Freaque Waves

Thanks for dropping by!

2012-01-27T16:51:00.000-05:00

Somewhere within the last half hour or so, there is a milepost of sorts for this blog has just passed. I checked the number of the blog’s “Pageviews all time history” -- it was 999,915 then, just about 30 minutes later, it is now 100,057. So since May, 2009 when the Blogspot started counting, up to just now today, there are more than 100,000 visitors visited this blog. To some of the popular blogs that usually expect millions visitors per day, the 100,000 is much too insignificant a number to be bothered. But for this personal blog that was started with my daughter’s suggestion, I only expect her as a probable visitor, to have other visitors at all is beyond my wildest dream. Anyway, for anyone who kind enough to read this, please accept my sincere appreciation. Mega thanks for dropping by!

Happened in Scarbotough beach near Perth, Australia.

2012-01-27T12:54:00.000-05:00

As the first World War song title says: "It's a long way to Tipperary", a sad tragic case just happened a few days ago in Perth, Australia, where a 28 year old Irish young man from Tipperary lost his life to a freaque wave at Scarborough beach there. As this Independent.ie news reports:

A 28-year-old Irishman who was on a working holiday with his brother in Australia drowned yesterday following a freak accident.
Martin Costigan, from Templetuohy, Co Tipperary, was in the sea with his brother and friends at lunchtime yesterday at Scarborough beach near Perth when a freak wave swept him away.
Mr Costigan, who was a non-swimmer, was from a large farming family of eight children and played hurley and gaelic for his local club, Moyne Templetuohy.
His body was later recovered from the bottom of the ocean near the Perth coastline.

It's a familiar storyline again -- a freaque wave swept him away -- but no less tragic, especially to his family and friends and he is a long way from home. May the Lord help him rest in peace, all the prayers to his family and friends.

The beach picture at the top of this post, which is accompanied one of the news article, is presumably where the tragedy occurred. How can anyone be expecting a freaque wave encounter in some place like that?

Faster FFT !?

2012-01-22T17:54:00.002-05:00

The above is a graph accompanied an article in SciTechDaily a few days ago entitled "New Algorithm Faster Than Fourier Transform." It is a picture I believe all wave aficionados are familiar with. The article attracted my attention because I think the title should be more accurately stated as "Faster than Fast Fourier Transform". As one who was around as a bystander at the beginning of the FFT algorithm in the late 1960's and FFT became an integral part of wave data analysis -- long before the present day super computer / faster PC era. Since everything is getting faster and faster noadays, it is really not surprising to see a Faster FFT -- will that be FFFT?! But what going through my mind is what difference would that be made to our data analysis or daily life? Can we really notice the difference in speed by any chance? Or in other words, hasn't our technology advancement reached the stage of irrelevance?

John Tukey (1915-2000)

I still remember the excitement of FFT's early days, wall to wall papers about it in every conference, and the new household name of Cooley-Tukey -- even though no one knew or cared who Cooley really is! Now after nearly 5 decades, it is just made faster! So? It is going to be presented in Association for Computing Machinery’s Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA) this week. Again, So? I would be more interested in hearing what John Tukey (1915-2000) thinks about it. Would he be excited?

A happy rescue story.

2012-01-18T10:43:00.001-05:00

Here's a freaque wave encounter case with happy ending:

Marine Area Command rescue nine men - Broken Bay

Wednesday, 18 January 2012 05:46:45 PM

Nine men have been rescued after a rogue wave capsizing a diving vessel on the state’s Central Coast this afternoon.

About 1.30pm, (Wednesday 18 January, 2012), the men were travelling about one nautical mile offshore near East Reef, Broken Bay, when the incident occurred.

The crew activated an EPIRB emergency beacon immediately and emergency services responded.

Officers attached to the NSW Marine Area Command at Broken Bay attended the scene and all nine crew were rescued. The men were transported to Careel Bay.

As a result of the incident no one was injured and medical assistance was not required.

This case clearly underlines the importance of having EPIRB and super quick responsive emergency services. Thanks God that they have them. By the way this news is reported by Australia NSW Police Force. Good news and good works certainly deserve to be widely publicized!

Convenient conclusion from inconvenience facts.

2012-01-16T11:43:00.000-05:00

I saw this quote from a political blog:

People in politics, like people everywhere, often choose to believe conclusions that are convenient or reassuring and tend to ignore inconvenient facts and harder truths.

Strangely I find this quote is particularly applicable to today's science world. Examples abound, I don't think I need to convince any one that this is the case nowadays.

It somehow also reminded me of a true story. There was once a well-known young Ph.D. from a prestige university who was a rising star in the 1960/1970's. The reason that he became well-known in his early career was because his Ph.D. research was doing wind waves experiments in a laboratory wave tank that were successfully verfied the theory of Miles and Phillips. That's all fine and dandy of course. What's not well-known is how he obtained those experimental results. No one asked, probably not even his own mentor. But one of his fellow graduate student had the same mentor from that same university at the same time told me his personal, first hand eye-witness account of this well-known scientist's secret of success. It happened that he was truly a deligent worker, spent all his time in the lab, performed hundreds upon hundreds of experiments, as it can be expected, most of the results did not fit the theories, only a few have. So he only brought those few "good" experiments to his professor and together they verified the theories. Did they really? So even in the science world, if one can conveniently provide favorable results no one really would fussy about how the results were obtained. (May be that's why we have the "hide the decline" gangs in the climate world.)

So really, the important thing is a "convenient conclusion." Once that is surfaced, who cares about the " inconvenient facts and harder truths" that are only minor annoyances to the convenient main issue?!

The Costa Concordia disaster

2012-01-15T09:27:00.002-05:00

BBC News has this early report:

Three people are confirmed dead after a cruise ship carrying more than 4,000 people ran aground off Italy.

There were scenes of panic as the Costa Concordia hit a sandbar on Friday evening near the island of Giglio and listed about 20 degrees.

Most people reached land by lifeboats but some swam to shore.

At least 50 people have not yet been accounted for, Italian officials say, but they caution that the passenger list may not be fully up to date.

Coast guard vessels are combing the waters around the ship, while divers are searching the submerged decks.

The regional prefect's office said 4,165 out of 4,234 people on board had been accounted for, the Italian news agency Ansa reported.

It is clearly an unexpected disastrous happening that should never happen. And this disaster is not in any way connected to waves,the sea was calm before, during, and after. Fortunately that uncomplicated the rescue efforts.

As the cause of the disaster is basically unknown at the moment, Sean Rayment of UK Telegraph reported this expert opinion according to Malcolm Latarche, the editor of the global shipping magazine IHS Fairplay Solutions:

. . . the ship was powered by a bank of six diesel-electric engines which effectively worked as an onboard power station designed to supply electricity to all parts of the vessel.

But like power stations on land, the engines are prone to electrical surges and troughs caused by “harmonic interference”.

Mr Latarche added: “From the reports I have seen it seems there was an explosion followed by a blackout, which could have been caused by a power surge. There are various back-up systems in place on all ships but they may have failed also."

Mr Latarche said it was possible the cruise ship experienced the same problem that saw the Queen Mary 2 (QM2) lose power in September 2010 as she was approaching Barcelona.

He continued: “Once you have a problem with the electric supply to the ship’s main propulsion motors that could lead to a problem with steering. Once you are in a position where you cannot control a ship's speed and direction you have a problem until you can get those systems back on line. It seems that this may have happened quite close to land, in shallow water. When you can’t steer you are going to run aground and hit rocks at some point.”

Once the ship had run aground on a sand bank, Mr Lartarche said, it was only a matter of time before it would begin to keel over.

He added: “A ship is designed to float in a certain depth of water. An ocean cruise ship is not designed to float in 20ft of water. It needs much more than that to remain upright. If it was in a dry dock it would be supported with blocks and supports to keep it upright. That situation doesn’t exist just off the coast. So unless the Costa Concordia was fortunate enough to be sitting on relatively flat ground, with very soft mud which would allow it to sink in and support the ship in some way, the vessel will have no alternative but to turn over on its side.

“If the captain had no steering or reduced steering it may have been that he had no choice where he was heading and that is why he ended up in shallow water but he also may have decided that he needed to head to safer waters so that he could use the lifeboats closer to land.

"This, afterall, was a passenger ship and there would have been lots of elderly and young people on board so evacuation in lifeboats is not ideal."

Mr Latarche's explanation of events fits in with comments made by Francesco Paolillo, a local coastguard commander, who said the accident occurred shortly after 10.30pm about three hours after the Concordia had begun its voyage from the port of Civitavecchia en route to its first port of call, Savona, in northwestern Italy.

So disasters can happen even without the encounter of freaque waves. Let's pray for the lost passengers and all of the ones onboard can be safely restoring their holiday venture.

What else is new?

2012-01-08T13:53:00.001-05:00

When I saw this headline: "The greater the wind speed, the higher the wave will be" I have to make certain that this is not a joke and then ask "Hey, what else is new?"

This is the title of an "opinion" article in The Tribune, SanLuisObispo.com, by John Lindsey, Published: Sunday, Jan 08, 2012. After ascertained all these informations, I am still wondering when was this article really written. Because the article started by talking about "During World War II " and alluded to HMS Queen Mary's encounter with a freaque wave that nearly capsized in eastern Atlantic in late 1942 -- which is a well publicized information. But the next thing it described:

Later in the war, Adm. William “Bull” Halsey sailed his fleet right into the heart of a rapidly intensifying typhoon off the Philippines. Three destroyers — USS Hull, USS Monaghan and USS Spence — capsized and sank during this storm with the loss of 775 lives.

is not well known, at least not to me which is not surprising. But the next paragraph:

Such disasters brought into sharp focus the dire need for accurate wave forecasting. The Department of War recruited two oceanographers at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, Harald Sverdrup and Walter Munk, to develop an accurate wave forecasting method. This eventually became the Sverdrup-Munk formula.

really becomes curious! Because from reading Munk's many interviews I have always gathered that it was Munk in preparing for the Normandy Landing implemented the idea of doing some wave forecasting and invited Sverdrup to work jointly. Never heard there's this Phillippines connection. I am familiar with the Sverdrup and Munk's approach, but have no idea exactly what in the world is "Sverdrup-Munk formula"?

What's even more curiouser is toward the end of the article, there's this:

Years after World War II, wave forecasting accuracy was further improved by the Pierson-Neumann- James method that incorporated wave spectrum data.

Now yes, indeed, there was competing approach developed by Pierson-Neumann-James but that was in the early part of the decade of 1950's nearly 60 years ago. Here we are in the beginning of the 2nd decade of 21st Century, who exactly is still in need of reminding of this rather antiquated history of SMB vs. PNJ?

We have faced more wars than we care to count since WWII and gone through the explosive technology advancement in late 20th Century and all the excitement of the development of Wave Modeling (WAM!) Practically everyone can now do wave forecasting and hindcasting on the desk top, may even been hand-held.

Really, what else is new?

Danger can come from any unexpected sources or places

2012-01-05T13:16:00.001-05:00

Danger can come from any unexpected sources or places. A case in point, this commonly used simple anchor shown in the picture can be terribly damaging:

as this New Zealand case reported here by Sam Boyer in Bayofplentytimes.co.nz :

Stephen Appleby, 28, from Hamilton was impaled when the grappling anchor he was carrying was thrown against him by a wave, piercing his abdomen.

It is hard to visualize and contemplate. Details in the original article. I'll just stop it here.

But the good news is this:

A hospital spokeswoman said the man was in a stable condition this morning.

Thanks be to God!

Venture dangerous!

2012-01-05T12:53:00.000-05:00

The above picture is from this article in Donegal Democrat by Sue Doherty showing onlookers watch Atlantic breakers crash against Creevy Pier, Ballyshannon during the recent storms. (Photo by Thomas Gallagher). My first reaction is "Hey that's dangerous!" on seeing the two men leisurely standing there watching the waves splashing the pier. They can be swept into the ocean any time! Here's the beginning part of the article with appropriate warnings:

Donegal continues to be hammered by the second severe storm to hit the county this week with flooding fears the latest concern.

Meteoroglists issued a weather alert for Donegal yesterday, warning that the severe winds and heavy rains are expected to last right through most of this morning and are likely to cause more damage.

Last night winds were predicted to reach storm force 10 in coastal areas off Donegal. Met Eireann’s Pat Clarke said gusts of up to 115kph were expected along the coast and in upland areas. He said trees that had already been weakened by the first storm might fall and structures could also be further damaged.

A sea area warning was also in force, due to heavy swells. Mr Clarke advised: “Walking along coastal areas is not a good idea, as there may well be freak waves.”

Not only walking along coastal areas is not a good idea, standing there without protection or a guard is not a good idea either! Come to think of it, enjoy nature and watching large waves at a beach or anywhere else is just not a risk free venture!

All in the minds?

2012-01-04T11:49:00.003-05:00

Here's a freaque wave case hidden in an irrelevant article from the Health section. It was a rather typical case of freaque wave encounter and rescue, usually we expect a successful rescue leads to happily ever after. That was just about what was expected here, except the experience led to a twist later in life which clearly stemmed from the encounter not always being reported. Here's the freaque wave encounter part of the story in Express.co.uk written by Barbara Lantin entitled "All in the mind?":

WHEN William Murtha went for his regular cycle ride along the seafront at Dawlish in Devon one evening he little imagined the outing would change his life.

A freak wave swept William, then 34, over the sea wall and into the icy water. For nearly two hours he battled to stay alive as hypothermia took hold and he drifted in and out of consciousness.

And he was

Miraculously saved when a young amateur astronomer spotted him with his telescope and called 999 . . .

Now being in the Health section this article is really not reporting a freaque wave case, rather it is about the victim's near death experience (NDE) -- when he was drifted in and out of consciousness. I thought that might be of interest since that's also part of the freaque wave consequences. Here's what the article tells between his in and out of consciousness and being rescued:

Close to death, he began to relive experiences from his life, sometimes from the perspective of other people involved such as the driver who knocked him down when he was 10,

his alcoholic father and anxious mother.

The final sequence was a flash-forward to his wife and children receiving the news of his death.

“It was then I realised I had died and was in spirit and I had this overwhelming feeling of sadness. I had not achieved what I wanted to,” says William, now 46.

“Suddenly I felt this wasn’t inevitable, it was an option. Part of me was saying you have to go back, you have too much to do. On the other hand, I had a feeling of love and connectedness that permeated through me. I wanted to drift into it and let go of life. The nanosecond I decided to return, all the images disappeared and I was back in the sea thrashing around in the dark and cold.”

Now this must be something every victim might have gone through but understandably seldom being reported in a freaque waves report. Please read the original article if interested. Hope no one should ever going through that kind of experience, but NDE is part of life nevertheless and what a freaque wave encounter might entail -- but not everyone believe or accept it any how!

When a weather buoy becomes wayward . . .

2012-01-03T14:29:00.001-05:00

What would happen when a giant weather buoy choose to seek freedom in the ocean? Well, it would probably choose to visit another part of the ocean! No one would ever know until this case happened:

AN Irish “visitor” caused a stir on Monday when it was discovered washed up on Woolacombe beach.

The large buoy, part of Ireland’s marine weather buoy network, had broken free and drifted some 270 miles. It is normally chained to the seabed off the Emerald Isle south west coast and collects a range of data for weather and marine observation, including wave height, sea temperature, wind speed and direction.

Its owners, the Marine Institute in Ireland, told the Gazette they had lost contact with the M3 weather buoy more than three weeks ago.

“The buoy was torn from its mooring during severe weather on December 10, when it ceased transmitting,” a spokesperson said.

“Following efforts to re-establish communication, a radio navigational warning was issued. Nothing was found until Monday when the Argos system on the buoy began reporting positional information from Woolacombe Beach.”

A technician is travelling from Galway to assess the damage and the Marine Institute is working with Swansea Coastguard and beach owner Parkin Estates to recover the buoy.

The Irish Weather Buoy Network is funded by the Irish Government and run by the Institute in collaboration with Met Eireann and the UK Met Office.

It has taken a battering recently, with waves of eight to 10 metres plus a giant of 20.4 metres recorded on December 13.

Now here are some news photos of this Irish visitor:

This case has published in North Devon Gazette 24, written by Tony Gaussin. What I am wondering is if the buoy can express her feelings what kind of a tale might she relate? Did she encounter freaque waves somewhere along the way?

A happy ending story

2012-01-03T12:03:00.002-05:00

Here's a scary story with a happy ending :

IN a freak occurrence, a pair of unmanned jet skis turned up on Lighthouse Beach 40 metres from each other – two days after they were washed out to sea

Sydneysiders Paul Camilleri and Ken Hale were enjoying their holidays and, on Boxing Day, headed out on their jet skis for some fun on the Camden Haven River.

The duo, with about 30 years of boating experience between them, was “mucking around” near the mouth of the river when Mr Hale fell from his ski.

“I tried five times to circle back and pick him up,” the concerned Mr Camilleri said. “But, on the sixth attempt, I fell off too.”

The two men were helpless against the current with Mr Hale eventually making it to the shore and scrambling to safety.

Mr Camilleri’s fortune was not so great.

He said he was caught in the water, struggling to stay afloat, for “about an hour”.

“There were some really big waves,” Mr Camilleri admitted. “I was getting into a bit of a panic at one stage but eventually I managed to make it to shore.”

The pair had all but lost hope for their water craft, which had also been dragged over the bar and out to sea.

However, two days later and about 12 kilometres away from where they were last sighted, the two skis were found washed up on Lighthouse Beach.

Both were submerged, and in a bad state, and needed towing from the scene.

Mr Camilleri, a mechanic by trade, said the water skis were not insured but held out hope they were salvageable.

“We thought they had sunk to tell you the truth,” Mr Camilleri said. "I’m going to have a go at fixing them but I don’t hold out too much hope, pretty much only the tips were visible when they were found.

The article in Port Macquarie News this morning, was written by Chris Ward, show that when things happen, experiences do count. So let's just be happy with a happy ending story !

Lives lost at Faveaux Strait

2012-01-03T11:17:00.001-05:00

According to Wikipedia, Foveaux Strait separates Stewart Island/Rakiura, New Zealand's third largest island, from the South Island. The stuff.co.nz reported this tragic news this morning: "Pair die in Foveaux Strait":

The bodies of two fishermen have been pulled from Foveaux Strait after a boat capsized last night.

Five were on board when the boat ran into trouble. At 10.40pm, police were alerted via fishermen's radio that three survivors were safely aboard a Bluff-based fishing boat and were being taken to Ruapuke Island, near where the capsizing happened.

No details from this report about what kind of trouble they encountered or whether or not freaque waves were the cause so one can only surmise. But the article listed a series of troubled past cases on record going back to 1998. In particular these:

* February, 9, 2003: A freak wave flips a boat near Escape Reef, off Centre Island, tossing its four passengers into the sea. A Riverton resident who was boating nearby rescued the four from the waters.

* November, 1, 2001: One man goes missing and two are plucked from Foveaux Strait after a rogue wave capsizes their 3.6m dinghy off Stirling Point.

* June 27, 1999: Four passengers on board the Foveaux Express are injured after being flung to the deck of the ferry by a freak wave during a crossing of Foveaux Strait.

in which freaque waves were clearly mentioned. So while Foveaux Strait is home to the Bluff oyster fishery according to Wikipedia, it is clearly not a save place for fishermen by any means. Let's pray for the lost souls in this case especially for their family and love ones.

Freak waves are episodic!

2012-01-01T15:34:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year!

Here we are entering the 7th calendar year of blogging "Freaque Waves". Thanks to the Internet, we have been able to search online for news items about freaque waves around the world while they are happening. Today I have just realized that the good old Google is starting searching archives. I am not certain about the details, simply noticed that older archived articles are starting to appear. For instance, here is a not previously known tragic case of all hands lost that had happened 35 years ago, reported in Lewiston Morning Tribune, shortly after the new year, Jan 10, 1977, the article entitled "Freak waves believed cause of sinkings" was written by David Fairhall of Manchester Guardian:

LONDON -- The Panamanian tanker Grand Zenith, which appears to have sunk with all hands off the eastern seaboard of the United States, . . .

What striking is this comment following the introduction:

There are a number of experts who believe there is at least a possible explanation -- the development of enormous freak waves in such areas -- that deserves more attention than it is getting.

Now that was 1977 a few years after Larry Draper's 1964 Freak waves paper, but still a number of years before the discovery of Draupner platform measurement of a freaque wave on 1995 New Year's day. So even though it deserves and calls for attention, that was not forth coming -- especially not from the academic world yet -- not until after the Draupner wave profile was measured did it prompted the start of modern freaque wave studies in nonlinear physics.
I don't know who are the "experts" the author was referring to. Clearly one of them was James Dawson, Spokesman for the Lloyd's Brokers Association on oceanographic matters who has written an interesting article in New Scientist around that time with a title of "Freak ocean waves are episodic". This should be a must-read article for freaque wave aficionados, but wittingly or unwittingly, I have not ever seen anyone reference to this article in the academical circle yet! I am very interested and fully concurred with these comment:

The South Africa Council for Scientific and Industrial Research have been studying killer waves in their waters for years. To quote from a letter from an Assistant Director, "A study of reports from ships that have actually encountered these 'freak' conditions have been seriously hampered by the difficulty of finding these reports, and then being faced by doubts that the actual position of the vessel, particularly distance offshore, and the description of the conditions given are sufficiently accurate to use in a scientific assessment of the situation." If such experienced scientists, with phenomena to study at their door step, find accurate data impossible to collate, without mounting a huge operation, there is little hope for other scientists and mathematicians to emulate or equal them. Shipping must rely on the warnings of experienced seafarers and hydrographers. Admiralty Pilots have traditionally pointed out to navigators where episodic waves occur and in what conditions but constant use of a particular route during bland climatic conditions all too easily breeds over-confidence. Furthermore, the masters or navigators of many ships are quite ignorant of these warnings.

That has expressed many of my personal feelings but I was not able to articulated so eloquently. It just arrived at my door step on this New Year's day 2012, thanks to google search. It will be a good year. Deo gratias!

Sean Collins (1952 - 2011), R. I. P.

2011-12-31T13:50:00.001-05:00

According to this Los Angeles Times headline: "Sean Collins dies at 59; surfer created system to predict waves".

I don't know him. I have never heard or met him. But seeing "created system to predict waves" one would immediately expect that he must be a scientist. But that's not the case. He is a surfer. He may have worked with a couple of scientists, he himself is clearly not a scientist. But the fabulous Surfline.com he created, which I have accessed from time to time without knowing him, beats many of the wave sites available on the internet in terms of contents or scientific wave information. He is someone to be admired. And indeed he is admired by all professional and nonprofessional surfers worldwide.

The world lost Sean Collins (1952 - 2011) to an untimely heart attack. What a loss! He's only 59. He could make countless many more contributions to surf as well science world in general

Mr. Sean Collins, R.I.P.

Happened near Sakhalin Island

2011-12-31T13:07:00.002-05:00

Here's a tragic case happened in the Sea of Okhotsk north of the Pacific Ocean about a dozen days ago as reported by rt.com completed with this video report:

Rescuers have saved 14 of the 67 people who were on board a floating oil rig which capsized in the Sea of Okhotsk in Russia’s Far East, according to latest reports.

Nine more dead bodies have been found in the freezing waters off Russia's Far East coast, where an oil rig capsized.

It brings the death toll to 16, with 37 still missing, more than a day after the tragedy happened.

The Kolskaya rig was being towed by an icebreaker and a tow boat to Sakhalin Island after finishing its drill mission when the disaster happened. A distress signal was sent from it on Sunday morning.

The rescuers have already found three lifeboats – all of them were empty. The chances of survival of those missing are now close to zero because these lifeboats were their only chance for survival in the freezing waters. The temperature on Sakhalin Island at present is -20 C.

“It means that the crew was not able to get down in the lifeboats. The boats were washed away with the flow of the water,” said the rescue operation co-ordinator, Veniamin Ivanychev.

Still, one lifeboat remains unaccounted for by search and rescue teams and it could potentially be found with survivors on board.

I only learned about the Sakhalin (庫頁) Island and Sea of Okhotsk way back in grade school geography in mainland China long time ago, I guess at some point in history they belonged to the Ching Dynasty. Somehow I have always imagined it as a winter wonderland of some sort. There was no clear indication on what had happened. It was a large wave or waves of 15 to 20 m size. Not necessarily unexpected when there's winter storm. Anyway, let's pray for miracles even though hope for additional survivors have been dim. May the Lord's blessing be with those lost and their families.

It was a either freaque or giant wave!

2011-12-30T14:04:00.001-05:00

There whalers in this world and there are anti-whalers in this world also. The whalers usually run, while the anti-whalers chase. It's a serious matter. Here's a news that involves freaque waves encountering entangled in this year end news that has already way over 100 articles written for it, the follwoing is according to The Tokyo Times that also showing the above picture:

A boat belonging to the anti-whaling activist group Sea Shepherd was damaged by a rogue wave in the Southern Ocean while chasing the Japanese whaling fleet about 1,500 miles south of Fremantle, Australia.
The boat, called Brigitte Bardot, was chasing the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru in six-meter waves. A wave hit and badly damaged one of its pontoons. The crack is enlarging, but a Sea Shepherd representative said he hoped it would stay afloat until a rescue ship will arrive.

"Right now the safety of my crew on the Brigitte Bardot is our priority and we intend to reach the crew and then do what we can to save our ship," said Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson.
It could take up to 20 hours to get to the damaged boat, he said.

Japan has been widely criticized for continuing to hunt whales despite the fact that commercial whaling has been banned for 25 years. Japan hunts about 1,000 whales every year during a program that it calls a scientific research, but which critics say it is actually disguised commercial whaling.

That pretty summed up what's happening. As usual no details about the wave is available, only some news just calling it a giant wave. I have no idea what would happen if a freaque waves hasn't interferred. There wouldn't be any news, and probably one less known freaque wave on the record. Was it really a freaque wave, or just a large, may be giant, wave?

I guess this article from The Australian provides a fiting commentary following the above story:

FEDERAL Environment Minister Tony Burke has warned that the Southern Ocean is "no place for risk-taking" after an anti-whaling Sea Shepherd scout ship was damaged while pursuing a Japanese vessel off the coast of Western Australia.

As the opposition called for the government to deploy a patrol vessel in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary, Mr Burke said Australia had no plans for further monitoring of exchanges between the Japanese whaling fleet and the Sea Shepherd activists.

"I would like to emphasise the Southern Ocean is not a place for risk-taking," Mr Burke told The Australian last night.

"The masters of all vessels should ensure safety is their highest priority."

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was forced to stage a mid-sea rescue yesterday after its high-speed vessel, the Brigitte Bardot, was hit by a huge wave in 6m swells late on Wednesday while in pursuit of the Japanese whaling factory ship Nisshin Maru.

Oh well, freaque waves are always part of the risk-taking business. Let's have our commentary just stop at that point!

The new light is "light"? Huh?

2011-12-26T13:39:00.000-05:00

About 10 days ago The Irish Times published an article by Claire O'Connell with the title "Deep blue sea", in the business section, that carried the above picture of a rather calm ocean surface. The caption of the picture says: "A major effort has been ongoing to define what lives in all the oceans, and how these organisms are connected. By last year, the Census of Marine Life had encountered 'an unanticipated riot of species''. The article consists several sections of varied lengths, the first section, "Marine life" is a fairly long one, mainly about the work of the Census of Marine Life's works that " has seen about 540 expeditions chalk up roughly 9,000 days at sea, and more than 2,700 researchers from over 80 countries." An impressive operation somehow the program I have not yet heard of, probably it was overshadowed by the "overwhelming" amount of wasteful global warming news coverage nowadays in the science world. The section concluded with comments by a Dr. Peter Heffernan Of Ireland's Marine Institute:

“We are probably standing in a period where we could see a revolution in the pace at which mankind could get the knowledge of the ocean that we need, to understand how the planet really works, to deal with climate change and to take advantage of the many commercial opportunities associated with the ocean, which include such things as renewable ocean energies and deeper water sites and developments for aquaculture, which are going to be absolutely essential if we are to feed the growing populations of this planet,” he says.

“It is a technological challenge, but if we focus our minds on it, and there are initiatives to do that, there will be huge dividends – it will pay back mankind many times over to unlock the potential of the oceans and wisely steward the resource we are endowed with.”

These are quite optimistic and encouraging, may be a little short of realism, scientists' wishful and fund seeking talks. If the "technological challenge" and the hope for "huge dividend" can generate available lucrative funding support, it will probably can only expect to allure hordes of hungry, fund seeking scientists who can promise the moon!

The next section is , surprisingly to me, "Rogue waves cast in a new light"! Aha! It was "light' indeed. It reports that ". . . a European Research Council-funded project is taking a new approach to figuring out these dangerous oddities. They are synthesised from light to study their behaviours and possibly work out how to predict them . . . " So the new light is in fact aiming at "figuring out" all about freaque waves by synthesized from "light"? Huh? How do you synthesize a jumbo cruise ship sailing through "light" and encountering a typhoon or hurricane?

The article stated:

Using laser-based experiments, the project will look at the conditions under which these freak waves can arise, and use the optical findings to work out what conditions at sea would foster such rogue patterns, and so improve shipping forecasts.

The project also hopes to build an optical “wave farm” to analyse the potential impacts rogue waves could have on wave energy-harnessing devices.

Wait a minute, what are the conditions under which freaque waves can arise? Does anyone know for certain? Can they provide a viable definition of freaque wave in the first place? Granted it's only a miserly "€1.8 million Multiwave study with optics" project. But it is of interest to note that scientists can still promising, not really the moon, but a "wave farm" in the "light"! That is really not an encouraging approach for freaque wave researchers to expect learning what is happening about freaque waves, but if you can amass funding for the research, all power to you. Ability to amass funding, in this day and age, is really the name of the game! What do the $'s or €'s mean to the funding providers? Probably just some silly numbers from the suckers, umm,, taxpayers!

By the way, what kind of ocean waves does the light see? Can the light see breaking waves? Can a surfer surfs in the light?

Watershed moment of a 90' surf wave.

2011-12-25T13:28:00.000-05:00

ESPN columist Chris Jones has just published an interesting commentary with these headline: "Watershed moment: An unflinching big wave rider redefines what's possible for all of us." It's about the 90 feet surf and the surfer Garrett McNamara, the case I blogged here.
Jones opened his article this way:

THE WAVE HAS NO IDEA it's famous: a 90-foot wall of water that, one day in November, rose out of an underwater canyon at Praia do Norte, near the tiny fishing village of Nazare, Portugal. So easily that rogue might have come and gone, this transient giant, just another one of the countless waves that roll onto our shores, one after another. Instead, a 44-year-old big wave pro named Garrett McNamara somehow survived surfing it -- catching it just in time, the only wave he would surf that day -- and that Portuguese monster became the biggest wave ever surfed.

He must have interviewed McNamara because he has this McNamara's comments about the wave:

"I didn't realize how big it was at first," McNamara says, speaking from his home in Hawaii mostly in the present tense, as though he's never left the face of that wave. "I hardly ever look back, but this time I look back, two or three times as the wave starts to grow. It's like this endless mountain. Every second is so crucial just then."

And Jones followed with this line:

Every second is so crucial because waves do two very different things -- they build and they crash -- presenting two distinct possibilities for the people who ride them. "You can go very quickly from heaven and find yourself in hell" is how McNamara puts it.

That's something rather refreshing. But the concluding paragraph of the article is even more refreshing:

Sometimes the waves make language obsolete. Sometimes they give it back as a gift. They do different things to different people, and it's hard to know what, exactly, they'll do to you until you decide to go into the water. But they're out there. Right now they're out there waiting, each one a door to impossibility, so many millions of locks, so many millions of keys.

I have never thought about waves this way. To say "They do different things to different people" is effectively saying that every wave in the ocean is different, they are seldom the same. That's pretty much summed up the essense of the ocean waves. The surfers experencing them daily and that's the real world. Now how do scientists cope with them? The scientist s expect all waves behave according to a pre-assigned pattern -- only allowed nonlinearity to briefly deviate from it. Even freaque waves have to obey the "scientific" prescription. Do the scientists know the ocean waves at all?

My two thumbs up for this refreshing article by Mr. Chris Jones of ESPN for a thought provoking article.

Of man and mavericks??

2011-12-25T12:14:00.000-05:00

"Of Men and Mavericks" is the title of a movie about a surfer at Mavericks currently being filmed at Mavericks, a famed Northern California surf break known for treacherous and high waves. Mavericks is clearly not for surfers seeking entertainments that includes amateurs and movie actors alike. But the star of this movie being filmed just made news worldwide because in the process he was "being held underwater by some big waves" according this AP News in the Chicago Sun-Times today. UKPA has a concise summarization:

Gerard Butler has reportedly had a brush with death after the filming of a surf stunt went badly wrong.

The Scottish heartthrob was shooting new movie Of Men And Mavericks - based on the life of surfer Jay Moriarity - when he was hit by a freak wave at the notorious San Francisco surf spot Mavericks this weekend, the Daily Mirror reported.

He was apparently battered by a series of huge waves and held underwater after going into the sea amid dangerous conditions to film a scene.

An onlooker told the newspaper Gerard "was washed through the rocks before he was finally plucked out... he had that 100-yard stare that surfers get after a near-death experience."

The star is understood to have spend the night at Stanford Medical Centre, but officials were tight-lipped about his condition.

He is O.K. Thank God. I guess surfing is not something that can easily be "act" upon even by by an accomplished actor. The article has an appropriate title for the story: "Butler 'cheats death' in surf stunt". Death is not something can be cheated. No one should ever try it at any rate!

Measurements needed!

2011-12-12T14:21:00.001-05:00

I just read a post a few month ago (15 Jun 11) in the Oxford Science Blog, entitled "On the crest of a freak wave", in which the blogger Pete Wilton interviewed a young scientist, Thomas Adcock, who had just published a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. coauthored with Paul Taylor. What prompts me to do this item today is the final question of that short interview:

OSB: What further research is needed in this area?

TA: Whilst scientists understand the basic features of most sea-states fairly well, we do not really understand at a local level the physics when a sea-state changes rapidly – for example if the wind suddenly starts blowing in a different direction. What we really need is far more high quality measurements of individual large waves – without this we cannot know whether our theories are right. (Bold face emphasize added.)

I am really impressed with this answer, since my impression of them was thinking of them in terms of theoretical modeling. But they are research engineers, so it is not surprising that they have a healthy appreciation of what is really going on out there in the real ocean. Now my question is that there are really more than just a handful practicing scientists and engineers who all agree that "high quality measurements of individual large waves" are needed, how come this need can not be duly recognized by the power that be in charge the research funding programs?

Eric Heller at TEDxCaltech

2011-12-11T18:56:00.002-05:00

Here's a lecture video, 10:41minutes long, I just came across today. It is not new, came out around February, 2011 earlier this year. It is timeless, and it needs to be watched again to appreciate it:

For wave aficionados just seeing the name of "Eric Heller" with words "freak waves" would know immediately this must be a jackpot. Just watch and listen you will know why that is the case!

Earlier this year, about the same time frame of this video, I had a post which I called "An impressive simulation of freaque waves in the ocean". That young professor, Lev Kaplan, from Tulane who presented that simulation at a colloquium, is a close associate of Professor Heller.

I am not usually advocating pure theoretical studies. But this is not purely theoretical studies. Because theoreticians who have healthy respects for what was really happening out there in the real world, not just hiding behind equations, deserve healthy respects themselves for their most admirable works.

Scientiist or surfer?

2011-12-10T12:37:00.002-05:00

Who knows waves more? A research scientist on waves or a surfer?

This question is a no-brainer, the answer is the surfer, of course. A research scientist on waves plays with equations and theories on waves in the office, while a surfer lives with real waves out there day in and day out. A research scientist on waves goes to research conferences on waves every year, year after year, presenting his or her, result on theoretical results, modified theoretical results, or modified of the modified results, . . ., etc. A surfer, on the other hand, does not always get the kind of waves he or she wishes to surf. For instance there is this event called "'The Eddie'—the Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational in Memory of Eddie Aikau at Waimea Bay" that started in 1985. But "the tournament has only been held eight times, due to a precondition that open-ocean swells reach a minimum of 20 feet (this translates to a wave face height of over 30 feet)" according to Wikipedia.

Now my ignorance caused me to ask: Who's Eddie Aikau?

Ah! Wikipedia again has the answer:

Life

Born in Kahului, Maui, Aikau was the third child of Solomon and Henrietta Aikau. Aikau first learned how to surf at Kahului Harbor on its shorebreak. He moved to Oʻahu with his family in 1959, and at the age of 16 left school and started working at the Dole pineapple cannery; The paycheck allowed Aikau to buy his first surfboard. In 1968, he became the first lifeguard hired by the City & County of Honolulu to work on the North Shore. The City & County of Honolulu gave Aikau the task of covering all of the beaches between Sunset and Haleiwa. Not one life was lost while he served as lifeguard of Waimea Bay, as he braved waves that often reached 30 feet (9.1 m) high or more.[4] In 1971, Aikau was named Lifeguard of the Year.

Lost at sea

In 1978, the Polynesian Voyaging Society was seeking volunteers for a 30 day, 2,500-mile (4,000 km) journey to follow the ancient route of the Polynesian migration between the Hawaiian and Tahitian island chains. At 31 years of age, Aikau joined the voyage as a crew member. The Hokule'a left the Hawaiian islands on March 16, 1978. The double-hulled voyaging canoe developed a leak in one of the hulls and later capsized about twelve miles (19 km) south of the island of Molokai. In an attempt to get help, Aikau paddled toward Lanai on his surfboard.[6] Although the rest of the crew was later rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Cape Corwin, Aikau was never seen again. He removed his lifejacket since it was hindering his paddling of the surfboard. The ensuing search for Aikau was the largest air-sea search in Hawaii history.

So Eddie Aikau is a surfer, a heroic one, not a scientist. He is well deserved to have a surfing tournament named in his honor. Come to think of it, there has not been a research conference on ocean waves that has named in some research scientist's honor! (Hey, not for lack of trying. Once upon a time there was a guy who was the director of a research laboratory. He then found a better paying job or something, before he took off, he named the Laboratory library in his own honor. That's no longer the case not long affter he left!)

For me personally, I have been trying to be a research scientist on waves but never, ever, a surfer!

Let there be waves!

2011-12-04T09:33:00.000-05:00

I was intrigued by the "Wave watch on" part of this UPI article "Wave watch on for Aikau surf tournament". My immediate reaction was questioning in my mind: Can it be done?

HALEIWA, Hawaii, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- The wait for waves began Friday for the Eddie Aikau, the penultimate tournament for big-wave surfers on Hawaii's North Shore.

Surf at the fame Waimea Bay was running 6-10 feet Friday, about half of the minimum 20-foot height required to get the competition under way.

So the "wait" is really a wishful expectation as the required 20 -foot minimum height for the event is not at all a certainty -- not something we know it's really going to happen, just as what I thought.

Kelly Slater and defending champion Greg Long lead the elite roster of surfers invited to the event, which is formally known as the Quicksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau but is known in surfing circles as "The Eddie."

The Eddie has been held only eight times in the past 27 years and will run from Dec. 1 to Feb. 29, depending on conditions.

That "only eight times in the past 27 years", a little more than one in three, is about the chance the nature will allow it to happen:

A Hawaiian priest presided over Thursday's opening ceremony. Billy Mitchell told the crowd gathered on the sand the spirit of Aikau, who was lost at sea in 1978, remains an inspiration and predicted "there will be waves."

Now that "there will be waves" may be from the nature's point of view is "Let there be 20' waves!" -- whatever the expectation might be it is just about about a 33 percent probability. This probability for the Eddie took 27 years to establish. Come to the regard of freaque waves, however, we still have no way of establishing a probability for the phenomenon right now -- because no one seems to be interested in consciously to establish one right now.

Wave - and human judgement -

2011-12-03T11:49:00.001-05:00

The title of this post comes from this article from the Insurance News. It's about a case I happened to have blogged not long ago: an unsuccessful rescue case in which the two rescuer were also encountered a freaque wave and injured. This new article seems to assign fault to the rescuers because the rescue operation could have "postponed".

I find that kind of mentality extremely unwise and irresponsible. The fact that this is being discussed as an insurance news item clearly stem from some one who's not willing to pay for the damage incurred. It is understandably the human nature, of course.

But for heaven's sake, this is search and rescue, some human life could be on the line -- and that can be "postponed"?

I think the two rescuing officers should be commended for willing to go out during bad weather doing the rescue and got themselves injured, now some one is questioning their judgement by splitting hair on some regulations.

Human nature as it is, this dollar and sense hair splitting stuff is certainly not surprising, only sad and pitiful! Does anyone really think that it is justified for a rescuing officer to consulting regulating book first to decide the rescue should be postponed because the waves out there were 6 feet not 8 feet as regulation specified? What if the people waiting to be rescued could be one of your love ones -- are you still expect the officer should make a regulation-correct judgement?

25-foot waves in pitch black

2011-12-01T10:04:00.000-05:00

This case happened about a week ago, here's a good summary:

RESCUERS from the Llŷn spoke this week of “walls of water 25 feet high” as they tried to save the crew of a sunken cargo ship 10 miles off Bardsey Island.

Five of the eight crew members of the Russian ship Swanland are still unaccounted for after it was struck by a freak wave in a ferocious storm during the early hours of Sunday morning. Two sailors were plucked to safety by a helicopter being co-piloted by Prince William. The body of a third man has been recovered. Lifeboat and coastguard crews from Porthdinllaen, Abersoch and Pwllheli rushed into action in the early hours of Sunday morning and this week spoke of some of the worst conditions they have ever experienced. Robat Jones, Second Coxwain of the Porthdinllaen Lifeboat said:

“Conditions were horrendous. It was blowing a gale force 9-10 at times, with regular 20 foot waves crashing against us. It took us around two hours to reach the scene through some of the worst sea conditions I’ve seen. And when we arrived the place was horrendous. “There were 25-foot waves and it was pitch black. These were walls of water coming against us, and we tried our best with search lights all night.

Another vessel was there as well, and they had seen the liferaft, and were directing the helicopter to where she was.”

The title "25-foot waves in pitch black" pretty much tells the whole story. The worst happened in the worst possible situation. A tragic case of freaque wave with one dead and 5 missing and rescue effort was called off. Let's pray for divine help to still save those missing souls. Another freaque wave encounter, another tragedy. When can we minize this kinf of cases from happrning over and over again?

Big waves at night

2011-11-25T11:05:00.000-05:00

It is understandable that waves, including large freaque waves, happen during the day and the night irregardless of hours or time -- when it happens it just happens! When I started advocating making spatial wave measurements using multiple cameras, one of the first strong objections or unfavorable comments was, and still is, that cameras can not see waves at night. Indeed we can not limit freaque wave happenings to only day time occurrences. As a matter of fact in April 2005 the cruise ship Norwegian Down encountered a damaging frreaque wave at a dark night. No one can see it's coming.

Well! Leave to the surfers, they can do what scientists obviously can not! An article in Australian by Cassandra Murnieks just published with a video this morning with the title:"Documentary probs big wave night surfing of Mark Vissor"!

Here's part of the story:

TALK to any big wave surfer about their adventures and you will almost certainly be moved to consider them crazy.

But what if they were to take on the big waves at night?

Sunshine Coast’s Mark Visser had it on his list of "things to achieve in life" and in January this year crossed it off after taking on monster waves, some with 50-foot faces in the dark at the famed Jaws break in Maui.

Visser is one of the brightest big wave talents in the world, pushing his body physically and focussing mentally to undertake on of the most dangerous pastimes known to man.
Visser’s preparation and big wave skills have come together in a television documentary “Night Rider” to feature on Channel Nine this Sunday.

“We have had this idea since about 2007. A friend told me that he had a dream about a guy who rode waves at night, which got me thinking. Was this achievable? Could it be possible?,” Visser told The Australian.

“I became a bit of a nutty professor in looking at all the options of making something like this happen. Other big wave surfers said it wasn’t safe enough to do, but I wanted to push myself and get out of the comfort zone.”

With the night surf session being filmed in January, a large bulk of the documentary was filmed beforehand.

Months of preparation were undertaken, which involved working with safety teams, special-forces and a number of coaches, who showed Visser a number of techniques designed to allow him to best cope in the event of something going wrong.

“The training with the coaches was tough. I worked with a number of people, who prepared me for the night surfing. If I had all of those things under control, it was one less thing to worry about when it actually came to surfing Jaws,” he said.

Visser tested the smaller waves at night in Australia to ensure they had the technology right.

To guide Visser through the waves, he had a number of lights strapped to his body, which allowed viewers to see the vast speed and the distance that he surfed the waves.

Now here is the difference between a surfer and a scientist: a surfer is always looking to "get out of the comfort zone" whereas a scientist absolutely needs to stay within their comfort zone both intellectually and most importantly fundingwise! So is there any question regarding why the science is progressing so slowly in ocean wave studies: both in deep ocean and nearshore waves?

Stormy in NE Atlantic predicted for Thanksgiving Day 2011!

2011-11-24T12:11:00.001-05:00

This rather strange looking wave picture accompanied the BBC article this morning that entitled
"Hurricane warnings for the sea off northern Scotland" with these local warnings:

The Met Office has issued a warning of hurricane force winds at sea off the Western Isles and violent storm force 11 winds off Shetland's coast.

Severe weather warnings have also been issued for the Western Isles, Orkney, Shetland and the north Highlands, with gales expected over land.

I guess that's not too unusual for this time of the year. The article also reports the BBC weather presenter Chris Fawkes described the intense low pressure causing the stormy conditions as "absolute monster" in the video. He also said that winds could gust up to 100 mph and higher at sea with the potential for wave heights of up to 18 m. So this is the time of the year it's better to stay home on land doesn't matter which side of the Atlantic Ocean. Twenty years ago there was that famed early November, 1991 Nor'Easter, the "Perfect Storm" that harrased boats from Nova Scotia down to New Jersy coast, including the 70' longliner Andrea Gail went down in that storm. May God bless all those who have to be out there this time of the year. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

A terrifying ordeal with a happy ending!

2011-11-19T09:07:00.002-05:00

Take a closer look at the above picture and that young man standing there. He's far enough above the ocean waves below, so he should be safe, right? Well, read this story entitled "Terrifying reef ordeal - survivor" below by Nathan Crombie in Wairarapa Times-Age of New Zealand:

The man who survived being torn from the reef at Castlepoint Beach into massive seas has described his hour-long ordeal in the water.

A huge wave swept the 22-year-old Nelson man off the rocks on Saturday.

Speaking about his lucky escape yesterday, Pip Richards said he quickly abandoned hope of rescue after being swept from the rocks and tried to swim for The Gap, the only way back to safety from open sea.

But Mr Richards faced two-storey high waves pounding the rock outcrop.

"My only real chance was where the waves were smashing against the reef. It was the most terrifying time of my life. I was hoping rescuers would miraculously appear. But they didn't."

Mr Richards was unaware two fishing boats had been launched to help him and a helicopter put on standby as the rescue attempt threatened to become a recovery operation.

"Then seagulls started attacking me, divebombing me," he said. "They were ferocious."

Mr Richards had been with friends at Castlepoint Beach to celebrate the birthday of his sister Harriette and climbed the reef, past a warning sign.

"I was just sitting and watching the waves," Mr Richards said. "I could see it was stormy and I saw the sign. But I thought the warning was about the odd rogue wave."

Mr Richards started swimming clear of the reef as soon as he entered the ocean. He stripped off his boots, jeans and shirt and swam towards the opening.

He signalled to his friends as they pointed him toward The Gap, "just to let them know I was still all right", while out of his sight about 50 onlookers had gathered with emergency crews along the beach.

Meanwhile, the two fishing boats, the Norwester and the Legioneer, had come within 200m of the reef in an attempt to reach him before turning back for fear of running aground.

"I could see the beach through The Gap and it gave me hope," Mr Richards said. "But the waves were crashing and they travel so fast and have so much force. The power behind them was incredible.

"I was hit three or four times in a row and I turned to see if it was clear. A big one was right on top of me. I said 'no, no, no' to the sky just before I went down.

"I came back up spluttering and coughing because I'd swallowed water. I was still scared and worried but I realised I'd just passed the worst of it."

Once through The Gap he was reached by rescuers who swam out to help him.

"When I put my arms around the guy who pulled me out of the water, all the strength went out of me and I felt the cold. I couldn't even stand up. I was done."

Mr Richards was taken to Wairarapa Hospital where his wounds were treated and his lungs and stomach were checked for sea water. He is grateful to his rescuers, including Louise Oakly and Lawson Campbell, who swam to help him once he cleared The Gap.

He leaves for work in Germany next Thursday.

This is a terrifying story but rather enjoyable to read because knowing it'a a happy ending we are not nervous or worrying. We may even share Mr. Richards' triumphant survival as we are cheering him on the sideline. Thanks to Mr. Crombie's superb story telling, and the editor's nice tittle choice for the story, it makes this a heart warming happy ending story that everyone appreciates. After all is said and done, however, we must congratulate Mr. Richard for his incredible luckiness while a number of things can go wrong when he was swept off the rock. Note that he was smoothly fallen into the ocean, we know that many tragic cases happened during just that moment. The swept force is totally unexpected and unpredictable, no one can control where to fall and how they will be hit along the way. Many had been rendered bodily injury or even unconscious. But Mr. Richard can immediately and calmly prepared himself for swimming and he is a good swimmer able to successfully struggle with those ferocious waves. All these certainly made the rescue effort relatively easier in the end. God help those who can help themselves! So all the lucky factors rolled up together to bring about this happy ending story. Thanks be to God!

A lucky angler, a wonderful rescue success!

2011-11-17T14:21:00.004-05:00

A freaque wave can be encountered at any place and at any time, when that happens rescue efforts are usually needed. A rescue operation usually requires different elements all working together smoothly and successfully in very short notices -- therefore a prayer for all of them working flawlessly - a lucky factor, is certainly always needed.

This morning West Briton pened this well organized article in falmouthpeople.co.uk that's telling the recent story of a very lucky angler as the article clearly demonstrate the above contention. First, what had happened:

A LEEDSTOWN angler who was washed off the rocks by a "freak wave" near Porthleven at the weekend has been discharged from hospital.
The man, who is thought to be in his 40s, was airlifted to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro in a critical state on Sunday.
He was fishing off Rinsey Head when a giant wave washed him and his friend into the sea.

Now the local rescue effort sets in motion:

On receiving a 999 call, Falmouth coastguard alerted RNAS Culdrose and the RNLI all-weather and inshore lifeboats from Penlee as well as Porthleven coastguard rescue team.

From the lifeboat side:

Penlee lifeboat coxswain Patrick Harvey said the second man managed to climb back onto the rocks and raised the alarm.
He said: "We were called out at 7.15pm. We tried to get there as quick as we could.
"On arrival the rescue helicopter was already there. They had managed to locate him but then lost the sight of him. He was wearing a fleece and it was pulling him under.
"But they got him onboard and was airlifted to hospital.
"He was very lucky, the sea conditions were poor and very choppy."

And from the aircrew - not a smooth start:

An aircrew from RNAS Culdrose's 771 search and rescue squadron pressed ahead with the rescue even though there was a problem with their helicopter's stability.
One of the pilots, Lieutenant Chris Whittington, told The Cornishman a minor "serviceability" problem had been identified with the Sea King helicopter after take-off from Culdrose.
This slightly affected the aircraft's stability but the crew – Lieutenant Whittington, Flight Lieutenant John Owen, aircraft commander Lieutenant Commander Simon Daw and aircrewman/paramedic Chief Petty Officer Dave Rigg – decided to press on.

Yes, they pressed on:

"We practice for this during routine training on a regular basis," Lieutenant Whittington said.
The crew also had to take into account the water temperature and the length of time the man had been in the sea – about 20 minutes at the time.
"We weighed up all the factors. Every minute counts in these situations.
"We weren't sure how long he had been in the water.
"We were confident it wouldn't stop us conducting the rescue."
He said another aircraft would have been available but it was quickly decided not to return to Culdrose for it.
Despite the time spent in the water, the man was still conscious when spotted by the helicopter.
He was winched on board and transferred to hospital

Now a lucky angler!

On Tuesday he was out of intensive care and said by the hospital to be progressing well.
Falmouth coastguard watch manager Andy Condy said: "This angler was very fortunate to be found in the water after dark and in rough seas.
"He was not wearing a lifejacket and so he was extremely lucky to have managed to stay afloat long enough to be spotted by rescuers.
"HM Coastguard recommends anglers can stay safe by wearing a life jacket."
Lieutenant Whittington said the operation had shown again the "excellent working relationship" between Culdrose, the coastguard and the South West Ambulance Trust.

Now please let us pray to the good Lord that every rescue effort can be as successful a happy ending as this one!

Happened in Kirkcaldy, Scotland

2011-11-14T02:03:00.003-05:00

The above picture was published yesterday in metro.co.uk in a story written by John McDonnell with this depressing news:

A three-year-old boy has drowned after he was swept from a sea wall in Scotland by a freak wave as his parents looked helplessly.

It was happened in the coastal Esplanade of Kirkcaldy, Fife on the East Coast of Scotland. A dreadful tragedy happened in such a peaceful coastal area. We are certainly all grieved for the shortened life of this 3 year old and the unnecessary loss of the love one for the heartbroken family. Let's pray for the family and may the little boy be rest in peace. Hope similar tragedy will never happen ever again:

To You, O Lord, we humbly entrust this child, so precious in Your sight. Take him into Your arms and welcome him into paradise, where there will be no sorrow, no weeping nor pain, but the fullness of peace and joy with Your Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen. (Comment by reader Paulmcbride to this news article)

Here's a picture by Gordon Terris in heraldscotland early today showing the floral tributes on Kirkcaldy Esplanade, presumably at where the tragedy happened.

A great detailed report on this case, completed with picture of the little boy along with eye-witness accounts, is given in this long Courier.co.uk article.

Waves of November

2011-11-10T19:30:00.009-05:00

As a wave aficionado, I always enjoy watching waves. Here's a picture of me doing wave watching in the most safest place possible -- behind the picture window of a hotel dinning room:

The picture was taken last May by my colleague Dave Schwab when we were both attending the Great Lakes Research Conference and stayed at the same hotel. Somehow I forgot to bring my camera on that trip so I was only able to stand there simmering the scenery when Dave took the pictures. Here is an actual wave scenery that day which was also taken by Dave:

These were not Waves of November, of course! What I am trying to lead to is a fabulous article about waves with pictures I just came across. The article, entitled "Waves of November", published in WaWa-News and written by Brenda Grundt, who is also the photographer, is delightful for a wave watcher to read and it is timely for this time of the year especially the last paragraph of the article:

For those who remember big waves on the lake, this evening is the 36th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. "The last communication from the doomed ship came at approximately 7:10 p.m., when the Anderson notified the Fitzgerald of an upbound ship and asked how she was doing. McSorley reported, "We are holding our own." She sank minutes later. No distress signal was received and ten minutes later the Anderson could neither raise the Fitzgerald by radio, nor detect her on radar." - Wikipedia

Which is a nice remembrance of SS Edmund Fitzgerald as we always remembering on this day every
year for the tragedy of SS Fitzgerald that happened on November 10, 1975. After 36 years, however,
some history may still not be too certain, but some fact has already been emerging, one of them which
everyone tends to agree would be the fact that there was really no distress signal! Else no one knows
what had happened in those dreadful final moments. So it is rather curious to hear that Mr.Gordon
Lightfoot would choose to modified his popular song and lyric in 2010 supposedly in responding to some
new info. Huh? Nothing has ever been proven or uncovered, who knows more for sure?
Let the 29 souls rest in peace. Let the history takes care of itself!

A 90' surf wave!

2011-11-09T14:13:00.001-05:00

Hey this news story has even gotten into the noon time TV news here in SE Michigan.

According to SURFERtoday.com that's shown the above picture with:

Garrett McNamara has surfed what is considered to be the biggest wave ever. The Hawaiian big wave rider caught the huge monster in Praia do Norte, Nazaré, Portugal, during the ZON North Canyon Project 2011.

The wave caught by McNamara is estimated to be about 90 feet (30 meters). Garrett was tow-in surfing with Andrew Cotton and Al Mennie when he suddenly caught this giant wave. Watch the biggest wave of all time, here.

"Everything was perfect, the weather, the waves. Cotty and I surfed two big waves of about 60 feet and then, when Garrett was ready came a canyon wave of over 90 feet. The jet ski was the best place to see him riding the biggest wave I've ever seen. It was amazing. Most people would be scared, but Garrett was controling everything in the critical part of the wave. It was an inspiring ride by an inspiring surfer", says Al Mennie.

This was not the first time that Garrett McNamara rode giant waves at Praia do Norte, which is under the influence of a phenomenon known as "Nazaré Canyon" that creates unusual giant waves.

The conditions of swell and wind direction observed on McNamara's big day were quite special. The local maritime authorities registered a wave of about 8 metres off Nazaré coast, in one of the buoys. With a WNW swell direction and a favorable wind, the canyon does the rest

"I feel so blessed and honoured to have been invited to explore this canyon and its special town. The waves here are such a mystery", says Garrett.

I guess not being a surfer or a surfing follower I don't really know who Garrett McNamara is. But the picture and the video are really impressive. We have all heard about very large waves but who has ever really seen one? Here it is, the video, all 90 feet of the glorious wave in action right in front of our eye!

Happened at Archill, Ireland

2011-11-04T09:54:00.000-05:00

Similar story line, similar sad, tragic news, this time it happened at Achill, the largest island off west coast of Ireland. As reported in Mayo News:

The rescue search to recover the body of a Finnish male student who was washed into the sea off the Atlantic Drive in Achill has been hampered by difficult weather conditions.
The accident occurred just after noon on Thursday, November 3 when the young Finnish student (22) fell into the water while walking with three friends along the Atlantic Drive at Cloughmore, Achill.

Freak wave
It is believed he was standing by rocks when a freak wave took him into the water. His friends raised the alarm but running to a nearby house and the Achill Coast Guard, Achill Lifeboat and Gardaí were all involved in the search.
Searches took place yesterday and today, and although his body has been seen in the water, heavy seas are hampering its recovery.
A spokesperson for the Achill Coast Guard told The Mayo News at 11.30am today that as of yet the body has not been recovered and efforts were ongoing, but the weather conditions was making the exercise very difficult.
The Finnish embassy in Dublin have been informed of the tragedy and is contacting the man’s family. The incident occurred close to the area where a Polish man fell into the water and died in 2005.
Local councillor Micheál McNamara said this was ‘an awful tragedy’ and expressed his sympathies to the family and friends of the young man.

Yes, our deep sympathy goes to the family and friends of this 22 years old young Finish student away from home, may he be rest in peace in God's mercy and blessing. Can science ever be counted to provide some useful guide and help toward preventing this kind of tragedy from happening over and over again?

How high is this surf?

2011-10-31T15:38:00.002-05:00

This surf wave shown above, reported in U.K.'s DailyMail, is described as 50 feet high. But a number of readers of the article think that wave is clearly not 50 feet high with their estimate varied between 15 and 30 feet.

On the other hand Telegraph reports the same wave as 30 feet along with a video. Take a look at the pictures and the video, how would you estimate the size of this surf?

By the way this wave happened at U.K.'s famous Fistral Beach near Newquay in Cornwall. The locals called this wave case as a phenomenon known to be the 'Cribbar', which is named after a reef located at the north end of the beach. According to Chris Slack, author of the Daily Mail article: "They occur just once every 18 months when conditions involving the Atlantic swells and the onshore winds combine to cause the perfect surf conditions." Now I am very much wondering how did they came up with this "18 months" number or what kind of data they have that led to this contention? If they have data that documents this phenomena, it should worth some scientists' time to take a detailed look at it!

P.S.

I have actually blogged about U.K.'s Cribbar once before here.

Game of "wave dodging" should never, ever, be allowed to be played!

2011-10-29T13:53:00.008-05:00

Cullercoats, according to Wikipedia, is an urban area of North East England, sitting between Tynemouth and Whitley Bay. As there is a semi-circular sandy beach with cliffs and caves, and the village is a popular destination for day-trippers. Here's a news from Cullercoats a couple of days ago in ChronicleLive.co.uk reported by Alastair Craig:

A GAME of "wave dodging" ended in a dramatic helicopter rescue after a 12-year-old boy plunged into the swollen sea at Cullercoats, North Tyneside.

The lad and two of his pals were on rocks near the shoreline, encouraging each other to get as close to the crashing waves as they could.

But one freak swell washed one of the friends into the heavy sea, which had been whipped up by high winds.

Onlookers dialled 999 at about 3.45pm when they spotted the boy struggling to stay above the water.
Police control operators contacted Humber Coastguard, who co-ordinated a three-pronged rescue.
A Sea King helicopter was scrambled from RAF Boulmer on the Northumberland coast, while the Cullercoats Lifeboat and Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade launched mercy boats.

and:

Today the boy is recovering from the effects of 15 minutes spent in the bitter North Sea but his condition is not life threatening.

A spokeswoman for the Coastguard service said the lad is lucky to be alive and warned other youngsters to respect the dangers of the sea. “There were multiple 999 calls reporting a person struggling in the water after being washed away in the high waves,” she said.

I have never heard of "wave dodging" as a game before and I must admit that I am surprised to know that there is such silly thing is being played and more depressed to learn that it is even allowed to be played. This case two days ago was a relatively lucky one. Now here happens to be a more tragic news from 5 years ago in U.K. DailyMail:

A 13-year-old boy who died after being swept into the raging North Sea while playing a deadly wave-dodging game of "chicken" with friends loved playing outdoors, his mother said today.

Mark Langton was with a few friends when he was caught by a wave and quickly carried 200 yards into deeper water where he was battered against rocks and boulders at a sea break off the coast at Hendon, Sunderland.

His death on April 10, the first day of the Easter school break, prompted a warning from safety watchdogs who said that bored children were dicing with death in search of adventure.

Young friends said they had heard how Mark was playing a game of "chicken" in which youngsters try to dodge waves at the very last minute.

The teenager's mother, Beverley Steel, paid tribute to her son saying he loved playing outdoors and was not afraid of trying anything.

I can not help feeling sorry for that poor mother who paid tribute to her lost son but not seemed to have really taught him about being prudent. Now here, again, is another tragic news from BBC 7 years ago:

A 12-year-old girl has died after a game she was playing with friends on a beach in Northumberland went wrong.

Jade Anderson was playing a dangerous "wave dodging" game with three pals when a wave swept them into the sea.

Another girl is in hospital while two others were released after being treated for hypothermia.

Fishermen saved two of the girls before Pc Darren Purvis arrived on the scene, who dived into the water to pull the remaining two to safety.

So please, please, please, parents, please at least teach your children about prudent and safety near water. Let's not unduly burden the brave rescuers as they are already busy enough on their daily rescue works. A game of "wave dodging" should not ever being played at any time and at any place!

Raging storm waves on Lake Michigan

2011-10-21T10:37:00.000-05:00

Wave watching is always exciting, especially watching storm waves raging out there safely inside on the internet at home! So here it is again a latest show of October storm waves on Lake Michigan from Sheboyganpress.com yesterday:

Fot those who are not familiar with this area, here's a map of Lake Michigan showing where Sheboygan, Wisconsin is. Note that there is a Cheboygan, Michigan, so beware not to get confused!

For Great Lakes wave aficionados, autumn is clearly the season for waves and wave watching, and wave recording if that can be made. But the NDBC buoys are usually being removed in November before winter.

Happened on south-east Lake Michigan

2011-10-19T11:32:00.000-05:00

This video report from "abc57news" tells a failed rescue story on Lake Michigan:

Here's the text by Ryan Klund:

NEW BUFFALO TOWNSHIP, Mich. - The Berrien County Marine Patrol boat capsized in rough waters on Lake Michigan just before noon Monday, injuring both officers on board.They were out searching for the body of 18-year-old Mitchell Fajman. Fajman disappeared when his kayak flipped over in rough surf on Saturday.Berrien County’s brand new 25-foot Sea Arc, just delivered a week ago, Monday sits on its side on a sandbar in Lake Michigan. It's just the latest damage waves, have caused over the past three days.
"It’s dangerous," says New Buffalo resident Mary Laurisella. She watched it all unfold from the front seat of her SUV. Laurisella watches the waves at New Buffalo Public Beach every day. "Stay away from the lake," she says. "Stay off the rocks. Stay away from the water."Police can’t stay away. It's day two in their attempts to recover, 18-year-old Mitchell Fajman's body. Fajman is the kayaker who lost his life Saturday to the same lake that flipped the police boat looking for him Monday.
"It's really hard because now it's one of our own," says Larry Pitchford, New Buffalo Police Chief. "Our prayers are with Kurtz and the rest of the crew as well as the family we lost."One of the officers injured was Martin Kurtz, Commander of the county's marine unit. He and the other officer were taken to the hospital for symptoms of hypothermia. The two were released late Monday afternoon.
"They just got caught in a rogue wave and it flipped them over," says Pitchford. He says it's an example of how strong Lake Michigan is. "They train, train (and) train," he says. "But as you can see... even with the best training and continually doing it, accidents can happen."Laurisella says even if there is a job to do it's just too dangerous to be out there. "I would want them to keep their lives," she says. "We've already lost one."New Buffalo Police will keep combing the beach on ATVs incase anything washes onto the shore. The recovery on the water is suspended.

It is not an encouraging story to read for a Wednesday morning, especially when rescuers are involved. But it is what has happening out there when freaque waves are encountered -- not always happy endings!

The local resident's advice of "Stay away from the lake; Stay off the rocks; Stay away from the water!" may be a little extreme. But otherwise the danger in this time of the year just can not be minimized. Our heart and prayers go to the families of the lost life and injured rescuers. May the Lord's blessing be with them all.

Watch raging and ferocious waves during typhoon on video!

2011-10-13T17:23:00.002-05:00

John Metcalf of DC area's StormWatch 7 Weather Blog just filed this introduction to the video below:

Typhoon chaser James Reynolds has seen a lot of scary stuff while working as a freelance weather videographer in the Pacific. Recently, he decided to make a highlights reel. You won't want to even smell a sea breeze after watching it.

The short compilation opens up in Taiwan with a truly terrifying wave rising up from roiling seas during 2008's Super Typhoon Jangmi. This is like the Butterbean of waves, one that could knock you out for eternity. The film then cycles through various violent images that Reynolds has collected while documenting the "most extreme and destructive forces of nature." Prepare for unnerving rogue waves, punishing storm surges and more surf than what's on offer at the Red Lobster.

For more of Reynolds' work, visit Typhoon Fury or follow him on Twitter. Video follows the jump.

Short URL: http://wj.la/ph9cFI

I did not know there's really "typhoon chasers" to capture those frightening scenes on video. We just have to admire Mr. Reynolds for doing it. I am not sure that I really enjoy to watch something like that. I used to think that wave watching from a safe distance is fun. But this highlights reel is not easy to watch, but worthwhile to watch it at least once. The fury is out there, it's part of the nature -- how many modified nonlinear Schrodinger equation can be adopted to explain some of those ferocious furies?

A sad story of rescue, survival, and tragic lost in the Florida Keys

2011-10-11T12:08:00.000-05:00

Here's a U.S. Coast Guard picture:

and there's a sad story of rescue, survival, and tragic lost behind the picture as reported by news24 of Florida this morning:

Marathon - Four hours into a family fishing trip, rough waves flipped a boat off the Florida Keys, tossing eight people overboard. Some didn't know how to swim. Seven of them, including a 4-year-old girl, survived by clinging desperately to their capsized vessel and a small cooler for almost 20 hours, suffering exhaustion, jellyfish stings and hypothermia.

"When the will to live kicks in, human beings can do amazing things," Coast Guard Petty Officer Nick Ameen said.

But the 79-year-old matriarch of the group remained missing on Monday and was presumed drowned.
The family went fishing on Saturday morning in less-than-ideal conditions. It was raining, seas topped 2.1m and winds were whipping up to 61kph. After they anchored 5.6km off the island chain, two waves hit suddenly, capsizing the vessel.

The women had just enough time to grab the girl, the cooler and a single life jacket. One of the men tried to rescue his mother, but she slipped through his grasp and disappeared.

Almost immediately, the two groups - the three women and girl and the three men - drifted apart.
Nearly a day later, as the weather improved on Sunday, fishing boat captain David Jensen headed out with customers to catch live bait. In the distance, he saw a large object floating in the water.
At first, he said, he thought there was only one person holding on to the sunken boat, its bow protruding a few feet out of the water. Then he got closer.

"I tried to get them to swim to the boat, but they said they didn't know how to swim," Jensen said. "Then I had the mate throw them life jackets. One guy put on the life jacket and swam to the boat. The other two guys wouldn't get off the boat. ... They said they didn't know how to swim."

One of Jensen's customers jumped in and swam over. He tied the boats together, and helped the other two men, one at a time, back to Jensen's boat.

"They were exhausted. One guy overnight had lost his mother," Jensen said. "He was very visibly upset, which was a little tough because he was the one who spoke the best English."

Zaida San Jurjo Gonzalez died. Her son, Jorge Alejo Gonzalez, survived along with his wife, Tomasa Torres, the elderly woman's daughter, Elena G Gonzalez, and her boyfriend, Juglar Riveras.

Also rescued were Jorge and Elena Gonzalez's uncle, Jose Miguel De Armas, his wife, Yunisleidy Lima Tejada, and their 4-year-old daughter, Fabiana De Armas Lima. All are from Florida.

After the men were found, the fishermen called the US Coast Guard, which found the women hanging on to the floating cooler.

All of the boaters were soon reunited and treated for shock and hypothermia.

"They were all pretty happy to see each other," said Kendra Graves, a seaman with the Coast Guard.
It wasn't clear if the boaters were aware of a small-craft advisory that had been posted early on Saturday, warning of bad weather.

"They shouldn't have been out there," said Florida Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Robert Dube, whose agency is investigating. "It was nasty from the get-go."

- AP

There is not much one can add to this well reported case. There are already 1174 article published according to Google. A video report on NBC Today show can be found here. Our hearts goes to the family for their ordeal and loss. May God's blessing be with them! There was small-craft advisory out there, so boaters should always keep close attention to these advisory and warnings. We can never guard against the unexpected or unpredictable things, but at least we should be closely on alert on what has been predicted and never, never take any undue chances!

Potential of swepting out to sea

2011-10-08T16:02:00.000-05:00

I don't know whether this following nice picture, from EdDriscoll.com, is a real photograph or not:

But, regardless, one should always keep in mind that there is always this possibility for any one walking on the beach, a freaque wave can potentially rushing in at any time, and any place, and for no particularly reason, to swept the person out to sea doesn't matter who he is!

Liz Bazazi's personal account of an encounter

2011-10-05T11:21:00.003-05:00

From an article entitled "Rogue Waves" by Don Glass in the Moment of Science posted January 1, 2008, I found this comment by Liz Bazazi, posted on 11/30/2009, on her first hand experience of an encounter with freaque waves real enlightening:

I, a novice sailor, experienced a rogue wave in the late summer of 1994. It was a sunny day but the seas were rough due to a storm that was making its way up the Atlantic coast. My friend had motored out of Mystic Harbor into 6' seas in Long Island Sound and had just cut the engine to go under sail (I' believe we had passed The Race), when I saw a shocked look cross his teenage son's face. Following his gaze, my eyes fell upon a frighteningly tall (20-30' h. x 70' w. ?) wave heading toward us. I can still see the surreal sight in my mind's eye- a mast high black wall with white froth bubbling down from it's cap... coming right at us. It was not the convex giants I've seen surfers ride, but appeared a flat, vertical surface. My friend managed to fire the engine and turned the bow into the wave a moment before it struck us. The rest is not as clear in my mind. I believe our 38' (?) rose up it. What I recall is the water crashing down on us. Then the devil disappeared. Completely. We looked at each other in stunned disbelief. Incredulous shouts from 2 men in a fishing boat about 100' broke our stupor and confirmed that, yes, we had just survived a freak occurrence. My legs did not shake-- but bounced-- for a half hour after and we sailed less than an hour when, with worsening seas and shaken nerves, we anchored in Stonington harbor for the night. Needless to say, I will remember the experience 'til the end of my days!

This vivid description can only come from someone who was really there! It's not easy for an eyewitness to recall so clearly after all these time. I wish we could read more of this kind of personal account of a real experience! Thanks to Liz, for sharing your experience with the rest of the world.

By the way the picture shown at the top of this post which is also shown in Glass' article by Korshak is a rare freaque wave happening shot that seems just fit the kind of wave described by Liz Bazazi.

Southern Lake Michigan wave watching

2011-10-04T10:07:00.001-05:00

Here's an interesting written article about wave watching in southern Lake Michigan in WSBT.com by Dave Stepens of South Bend Tribune :

1:32 p.m. EDT, September 30, 2011
MICHIGAN CITY — Huddled together, his arm around her shoulders, Bob and Martha Knepper stood facing the wind-blown sand and stared.

As far as they could see, stretching across the horizon, the gentle blue-green of Lake Michigan had overnight transformed into a raging white sea of fury.
Waves, many that crested around 20 feet, continually crashed against the pier and lighthouse. Waves, riding on top of waves, pushed by a constant north wind, erased nearly 200 feet of beach.

"We’ve been here a billion times, and we’ve never seen it like this," said Martha, who drove with her husband from Edwardsburg — an hour away — just to see nature at a ferocious extreme.

They were not alone.

One after another, cars and trucks rolled through the now unmanned admission gates of Michigan City’s Washington Park, headed for the beach parking lot.

Some simply drove as far as they could and stared through the windshield — most likely to avoid the harsh windblown sand.

Others, clutching everything from phones to high-end digitalcameras, leaned against the wind and tried to capture the moment.

"It’s crazy," said Sheryll Duskin, who came from LaPorte after hearing the National Weather Service warnings about the unusually large waves. It wasn’t clear if she was talking about the weather, or her desire to be outside in it.

Some, like Chris Dillon, weren’t content watching from the beach.
Smartphone in hand, he walked along the pier’s upper wall, toward the lighthouse, making it about halfway out before the waves kept him from going closer.

"You never see it like this, this early in the year," said Dillon, who lives in Michigan City. "Usually it’s only in January or March."

After snapping a few photos on his phone and uploading them to his Facebook account, Dillon said he planned to go home and return with a life jacket so that he could go farther out without too much fear.

The National Weather Service had issued warnings about the conditions along the lakefront for most of Friday morning, where gusts were expected to reach 60 miles an hour. Inland, those winds caused more than 17,000 power outages across Michiana.

By Saturday, the weather service predicted, the wind and waves along the lake would be greatly reduced, but still warned that strong rip currents would exist, making swimming dangerous.

But Friday morning, as the winds continued to howl and the giant waves rolled, no one on the beach seemed ready for it to stop.

"I think I could watch this all morning," Duskin said. "But I’ve got to go to work and get this sand out of my eyes."

This article nicely captured the mood of wave watching. And here is the accompanying photo gallery showing some scary but exciting pictures that included the two we copied here.

Surf's up in Chicago

2011-10-02T10:45:00.001-05:00

Here's a Reuter's video showing what was happening at Chicago's Lake Shore Drive as reported in this U.K. Dailymail article:

Big Waves on Lake Michigan

2011-10-02T10:08:00.001-05:00

The last few days big waves are hitting the Great Lakes, here's a nice video shot by Steven Bourelle last Friday, September 30, 2011, which is appropriately entitled "Big Waves on Lake Michigan":

This can be considered as typical scenery of big waves in the Great Lakes. I attended a conference in Duluth, Minnesota last May, there was one day especially stormy. I did not have my camera with me when I went to the shore watching the waves, but I remember the waves were rushing in to the western shore of Lake Superior just like this video.