What's the biggest wave you've ever seen?
 

A few questions for ya:

What's the biggest wave you've ever seen and where?

How about sharing some of your big wave photos?

How do you know when NOT to fish an area due to high surf?

This photo is obviously retouched, but not the size of the wave. This monster was the largest one I saw in two days of filming off the coast of Beavertail. It was three times the size of most other big waves. You never know when that big one will turn up.

40 feet from the trough 400 miles SW of Bermuda
45-50 feet - Half Moon Bay California (Mavericks... looking down from Pillar Point)

when i was in my early 20's i was a fill in mate on a f/v. we were stuck in 12 -15 footers for most of a day on georges bank. it was enough to make me get a real job on dry land. i didn't puke but it was close - not fun

montauk, sept. 09
 

biggest waves i ever fished surfcasting were in montauk. 8-10 foot sets at their peak, then the bigger rogues, during last years Classic. when is it too big to go out? that depends on where you fish. first off, i have found in big water that if you can get out rockhopping at all it's usually on the ebb, and it requires studying the water for abit before you go out! you gotta be able to hold your rock and beware of where you will get swept to once your knocked off. crosscurrents are the killers that pull you parallel to the shore out into the coves...

Mike:
I have some pictures I took in the winter of 92 at the East Wall where the waves were 25 to 30'. They are 35mm slides so I don't know how to convert them.

Any photo shop can scan them into a high resolution image, and it won't cost that much...

Since you mentioned it you're pretty much obligated :humpty:

-spence

Need a good scanner that has a slide holder.
I had a nice Canon that did this but it died otherwise I'd offer it up. :wall:

when was the last 1/3 of the east wall destroyed? was it 1992?

I doubt a shop would charge more than 5 bucks each for a high-rez scan and burn to CD.

-spence

40 plus off the edge of georges bank in a howling noreeaster..
I want to vomit just thinking about that trip.. :yak:

Since the rogue waves always seem to know where I am, I try to stay out of places that a triple size wave will get me. I got soaked this summer in NH on a night when the average wave was'nt even breaking and I moved to a spot on the drop that had'nt been hit for the 15 minutes that I was fishing on a rock 5 feet higher. I was on it for a minute with my jacket not buttoned up and sure enough soaked my smokes.
Stand on top of the bluff at Cuttyhunk on a clear and calm day and watch the sets come in. The difference is pretty interesting. You will push the envelope less afterwards.

We were trying to get the boat to surf down the waves. :hihi:

I was talking about my own experience... delivering a 30 foot sloop from beermooda to newport. sails would loose all wind and luff in the troughs.. waves were higher than the mast.

barrrrf

Want a pork rind?
Hummus?

nom nom.

dirty ashtrays.... BLAAAAARF

It was THIS big.

Behind wheelhouse on second level of partyboat out of Gloucester early 90s corkscrewing in the waves a bit and looking up at wavetops.

110' Broward, same route, bury the bow up to the wheel house
fall over the top and launch the screws,had to have someone on the throttle at all times

I have seen 16 foot cresting waves many times on my sailboat. They occur under certain conditions from just south of beavertail to about a line between PJ and Brenton reef then past that they are just big rollers on the open water.

The worst I have experienced recently fishing (that is been washed over by them , not just looking at them) were some rogues coming into central beach one October. Smokey and I were on the big rocks maybe 3 feet above the wash fishing for about 20 minutes when out of nowwhere comes three big waves in a row clear over our heads. We clung to the rocks like cats and immediately beat a retreat to the beach. We watched for a while because that was it , 3 waves and it went back to normal. Luckily we did not go back out on the rocks because about 20 minutes later here comes 3 more just like the first ones that hit us. Something out there was setting up these big suckers about every 20 minute and in between they were normal waves.

1980, I was hired to deliver a 58' S&S (Frers) sloop from Rio to Capetown. Last 800 miles sucked.... Southern route approach to South Africa (as it was during Aparthied.) Two lows combined around our position... Four days of steady 30k winds, 20 to 30 footers with the rogues thrown in every couple of hours just to keep you interested.Storm trysail and triple reef just to keep steerage in the troughs Won't guess the height of some of those monsters. but they were steeper than the others so the ones we saw (in daylight) were just huge, breaking before we could reach their crests. Reflecting on this almost thirty years later... we were very lucky to have been able to steer through that system and survive. After arrival in Capetown, we were fed, we showered, and caught the first flight out. Spent just eight hours on SA soil. I have always regretted not seeing the fabled beaches of South Africa, but was different times. I didn't fish back then either, another regret. All my pics from back then just kept getting wet on subsequent deliveries.

(doesn't exactly answer Mike's query but...there it is)

Couple Bermuda's ago we were tr#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g through the gulfstream hitting high 30's on a turbo sled.

Every once in a while one of the 2 primary helmsmen would stuff the bow into the back of a wave.

Watching a 100+ foot carbon rig move 4 feet out of column was kinda sketchy.

Navigator sticks his head out the companionway and says "hey guys, we need to slow the boat down before we break her." :cens:

Where's NF, I'm sure he's got some stories. ;)

I was typing...just slower than you.

Serious chop on lake eerie.My guess would be 10-15 ft chop.Not rollers.I thought it was over that day.Maybe a minute after we left the safety of the inlet.Like nothing I've seen in the ocean.

That gotta hurt, the captain wouldn't do over 6-9 kts

Just yesterday I was about 2-3 miles off squibnocket I saw a solid 16-20 foot swell start to break, by far the largest wave Ive ever seen, thank god I have a fast boat.

Yup, fresh water is less buoyant, so when you stuff a boat into that shorter chop, it feels more like a car crash....

I've seen that on the run the Mackenack Island. Bad crap, flying all the way over a 40'

Some great stories, keep 'em coming.

I would guess most of you old salts rarely get seasick; I was surprised when Frank Mundus told me he would get sick every day for 23 years...it takes a special love for the sea to endure that every day.

Frank said he would wait until all the big guys were on the rail and then he would approach the sickest one in the bunch and say, "That's not how you do it! If you're going to puke, do it right." Then he would take out his teeth and commence projectile vomiting, wipe his mouth, get up and eat a sandwich.

North shore Oahu, the pipeline.
3 yrs ago, lifeguards wouldn't let anyone near the water.
You could feel the concussion across the street.
Scary Big

OK then, I'll get it done today

While taking a 42' around the thumb of michigan in 10-15' chop was the most miserable i have ever been in a boat. Those waves were really close to eachother, doesnt help that we were in shallow water for the majority of the trip. never been that green for so long.