Peril of onshore big waves

The news front has been quiet for a little while, suddenly a couple of tragic news from the California coast were reported to have been resulted possibly from onshore freaque waves -- what locally called the sleeper waves.

This one according to this SanLuisObispo.com article:

A 27-year-old San Luis Obispo man swept off the Limekiln State Park beach by a powerful wave and presumed dead . . .

Here's what happen: the young man, Chris Patridge, with his cousin, Eric Kleiner, and several friends were

. . . watching the waves at the Big Sur campground, about 80 miles north of San Luis Obispo, when Partridge ventured closer to the water.

A wave came in as he went down to the shoreline, and as it receded, Kleiner saw Partridge had been taken out with the surf.

Unexpectedly and unlikely as it may seem, a young man's life, gone, just like that!

Another one, a little up north of the coast, reported by the Santa Rosa Press Democrat

The body of a missing 42-year-old Berkeley woman who was swept off Gualala Beach by a wave on Saturday was discovered early Monday morning.

Molly Keane was dragged into the ocean by a large wave as she attempted to rescue her dog from the frigid surf.

A life lost untimely and unnecessarily, trying to rescue a dog. But that's not all, the article also mentioned a few weeks ago,

On Jan. 12, 19-year-old Ann Madden of Petaluma and her fiance had walked down from the overlook at Portuguese Beach north of Bodega Bay with their two dogs in tow.

Large waves engulfed the two animals and when Madden went in to rescue them, she was caught in the surf and drowned.

Another life lost trying to rescue dogs. All perils of onshore big waves. Can ever learn to watch out for the freaque onshore waves?

In another Santa Rosa Press Democrat recent article, there's this picture by Mark Aronoff showing the excitement of beach going:


with the warning "A Sonoma Coast State Park aide said people should stay away from the waterline, especially those with small children and pets." How easily it can forget, in the midst of fun and excitements, danger and even possible tragedy could be just prowling nearby. Other than warnings from the coast guard or park rangers, everyone is on their own. Many lives lost, all around the world all the time, but there is no outcry for academic researches on the onshore freaque waves. There are tons of fundings for research on average temperatures that might raise by 0.8 degree in 10 or 20 years while we can't even be certain about the temperatures next week. But that's the mighty global warming research industry and mighty academicians are certainly happy with the plentiful of fundings. Who cares about the meaningfulness of their research? And who cares about a few life lost near the beaches anyway? Que Sera Sera!