Freaky waves

[driftwood]

I saw the same freaky waves thursday morning. I was fishing thursday
in La Jolla 100ft WS corner all by myself. When suddenly i hear this huge crash of waves behind me and one big round glassy area of water. The large wakes were moving in reverse of the swell towards the open ocean. Scared me a little and peddled fast away from it.

I sure wish someone would tell me what causes this strange phenomenon? BTW there were no boats nor whales around me. This has been discussed before in this site.
http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/s...=strange+waves

hey, this is a fish report section.
I don't want to hear about your,
too many beers, I've got the new
kayak blues, bah bah bah...

[driftwood]

Originally Posted by yani

hey, this is a fish report section.
I don't want to hear about your,
too many beers, I've got the new
kayak blues, bah bah bah...

LOL!! All that beer i had and no one to share it with. HEY! were was everyone thur? I had lots of elbow room... Yani, you got a new kayak? i say its BS without pictures.

[The Kid]

kinda sounds like a whale to me or someone was fishing like they do in the Philippines. Bombs away!!!!!!! LOL just kidding.

[Tman]

Have seen that happen before, not an expert but I'm assuming it has to do with the swell and the contour it is passing over. Kinda like the shallow current hitting the deeper current.

I was out once and had that happen, an 'oh chit' moment...unfortunately I was sideways with the front hatch open as I was digging for a sammich. Looked up just in time to see a mini-wave approach, only reaction I had was to point the bow towards it and punch over.
Closed the hatch and got the phook out of there.

Still don't like to be near that spot...

[driftwood]

I don't think it was a whale. Like the Tman said, These were small waves that if you didn't see them coming you could possibly flip. if it was a whale it must been a huge whale breaching right behind me. I know it was no boat wake...there were no boats for miles away.

[Handymansd]

I don't know about waves but I was WAAAY out side NW corner in about 1700 ft of water on Thursday drifting for those loco toothy critters and had 2 Riso dolphins come up about 18" from my bow with no warning... no real waves but the splash and wake did scare the crap outta me, as I was dozing!

I don't know much about the Riso's but they are quite a bit larger than any of the other dolphins or porpoise that we usually see out there.

[pchen911]

It was me. I flipped the kayak and fell in the water on Thursday.

[embo]

Drifting PL kelp with a buddy years ago, just about asleep when I see 3-4' peaks headed at us directly from the north. I jumped up fired up the Bayliner and whipped a U turn right into 3 peaks from the south, got caught in the middle and tossed like someones salad in Susanville.

[jimbo]

interesting. that is kind of weird... especially the part about coming from the east and pushing west. how big were they? how many? what shape?

that way you describe it, i really don't think it could be a whale. from what i've seen, whales really don't make waves as they cruise. if a whale breached you would know it.

i have seen waves way off shore on really smooth, greasy days and wondered where they came from. later i would spot a vessel that presumably made the wave. so, i think it's possible for boat waves to travel long distances (miles) when the conditions are just right. i suppose it's possible you may not have even seen the boat if it went away from you. could that have been possible at the position you were in? i know it doesn't really account for the smooth patch of water you observed though.

[bluesquids]

I was standing at the launch last week and felt the ground tremble. I didn't think it felt like an earthquake. I right away thought maybe cave in off the canyon or some type of offshore explosion.

[The Kid]

Originally Posted by bluesquids

I was standing at the launch last week and felt the ground tremble. I didn't think it felt like an earthquake. I right away thought maybe cave in off the canyon or some type of offshore explosion.

From my college days and taking several geology and oceanography classes:

A subsurface tremor or shift would impart a noticeable difference on the water's surface that would only be visible to those who are able to see the kinetic energy transferred onto the shoreline. Like during a tsunami when it is about to strike. However, when a vessel is on the water, the difference will not be noticed because the water is not being moved like the way wind moves water turning that movement into current. No the water will instead be a medium that transfers kinetic energy at a very high speed and will be so fast that one could not notice. Maybe if someone was on the edge of where a landslide occurred it could be noticed like that or it could be an area where the sand was soft and collapsed in upon itself forcing water into a vacuum and cause an effect similar to that of what creates a whirlpool. Any way I see it, seeing something like that would be something I would want to avoid. Unless a quintuple marker (500lb swordfish) came up and was hungry.

But the explosion would create a wake because the energy is released into the air lifting and dropping the mass of water creating a ripple. I hope the submarine doesn't get angry and fire on at me.

When did you feel the tremor?

That's just my input.

[bluesquids]

Originally Posted by The Kid

When did you feel the tremor?

It was the 19th around 3pm.
I checked the earthquake logs and nothing close by on that date, but on the 22nd and 23rd there was a couple 1.5's in San Diego that were contibuted to Quarry Blasts. Could explain what I felt but not the freak waves.