn't go back very far ... 10 years maybe.

Anyway, this is the biggest Shipstern's in reported history.

I wouldn't say they're nuts. But the thing breaks on a humongous shallow rock ledge, I addition to boulders in the line-up.

The wierd ripples that create the "ski-jump" for the surfers either come from the wave bouncing back from the shore, or from submerged boulders.

It's a unique shape. Damn those waves are beautiful. From a distance.

http://www.surfline.com/surflinetv/primetime/biggest-shipsterns-ever-part-2_56109

It's in Tasmania, way south Australia. So the waves come from Antarctica, maybe a little from the Indian Ocean.
 
i have spent a lot of time around the ocean, and big waves dont scare me too much. i mean, the one in the photo i would crap myself, but in general. what does scare me is whats underneath... i cringe when i see surfers going over reef just feet under the water...
 
OP still too long to read?

:hmm:

other than what i already said, i don't know. i haven't been to Shipstern's and i haven't read any oceanographer's analysis of it.

but it is much closer to shore than most waves that size - a true deep water break, 30 yards from shore.


Are these as big as hawaii's north breakers?

it's as big as small Jaws - but Jaws/ Peahi breaks far from shore.

having been bottom-slammed by a wave 1/3 that size, which was about as much as i care to deal with (i had my arms raised above my head, so that my elbows got slammed, not my head) ... i have no desire to go swimming at Shipstern's.

well, Teahupoo has killed 2 people that i know of, who were surfing a large swell and got the "coke bottle" treatment (head goes into reef, wave uses body for leverage, head & neck severely damaged - just like those old glass Coca-Cola bottles), i would guess that Shipstern's will be dealing out a similar fate.

still, i have to admire the guys that surf it.
 

eh, shit happens. 😛

I have a profound respect for the water, but absolutely love it.
It's not our domain, we don't belong there. So when the big boys of the water decide they want to fuck with us, well... we can't do anything about it, because the water is their world, we're only visiting and fucking around in it.

I'd do everything possible in the ocean if I could. I'd love to go diving, snorkling, take a large yacht out there, take a small yacht, go on a sailboat (large or small), go on adventures, look for random things, swim with dolphins, etc etc. I absolutely love the oceans of our world, and have a need to do something with them by the time I'm done with this world.
Hell, I'm pretty sure I get depressed whenever I turn away and leave a coast I've visited. I'd be perfectly content to just stare out at the ocean all day.
 
well, Teahupoo has killed 2 people that i know of, who were surfing a large swell and got the "coke bottle" treatment (head goes into reef, wave uses body for leverage, head & neck severely damaged - just like those old glass Coca-Cola bottles), i would guess that Shipstern's will be dealing out a similar fate.

Picturing that makes me cringe.
 

that's fake.

if it was real, Surfline & the other surf mags, and also all the zoology/ marine mammal/ oceanographers would be studying it.

BUT - that has happened with great whites. they will come out of the water to grab seals on rocks.

i don't know if that's ever happened with a human being though.


the gospel among "ocean people" is that there are no recorded attacks by killer whales on humans.

but i have a theory - that's because if any attacks happened, the people were swallowed whole.

i.e., not enough evidence to conclude that an attack by a killer whale occurred. just a missing person.

personally, i would not swim around hungry killer whales. they have been reported to go after sea otters in the Pacific Northwest recently, because there's not enough salmon to eat. and a sea otter is just like one spoonful for a killer whale.
 
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that's fake.

if it was real, Surfline & the other surf mags, and also all the zoology/ marine mammal/ oceanographers would be studying it.

BUT - that has happened with great whites. they will come out of the water to grab seals on rocks.

i don't know if that's ever happened with a human being though.


the gospel among "ocean people" is that there are no recorded attacks by killer whales on humans.

but i have a theory - that's because if any attacks happened, the people were swallowed whole.

i.e., not enough evidence to conclude that an attack by a killer whale occurred. just a missing person.

personally, i would not swim around hungry killer whales. they have been reported to go after sea otters in the Pacific Northwest recently, because there's not enough salmon to eat. and a sea otter is just like one spoonful for a killer whale.
I was aware it was fake. It's a commercial, for the retail store La Sirena.
 
Are these as big as hawaii's north breakers?

Using the dude in the picture for scale, I'm guessing that wave is about 30'. Jaws off Maui was at 50+ a couple of winters ago. I'm pretty sure norh shore Oahu made it to 50+ this winter. Big enough to hold the Eddie Aikau.
 
that's fake.

if it was real, Surfline & the other surf mags, and also all the zoology/ marine mammal/ oceanographers would be studying it.

BUT - that has happened with great whites. they will come out of the water to grab seals on rocks.

i don't know if that's ever happened with a human being though.


the gospel among "ocean people" is that there are no recorded attacks by killer whales on humans.

but i have a theory - that's because if any attacks happened, the people were swallowed whole.

i.e., not enough evidence to conclude that an attack by a killer whale occurred. just a missing person.

personally, i would not swim around hungry killer whales. they have been reported to go after sea otters in the Pacific Northwest recently, because there's not enough salmon to eat. and a sea otter is just like one spoonful for a killer whale.

Orca's scare me more than Great Whites actually. They have the intelligence to work in a pod when they hunt. I actually saw video of a Killer Whale taking a great white in its mouth after ramming it and then drowning it. Love that they still appear here in Puget Sound and the San Juan's.
 
eh, shit happens. 😛

I have a profound respect for the water, but absolutely love it.
It's not our domain, we don't belong there. So when the big boys of the water decide they want to fuck with us, well... we can't do anything about it, because the water is their world, we're only visiting and fucking around in it.

Fuck that. I'll deal with Seaworld the same way I do anything else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MA1IFKwdAQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdzGhFNhXWQ
 
http://www.surfline.com/surflinetv/greatest-wipeouts/james-mckean_56206

video of one of the guys wiping out on that same swell.

one of these days, they'll be video-taping, and they will find that they just video-taped someone's death.


it makes me wonder sort of a philosophical question - if a surfer like James McKean didn't get lucky & got pounded on the rocks and died, how similar is that to suicide ?

i don't wish that on any of these guys, but it is very dangerous.

my rule of thumb is, don't surf the wave if you can't enjoy the wipeout. this is wise because so many of my rides end as wipe-outs.

there's a few supernaturally talented guys whose balance helps them through incredibly difficult off-balance situations ... Kelly Slater is probably the champ in that regard ... but i'm not one of them.
 
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