When Oceans

[CaptnKirk]

Rogue wave at Point Mugu

and a week later

Swept away . . .

There are some sections of the coastline from California up to Washington that are unpredictable and treacherous.

We used to live near Surf Beach in Lompoc, and the tales of Rouge Waves was legendary.

 

[rezinn]

Lots of people are falling through the ice and drowning up on the other side of the country. Just that time of year.

 

[Farang]

Mugu. Mmmmmmmuuuuuuuuuu-gu.

 

[CycloWizard]

Sad stories. Some recent studies have indicated that rogue waves are much more common than previously believed and are the result of flow instabilities. It's been a couple years since I read any papers on them, so I don't recall what they frequency of them was on the open seas, but that it was common for them to be over 100 feet. I've been fishing on Lake Michigan in 6 ft waters and that was pretty bad.

 

[Moonbeam]

Not sure who, but one of our posters has been warning that a mighty wave is coming, but who pays any attention.

 

[wwswimming]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirkWe used to live near Surf Beach in Lompoc, and the tales of Rouge Waves was legendary.

(and watch out for the Lipstick undertow ?)

1997 - Todd Chesser, a very fit Hawaiian, was surfing at Waimea Bay in
10 foot Hawaiian (20 foot faces).

2 25 foot waves (50 foot faces) came in. killed Todd. very big deal
for Hawaiian surfers. happening 3 years as it did after Mark Foo's death
at Maverick's, Mark Foo being another Hawaiian.

for another peak North Pacific swell about 5 years ago, the buoys maxed out
at 42 feet @ 20 seconds (42 * 20/17 ~ 50 feet Hawaiian).

it was a day for tow-surfing at Maverick's. when the peak waves of the
swell came through, by the description of Shawn Alladio, the ocean rose
up & it wasn't a quarter mile up & down the beach. it was 3 miles up &
down the beach. Shawn made the decision to drive towards the wave &
got to it before it broke. She's a very experienced waterperson & estimated
the backs at 50' plus. the proverbial 100' foot wave that big wave surfers
dream about.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: CycloWizard
Sad stories. Some recent studies have indicated that rogue waves are much more common than previously believed and are the result of flow instabilities. It's been a couple years since I read any papers on them, so I don't recall what they frequency of them was on the open seas, but that it was common for them to be over 100 feet. I've been fishing on Lake Michigan in 6 ft waters and that was pretty bad.

The period (or wavelength) makes a difference though; 6 ft waves on Lake Michigan have a much shorter period than 6 foot waves on the ocean.

 

[wwswimming]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: CycloWizard
Sad stories. Some recent studies have indicated that rogue waves are much more common than previously believed and are the result of flow instabilities. It's been a couple years since I read any papers on them, so I don't recall what they frequency of them was on the open seas, but that it was common for them to be over 100 feet. I've been fishing on Lake Michigan in 6 ft waters and that was pretty bad.

The period (or wavelength) makes a difference though; 6 ft waves on Lake Michigan have a much shorter period than 6 foot waves on the ocean.

most definitely.

one of the bigger surf events of the last 11 years was January 28-30, 1998. The "fetch" of the storm was about 5000 miles in the West Pacific, near Japan. the waves got to Hawaii on the 28th and California on the 30th. the buoy reading for NOAA #51001 northwest of Hawaii -
http://seaboard.ndbc.noaa.gov/...page.php?station=51001

==> 27 feet at 25 seconds. this is the swell where Ken Bradshaw got the 80 footer, being towed in. here's video of Ken talking about that wave
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xXbkte0TWY

i don't know the exact formula for wave energy, the difference between 10 feet @ 10 seconds and 10 feet @ 20 seconds. if it's like "normal physics", the energy goes up as the velocity squared.

one example of a rogue wave is the wave that sunk the boat in the book & movie Perfect Storm. there, the superposition of waves, possibly coming from different directions, created a wave suspected to have an open ocean height of 100 feet.

Hawaii has lots of history with waves. One of the stories is about a wave that arrived in the middle of the night. people living 100 feet up the mountain got doused by one huge wave or set of waves that came along in the middle of the night.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Not sure who, but one of our posters has been warning that a mighty wave is coming, but who pays any attention.

<Perfect Storm>

 

[CycloWizard]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
The period (or wavelength) makes a difference though; 6 ft waves on Lake Michigan have a much shorter period than 6 foot waves on the ocean.

Exactly - that was my point. Even on the lake we will see the occasional rogue wave, but it's generally not more than 50-100% higher than the average waves at the time. I can't even comprehend a 100' wave on the ocean.