Monster wave action!

[John Kasaian]

At Mavericks expected near Half Moon Bay in California this Friday!:D

[Drew Wiley]

So John ... are you finally going to get that ultimate wave-tunnel shot by balancing your Deardorff on a surfboard?

[John Kasaian]

So John ... are you finally going to get that ultimate wave-tunnel shot by balancing your Deardorff on a surfboard?
An interesting idea, but this might be a job for the 5x7 Speeder. Unfortunately unless the monster waves make it to Fresno I won't have the chance to find out (and the tourists had better roll up their trouser cuffs at Casa De Fruita!)

[Darin Boville]

Just a word of warning--watch it on TV. I live two miles from Mavericks, pass it by every day.

First, it's quite a ways offshore. You can drive down the coast, stopping all along the way, and easily miss it.

Second, most distressing, they block your access to the area, even for ticket holders. The beach and bluffs from which to view Mavericks are dangerous and with large crowds of people not accustomed to eroding bluffs (see every year), rogue waves (see 2010), etc. it is just a recipe for disaster. So they have big screen TVs set up--that's what the ticket gets you.

My advice, no matter how close or how far away you live, is to get a bunch of surf friends together and go to http://www.mavericksinvitational.com and watch it live on your own big screen. Or talk a local bar owner into doing an event.

Final thought--if you just want to see the wave itself, maybe with a surfer or two on it, come on some other day. Mavericks "goes off" to one degree or another, any time conditions are right, not just when the context organizers say so...

--Darin

[Drew Wiley]

I'm not much of one for stopping at Casa De Fruita, but there was a little hiking trail turnout near Pacheco Pass which has always tempted me with some nice poppy shows at certain times. Had a neighbor way up in the brush on Black Mtn (you might know where that is) who held the record for finding the most plesiosaurs around
San Luis Res. He was at it till his mid-90's, and still teaching palaeo the whole time. Allegedly some old climbing sidekick of mine has since moved into the same brush
pile. Where I like to shoot the surf is right smack at the tip of Tomales Pt. There's so granite there, but you still have to be careful with footing. The surf just build
as it funnels into Tomales Bay, and sometimes the seal lions will body surf on it. Quite a sight, but a bit risky to them, since that's prime great white territory.

[Jody_S]

Doesn't anyone make a waterproof casing for a Speed Graphic? I'm sure someone has, at some point.

If they've filmed these things from the back of a Seadoo, I don't see why they'd be impossible to shoot in LF. Of course, 'why would you?' comes to mind.

[Drew Wiley]

Well, if you could figure out a way to handhold an 1800mm lens on a 4x5 Speed Graphic, to obtain an analogous perspective, I suppose you could do it. At least
you might buy yourself a little time to get out of the water, while a great white munches on your bellows, mistaking it for a seal instead of your wet suit!

[Harley Goldman]

I made it to Mavericks years ago when it was going off. We viewed it with binoculars from the bluffs. Those surfers are plain crazy to be out in waves that big. They look like tiny little figures on the wave.