30 foot waves in CA and more to come

[pixy0stix]

www.cnn.com/2023/12/28/weather/california-waves-flooding-west-coast-weather-friday/index.html

I'm having a lot of "wtf" moments watching people get swept away by the waves that they've purposefully gotten close to so they can gawk. 

[konapoppy]

They were huge. Anyone getting close was an idiot. It was pretty amazing in person (from a very safe distance).

[basilosaurus]

Dec 29, 2023 15:35:10 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

www.cnn.com/2023/12/28/weather/california-waves-flooding-west-coast-weather-friday/index.html

I'm having a lot of "wtf" moments watching people get swept away by the waves that they've purposefully gotten close to so they can gawk. 

like this guy?

“People were yelling and screaming. I ran as fast as I could, mostly backwards because I was filming.”

[mrsukyankee]

I saw a video of a kayaker having to be rescued. WHY would you go out in weather like that? Crazy people.

[basilosaurus]

Dec 30, 2023 4:42:40 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

I saw a video of a kayaker having to be rescued. WHY would you go out in weather like that? Crazy people.

The number of people who will go out surfing within hours of hurricane landfall has always astonished me. They all deserve Darwin awards. At least they're not usually diverting emergency services which they very openly shut down most in evacuation areas.

[formerlyak]

My in-laws have a vacation home three blocks north of where that video was taken. The house happens to be in a space where the beach goes down a little and you have to take stairs up to a platform and then back down the other side to get from in front of the house to the beach. So we were very lucky, because we are the second house in from the sand so we certainly would have had damage if that wasn’t the case. We had planned on going but made a last minute change and went elsewhere. Seems to be a good choice.

The beach we live at in the south part of the Santa Monica Bay has had sections closed for a few days because of these waves.

ETA: Some of the onlookers are clearly idiots. However I’ve seen a few photos on CNN where it looks like people are standing on rocks right where the waves are breaking. There is no place in Manhattan Beach that you can do that. The rocks are actually quite far from the water. But the perspective of the photos is deceiving.

[gretchenindisguise]

We went down to the beach at high tide today. Waves were pretty good and fun to watch.

There was one surfer catching some of the big ones. 2 young guys tried to paddle out but couldn’t get through the breaks. They wisely eventually gave up.

The beach parking had turned into part of the beach.

[basilosaurus]

Dec 30, 2023 21:48:16 GMT -5 formerlyak said:

ETA: Some of the onlookers are clearly idiots. However I’ve seen a few photos on CNN where it looks like people are standing on rocks right where the waves are breaking. There is no place in Manhattan Beach that you can do that. The rocks are actually quite far from the water. But the perspective of the photos is deceiving.

You mean, the news exaggerates? Reminds me of this awesome clip.

[SusanBAnthony]

Maybe related.... Is the Pacific coast highway ever going to open? Are they going to keep trying to clear the landslide from the same place or are they going to reroute it or what? I have googled but didn't find much other than it's still closed and we are in the rainy season again.

[VillainV]

Apparently there was a big earthquake in Japan last night. I’m assuming the large waves were caused by the same tectonic activity that caused the quake?

[pixy0stix]

Jan 1, 2024 9:27:00 GMT -5 VillainV said:

Apparently there was a big earthquake in Japan last night. I’m assuming the large waves were caused by the same tectonic activity that caused the quake?

No, the waves in the article were from offshore storms.

[formerlyak]

Jan 1, 2024 8:58:47 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

Maybe related.... Is the Pacific coast highway ever going to open? Are they going to keep trying to clear the landslide from the same place or are they going to reroute it or what? I have googled but didn't find much other than it's still closed and we are in the rainy season again.

What part of PCH? PCH is long and different parts close at different times. I’m guessing you are talking about the part by Big Sur since that likely gets the most national attention? There isn’t really a place to reroute it. We were there in the summer and had lunch at Ragged Point which is right before you enter the south end of that stretch of the highway. They regularly work to secure the hillside along that stretch. It doesn’t always hold.