Wild Wild Wave???

Here's a real life wave picture that immediately reminded me of the Hokusai wave. But hey, there's a also a real life surfer there, which Hokusai probably would never had imagined.

This picture is from a report in Surfertoday. The event was the Wild Wild Wave El Fronton Invitational, at the Canary Islands. The surfer's name is Jeff Hubbard, the champion of the event. The wave is certainly deserved to be called the Wild Wild Wave -- nothing freaque about it!

By the way here's Hokusai's famous woodblock print the "Great Wave" also known as the "Breaking Wave Off Kanagawa":

Is it art imitating nature or nature imitating art?

Incidentally I particularly like this autobiographical sketch by Hokusai (1760-1849) himself:

"From the age of six I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was fifty I had published a universe of designs. but all I have done before the the age of seventy is not worth bothering with. At seventy five I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am eighty you will see real progress. At ninety I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At a hundred I shall be a marvelous artist. At a hundred and ten everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokosai, but today I sign my self 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing."

He had grand plans for himself to live to at least 110 years old. Too bad God took him away 20 years prematurely. I like his positive spirit. Way to go!

Two encounters of nearshore freaque waves

Two similar cases within a few hours happened in Australia and New Zealand nearshore areas yesterday were reported:

From Heraldsun.com.au:

POLICE have named the man who died yesterday when a fishing boat overturned at Point Nepean.

Twelve people were fishing at Point Nepean when a freak wave tossed them into the water, leaving two trapped inside the 10-metre boat, when it upturned about 3.15pm this afternoon.

A Queenscliff dive instructor became a reluctant hero in a dramatic rescue that saw one man saved.

And another from radionz.co.nz:

Two people have been flown to hospital after their boat capsized off the Taranaki coast, prompting police to remind people to take care on the water.

Six people were thrown into the water when their boat was hit by a rogue wave near Shags Point off the coast of Opunake about 10.30am on Monday.

Police say all six swam to safety, with one person suffering cuts and abrasions and another taking in too much water.

Constable Danny Giles says it is understood there were lifejackets in the boat but none were being worn.

So the peril of nearshore freaque waves, especially to small boat, has clearly manifested in the Southern Ocean yesterday. One life lost, several injured among the 18 or so boaters trying to enjoy their early spring outings. I guess one can say the warning of the peril has always been there, but no one can predict when, where, why, or how it will happen until it happened!

Lives on the line

I have no idea who Oxfam is, but I very much admire this their great sand work on the beach of Cancun as showing in the Sydney Morning Herald. Yes, indeed, lives on the line -- or only until the next big wave, they probably will call it the freaque one, come onshore that'll swept it all out!

P.S.

CTV News has a totally different perspective of the sand work. I prefer the one with an ocean background!

Clelia II in the news

This is the picture of cruise ship Clelia II confronting waves in Antarctic waters. They are in the news today:

BUENOS AIRES - A large wave slammed into an Antarctic cruise ship with 88 American passengers and 77 crew members aboard, but the ship's crew overcame minor damage and was heading safely back to its scheduled port, the vessel's operator said.

The Clelia II declared an emergency yesterday, reporting it had suffered engine damage amid heavy seas and 55 mph (90 kph) winds when it was northeast of the South Shetland Islands and about 850km from Ushuaia, the Argentine Navy said in a statement.

The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators issued statement saying the wave that hit the Clelia II caused a broken bridge window and some electrical malfunctions that temporarily knocked out some communications and affected engine performance.

"There are no injuries to passengers, although one member of the crew sustained minor injuries," it said.

So the news is generally an encountering with a seemingly freaque wave with fairly good outcome all in all.

I don't know what size polar cruising ships generally are in the Antarctic waters. I am a little surprised to see Clelia II appears to be about the size of river cruise ships. One does not expect a whole lot of waves or even storms in the river cruise. But in the Antarctic waters, I heard people just go there to watch waves! Anyway I am happy about the basically minor damages. Thank God!

P.S.

Here's a video:

Reviews of "The Wave" by Susan Casey

Well, it’s been nearly 3 months since my first read of the book “The Wave”. I have flip through the book from time to time, but somehow I just never really get into it yet. (Contrary to one of my previous experience of reading a popular book “State of Fear” by Michael Crichton which I could hardly put it down until I finished it.)

I just noticed today that the book have so far received 90 customers’ reviews on Amazon, there are nineteen of them gave the book 3 stars out of 5, eight 2 stars, and seven 1 stars, which amounts to basically 39% negative reviews. This should be a better than average percentage in the long run in my opinion. (Comparatively similar percentage for the book “State of Fear” is 48% -- perhaps Michael Crichton had attracted more than his share of global warming ideologues there, not a true reflection of people's views in general.)

While Amazon book reviews are not always totally objective, but I find the reviews there are making some good points. Here are some of the excerpts that I generally concur:

· The title suggests that it was about the science and physics of big waves, but half the book was about surfers. I'm sure it was a fun gig for the writer, but I'd already seen "Riding Giants." (by annapolis321 who gave 3 stars.)

· I felt there was a bit too much from the surfers. I am not a surfer myself, so found that the descriptions of the waves blended together. Huge is huge; I can't differentiate in my mind between a eighty-foot wave and a hundred-foot wave. Some of the dialog was interesting, but much of it was rambling and I lost focus. With so many stories of similar near-misses, I found I didn't feel the urgency behind each tale, and as a result the book as a whole lost something for me. (by A. Luciano who gave 3 stars.)

· The scientific coverage had little depth, with little to no explanation of how swells develop, how scientists forecast storms, and what factors are considered by designers of ships of various sizes to withstand shocks from giant waves. Ms. Casey seemed quite enchanted with Laird Hamilton, probably the best known big wave surfer in the world. Mr. Hamilton's presence had a prophetic flavor throughout the book that was a bit annoying, frankly. (by Brain Kodi who gave 3 stars.)

· While technically the subtitle of this book is correct, it really should specifically state that the book is largely about hard-core big wave surf addicts. If you are interested in surfing, and Laird Hamilton in particular, then by all means by this book and skip over the few bits related to science. Likewise, if you enjoy dramatic descriptions and superstitious anthropomorphizing of waves, buy this book.

If you were hoping for more science, even as written for the mass market (i.e, most of us), you will be disappointed. This book is so focused on the surf addicts and their exploits that the occasional interjections of material not related to surfing are actually jarring. It's like reading a novel with sudden, oddly placed breaks for a weather report. (by Shawn who gave 3 stars.)

· Casey attends some of the conferences on ocean wave physics where scientists attempt to understand the formation of the huge waves that are shipping hazards. The papers presented at these conferences are difficult for anyone outside the field to understand. However, Casey never arrives at even a summary understanding of the research work that she can clearly present to her readers, although she talks to a number of scientists. Again, we get a magazine article level summary, but nothing that the reader can sink their teeth into. (by Ian Kaplan who gave 3 stars.)

· The book is an interesting mix of themes, with the surfers vs. science perspectives, and I'm not sure if worked out the way she must have hoped it would. I think readers interested in surfing will skim over the science part, while I know for certain that I skimmed over the surfing part looking for more science. (by James Schrumpf who gave 3 stars.)

· Casey's determination to prove that ocean waves are getting bigger, and the cause is global warming, seems at times to be shoehorned into an otherwise pleasant, if sloppily written adventure story, as if she wants to be taken seriously. This is an example of what passes for intellectual rigor in the plasticine world which is television, of which Oprah Winfrey is the principal avatar. Casey's pretense of serious scientific explication is given the lie by, among other things, her wide-eyed acceptance of the 2007 IPCC Report, as if that hadn't been discredited by legitimate climate scientists. (by Michael Goodel who gave 2 stars.)

· Casey's story here might be reminiscent of ancient mythological heroes who challenge the gods despite the ultimate certainty of losing. There are the common elements of courage, action, high ability, fatalism, hubris and final defeat in return for a very temporary feeling of semi-divinity. Unfortunately Casey's prose is not up to the challenge and ultimately dissolves into gushing, gee-whiz hero worship. All in all a disappointing book. (by J. Moran who gave 2 stars.)

· If you're into surfing, maybe there's something here. I found the profiles mostly adulatory and focused on the surfer's mastery of the wave, rather than the forces that created the wave.

If you wanted to learn something about rogue, freak and giant waves, this book is useless. (by Jerry Saperstein who gave 1 star.)

· Frankly, the book tells a few stories about rogue waves, but sheds little light on the phenomenon. However, these few stories are interspersed between painfully long surfing stories. Now, some may find stories about professional surfers interesting, but I suspect these folks are probably surfers. For someone like myself, I find myself amused that there are such things as professional surfers. Aside from that, I really don't care. It certainly isn't something that helps one to understand true rogue waves. (by history buff “old guy” who gave 1 star.)

I’ll skip the glowing 5 and 4 stars positive reviews and the rather expectable views of those from the newspaper reviewers around the world. If you can do a Google Search with “Reviews of ‘The Wave’ by Susan Casey", you will find that there are 45,100, as of today, resulting items out there waiting for you to read. While these Amazon customers’ critiques are numerous and by-an-large quite fair, it did not cause me to regret buying this book. After seeing the negatives everything else is upbeat beyond that! I would recommend this book to anyone contemplating of buying it as long as being fully aware that this is a book written by a non-scientist and presumably for non-scientists, so not to expect to learn the science of wave from this book at any rate. Notwithstanding the author’s personal favoritism toward surfing, this is still one of the best wave books that bring attention of waves to the general public. I doubt any professional scientist can do any better than this book.

Al Osborne, one of the many scientists Miss Casey talked to in her book, has just recently published a massive super high power science book entitled “Nonlinear Ocean Waves and the Inverse Scattering Transform” (Academic Press). One can really learn the true academic science of waves – most likely only by those advanced nonlinear physicists!

Between Osborne’s and Casey’s books, there is also the Springer book "Rogue Waves in the Ocean" by Kharif, Pelinovsky, and Slunyaev published last year. Miss Casey’s “The Wave” is, by all means, most certainly a welcome and refreshing addition to the meager collections of wave books in the current literature world. It is exciting to see wave books of different scientific octane level to appear. Three great wave books in two years! That must be unprecedented. For a wave aficionado like me, who's proudly own all three books, this is truly the exciting of times. I offer my one big thumb up for this book enthusiastically with or without those 35 fair but rather on the negative side of reviews out of 90 customers reviewed Miss Casey's book so far! If I did not already purchased the book, I would be thrilled to received it as a Christmas gift. It is readable by everyone. What else do you expect for Christmas anyway?

I

A surfer encountered the freaque wave

I think we can all agree that of all walks of people, surfers are basically the ones that have most encounters with waves so that they may be regarded as the ones that know more about waves than most others in general, especially the nearshore surf waves. But when they are on board a vessel that encounters a freaque wave attack, do they have more insight on waves than ordinary people? May be!

Yesterday there was an article in the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot written by the well known surfer James Pribram:

Last night was the first night I slept more than four hours. We have been stuck in gale force winds for more than a week now, with frequent downpours and churning seas.

Two days ago while on watch, I was up on the deck by myself. I had just sat down, turning my head around over my left shoulder and swoosh — a rogue wave washed me clear across the deck and onto the other side of the helm.

I'm not sure if I would have been washed overboard, because I was able to grab on with my right hand and then my left, jerking me back. Even so, thankfully, I had just clipped in my harness before taking the wave at full blast.

My whole right side is a bit bruised, swollen and sore from holding on. I ended up lying on my back with the entire gully of seawater emptying out on top of me. I thought I was dreaming; it all happened so quickly. I remember thinking, "Just hold on. Let the water drain out and you'll be fine.

"Nothing was floating through my mind (no pun intended) at the time. No great revelations of life. Just a very clear vision of water pouring on top of me, like some sort of baptism. Time had slowed to an almost halt. In a strange way it felt very empowering.

There's a reason why I always say "I love you" to those I care for most. Because you never know when it will be your last time to say it. Especially on a journey in the middle of the ocean. Searching for the fourth gyre I had but one thought, one vision that day. Well, two, actually.

One: of treading water and watching the sailboat sail off into the distance.

Two: of a clean ocean one day.

Peace.

It's not a long article so I quoted it here in full. It is of interest to note that he was really encountered the freaque wave in action and he provided the detailed action in detail: "I had just sat down, turning my head around over my left shoulder and swoosh — a rogue wave washed me clear across the deck and onto the other side of the helm." Ouch! He was out there by himself so no one corroborate him. We will certainly not have any doubt about the fact that a freaque wave washed him clear across the deck. It was out of nowhere, he did not seen it.. Just "swoosh" and there was the freaque wave. We can not expect any more detailed description than that. That was what really had happened. But still we have no idea what the wave was, where did it come from, and how and why it happened. That's the state of our knowledge. The only thing certain is that it had happened! He was bruised, swollen and sore. Otherwise I tend to think that he was very lucky. "Just a very clear vision of water pouring on top" of him. We appreciate that he shears this story with the rest of us. We wish all the encounters can be as lucky and able to recall what had happened. That may not be helpful to the research, still knowing what had happened is better than leave to theoretician's imaginations. Thanks to Mr. Pribram for an inspiring as well as philosophical article telling us what had happened to himself. May the luck be with him always!