What makes the world's biggest surfable waves?:
On Feb. 11, 2020, Brazilian Maya Gabeira surfed a wave off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, that was 73.5 feet tall. Not only was this the biggest wave ever surfed by a woman, but it also turned out to be the biggest wave surfed by anyone in the 2019-2020 winter surfing season—the first time a woman has ridden the biggest wave of the year.
As a female surfer myself—though of dubious abilities—this news made me really excited. I love it when female athletes accomplish things that typically garner headlines for men. But I am also a physical oceanographer and climate scientist at Brandeis University. Gabeira's feat got me thinking about the waves themselves in addition to the surfers who ride them.
[...] Just as light waves and sound waves will bend when they hit something or change speed—a process called refraction—so do ocean waves. When shallow bathymetry slows down a part of a wave, this causes the waves to refract. Similar to the way a magnifying glass can bend light to focus it into one bright spot, reefs, sand banks and canyons can focus wave energy toward a single point of the coast.
This is what happens at Nazaré to create giant waves. Extending out to sea from the shore is an underwater canyon that was etched out by an ancient river when past sea level was much lower than it is today. As waves propagate toward shore over this canyon, it acts like a magnifying glass and refracts the waves toward the center of the canyon. This focusing of waves by the Nazaré Canyon helps make the largest surfable waves on the planet.
YouTube video of Maya's record.
Journal References:
1.) Babanin, Alexander V., Rogers, W. Erick, de Camargo, Ricardo, et al. Waves and Swells in High Wind and Extreme Fetches, Measurements in the Southern Ocean, Frontiers in Marine Science (DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2019.00361)
2.) N. F. Barber and F. Ursell, The generation and propagation of ocean waves and swell. I. Wave periods and velocities, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences (DOI: 10.1098/rsta.1948.0005)
3.) L.S.Griffiths, R.Porter, Focusing of surface waves by variable bathymetry, Applied Ocean Research (DOI: 10.1016/j.apor.2011.08.004)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by FatPhil on Friday December 04 2020, @11:08AM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday December 05 2020, @06:37AM
Exactly. A surfer is a surfer, doesn't matter if they're male, female, trans, dyadic, futanari, up, down, charm, strange, boerbul... whatever the rest of the list is. Why is "woman does X" different news from "someone does X"?
(Score: 2) by dltaylor on Friday December 04 2020, @11:32AM (1 child)
Maverick's has recorded 100 ft. waves.
https://briantissot.com/2014/12/21/what-lies-beneath-the-waves-reef-and-marine-life-of-mavericks/ [briantissot.com]
Cortez Bank may have the most consistent large wave sets.
https://briantissot.com/2016/01/26/cortes-bank-the-largest-wave-on-the-planet/ [briantissot.com]
Not knocking her accomplishment (I could never have handled what she did when I surfed), but Ms. Gabiera needs a sponsor to bring her up here to California.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Friday December 04 2020, @07:53PM
Mavericks is absolutely mind-blowing to see in person. As somebody who has never surfed, just watching others was an experience. It's been a few years now, but I used to climb the hill next to the RADAR station take a few point-and-shoot pix [flickr.com]. The best time to go was when there was a swell, but *not* the competition. Even on the weekend it might be you and just a couple dozen others. Other times you might actually get to watch big-wave surfers with just a hand full of people, or even all by yourself. I have no idea what it's like now. I know they really clamped down on viewing for the competition after a sneaker wave swept some spectators and a viewing platform.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 04 2020, @01:33PM (9 children)
Trying so hard to get some sort of trophy in competition with men. Why?
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 04 2020, @01:42PM (1 child)
Just one reason: To make the easily-triggered incels in their basements sob. While the rest of us (mostly men who aren't so delicate) laugh at you.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 04 2020, @06:09PM
Stop projecting, loser. I've got a wife and multiple kids and they are being raised to see themselves as not needing to kowtow to any crybully.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Arik on Friday December 04 2020, @01:47PM (4 children)
She legit competes in open events ("mens" events in common parlance, but obviously they aren't male-only as some might think from the wording - they're just not restricted to females-only like the "womens" events) against all comers. Isn't that the exact opposite of what you said?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 04 2020, @06:06PM (3 children)
I was really reacting more to the framing in the article by the female oceanographer than the surfer.
So, allow me to clean up my post: not discounting real surfing achievement. Was discounting the oceanographer's way of giving an award to the surfer based on her sex and including herself in the surfer's achievements in some sort of stupid vagina-based solidarity. The oceanographer is vicariously trying to share some of the glory because she's a woman too, and she also surfs! Lame.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 04 2020, @06:12PM (1 child)
Also, the oceanographer is supposedly a scientist. Why not discuss the science? She has to make it about herself and talk off tangent about social stuff. A male scientist would not do this, at least not before the nagging women inserted themselves (were diversity hires).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 04 2020, @11:48PM
The science is literally discussed. Die alone.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday December 04 2020, @06:40PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by nostyle on Friday December 04 2020, @04:59PM
Imagine a wave so big that no _man_ could surf it.
---
Maya: " Here, honey, let me help you with that."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 04 2020, @05:39PM
Could say the same thing about kids, U15, U18, U21, U23 levels. Bah! If you can't compete with The Men then don't bother.
(Score: 2) by oumuamua on Friday December 04 2020, @06:43PM
could something like this amplify gravitational waves- perhaps by passing between two blackholes?
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 05 2020, @03:49AM
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