Holy crap I'm alive!

This is in Portugal, my home country. I've been there a couple of times, but never during the big wave season unfortunately. It's supposed to be quite a sight.

I thought a big wave would land over the car with her in it!

A tourist here in Iceland died a couple of days ago in an incident like that. He was standing on a beach that is known to have these big waves come that can pull people in but tourists either don't notice the warning signs or ignore them because it doesn't look dangerous. Until the big wave hits, that is.
It's the first death since 2007 but I have heard many news stories about people barely escaping.

Big wave and animation of how it works

A cool video about Mavericks if you haven't seen it yet http://videosift.com/video/The-most-dangerous-big-wave-surfing-spot-Mavericks

Getting caught inside at mavericks is terrifying. From the most awesome surfing movie ever made, Riding Giants.

I'm guessing there was a reason behind him doing this(other then its somehow cool to switch boards). Seems to me(someone correct me if im wrong) that it's much easier to paddle into a big wave like this on a long board and much better to ride the wave with a short more maneuverable faster board.

The appearance of larger than average waves is a known statistical phenomena to sailors---or should be. Looks like these guys might want to learn about the same rules (especially the two guys that reappears in the channel at 47 seconds)

So, if there are regular 10 foot waves, you should plan with startling regularity, on running into 20-25 foot high waves that will appear to come "out of nowhere"

This translates, BTW, into prudent navigation; since you know that waves start to "break" when the bottom is half the depth of the wave height, in a 10 foot swell, you should stay in water 25 feet deep with your boat unless you want the way-to-frequent for comfort big wave to come crashing down on top you as it "breaks" rather than sliding underneath your boat.

The most recent sailing accident attributable not following this rule was the sinking of the sailboat "Low Speed Chase" off the coast of the Farallon Islands (San Francisco Bay)---when she shaved a corner and ventured into the shallows and was crushed and sank by a breaking wave---(drowning some of her crew and the captain).

Can't help but think that we're setting us up for a big wave of very sick people on medicare. When the things they have require a lot of therapy and recovery, perhaps multiple surgeries to fix....where as if it had been caught 20 years ago prior to them being on medicare it might have been quite simple to address....but they didn't have insurance so it wasn't feasible.

Plus you look at the insane amount of "defense" and "spying" costs we have in the US, and that stuff keeps getting increased and cheered on like it's a cure for everything.

TEAHUPOO Mega Swell Surf - Throw My Life Away Edition has been added as a related post - related requested by silvercord.

The Scariest Waves Ever Surfed has been added as a related post - related requested by silvercord.

Surfing Tsunami-like Waves in Tahiti has been added as a related post - related requested by silvercord.

Beautiful Scary Wave in Slow Motion has been added as a related post - related requested by silvercord.

2008 BILLABONG XXL GLOBAL BIG WAVE AWARDS NOMINEES has been added as a related post - related requested by silvercord.

Most significant ride in surfing history has been added as a related post - related requested by silvercord.

*related=http://videosift.com/video/TEAHUPOO-Mega-Swell-Surf-Throw-My-Life-Away-Edition

*related=http://videosift.com/video/The-Scariest-Waves-Ever-Surfed

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Surfing-Tsunami-like-Waves-in-Tahiti

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Beautiful-Scary-Wave-in-Slow-Motion

*related=http://videosift.com/video/2008-BILLABONG-XXL-GLOBAL-BIG-WAVE-AWARDS-NOMINEES

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Most-significant-ride-in-surfing-history

Diving (snorkeling) in Mexico once, while swimming face down in some really big waves, watching the bottom of the ocean come at me and then away from me, I got instantly "seasick". I didn't expect what happened next as thousands of small and medium sized groupers absolutely surrounded me - looking for a free meal. I didn't know how to react - A little bit confused, a little panicky, grossed out and my tummy felt better all at the same time.
- but a memory i won't forget

Thought you might enjoy this
http://videosift.com/video/The-most-dangerous-big-wave-surfing-spot-Mavericks

the negative comments i've read here make me laugh so hard
you can plainly see the irony mess the poster's hair as it goes right over their head
many different times, in many different ways

Die Antwoord is brilliant, catchy, and riding a big wave of success

ain't gangsta enough? seriously? because real gangstas troll the sift/youtube right? keep it real
armchair hiphop historians lol
its called growing old, or being out of the loop... learn to cope

A big wave, yes, but I see no evidence of it being a tsunami. Probably isn't.