Word: wave
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...course, I had to attend incognito. Had the rest of the group realized that I wasn't one of them, group dynamics would have changed faster than the Harvard Police blotter. This meant that I couldn't go on a weekday--friends might wave and ruin my anonymity. This left Saturday as the only option. So early one Saturday morning I put on my jeans and an old sweatshirt, and did my best to look "high school...
What accounts for the difference is a number of factors. The depth of the disturbance in the ocean, for one. A wave that's 4 ft. high but projects its energy several hundred feet deep is going to pack more of a punch than a wave whose power is confined to the surface. Another critical variable is the shape of the ocean bottom. Surfing hot spots, or "breaks," are usually places where there is a sudden transition between deep water and shallow. Thus, as waves roll in, they are forced to leap up and over an underwater barrier. For example...
Knox and some two dozen other top surfers showed up at Todos Santos because Collins had predicted a spectacular swell at that particular time at that particular place. They brought with them their longest surfboards, because the longer the board, the faster it cuts through water. A 50-ft. wave, after all, travels at speeds in excess of 20 m.p.h., and anyone who's too slow at the approach risks being smashed. Every so often, in fact, a big-wave surfer dies. This year Jet Ski rescue teams provided backup, and there have been no fatalities...
...weeks ago it wasn't clear if Knox would keep his big-wave record. For as the K2 Challenge entered the home stretch, it seemed possible that another giant swell off Hawaii might produce a new contender for the big prize. But when the contest ended early last week, it was clear that the waves that rolled into Waimea Bay did not come close to the monsters of Todos Santos...
...Knox, it's the thrill of the ride, not the big cash prize, that's indelibly inscribed in his memory. "I caught the biggest wave of my life, so in my mind I've already won," he says. "You know, I've never seen a winter this big and this good--I hope El Nino comes back again next year...