Big Wave Surfing Discovered by NPR
By Steve Casimiro on February 1st, 2013
If the wave Garrett McNamara rode in Portugal this week is 100 feet, we’ll eat something nastier than our hats, and all this suggestive reporting by the media and bloggers that it MIGHT be 100 feet is further evidence of supremacy of cheap tricks, hyperbole, and the lack of critical thinking in our world today. With that short rant out of the way, though, National Public Radio took at look at G-Mac’s ride and, more interestingly, how the Nazare monster formed. Like other big wave spots, the sea bed rises sharply just off shore, allowing deep water swells to maintain their wave energy until just before they explode on the coast — and in Nazare’s case, there’s a 16,000-foot-deep canyon that funnels energy straight toward the break. Via NPR.
Read more stories like this at Adventure Journal.
Tags: surfing
I’m not sure if I understand the point on the rant. Is that a 5 foot wave that just looks big due to trickery and a lack of critical thinking on my part?
As far as I can tell, it looks like a solid photo, some reporting on some geological/surf science I was not privy to prior reading, and a stout day of surfing.