Good morning and welcome to Part II of the pounding and the fury along the central coast. As I mentioned in Wednesday’s lunch special, storms from the Gulf of Alaska created ferociously high surf that excited surfers, exhausted rescuers and thrilled anyone with a camera. This is the same storm that hammered the Pacific Northwest with hurricane-force winds on Tuesday that caused major flooding and hit the coast so hard that it closed every road along Coast Range. In our last blog we featured surf action from Monday when the waves started to pump and explode along the coast. Today we’ll take a look at an epic Tuesday here in Santa Cruz. It was an exceptional day to be anywhere along the raging Pacific.

As you can see from the second shot, the size of the swell and the high tide created conditions where the coastline was just being battered all day. The combination of mist, fog and tornado clouds created an interesting shot (#3) down at Lighthouse Point. As I was taking the this photo I was looking up at the clouds and not really concentrating on the waves. All of a sudden a rogue wave rushed towards me and hit me waist high so quickly and with such force that it almost knocked me over with camera in hand. That would have been tragic, particularly since I had already gotten my allowance this week. It was just God’s or Michael Jordan’s way of showing me how powerful the ocean and nature can be.

The storm action drew large groups of spectators (shot #4) to everywhere along West Cliff Drive. That’s the crowd at Steamer’s Lane checking out the surfers in action. The waves were breaking really far off the coast and it just was surreal that this action continued non-stop for for three days and Otis Knights. At the same time forty-five miles to the north at Maverick’s in Half Moon Bay they were surfing monster waves with faces from 50 to 80 feet high. That is a truly mind-blowing proposition. For me, anything over five feet and I’m out of the shower.

Throughout the day there was the constant roar of the surf and the sound of the water smashing and crashing up against the cliffs. These explosions created a never-ending series of white water symphonies. As Tuesday drew to a close the sky was cloudy and misty and there didn’t look like there would be any sunset action and then out of nowhere, vavoom, the sky started to light up and this amazing orange-red hue appeared in the western sky. It was just incredible that a day of intense weather and surf conditions could be topped off with this spectacular ending. It was an eerie beauty, something that could only have been created by God or Martha Stewart.

So that’s your west coast surf report. Next week we’ll get back into some classic sunrise action. And for anyone who is not in the Santa Cruz area and is interested in purchasing very affordable greeting cards and photos for the holidays, please contact me and we’ll send them out to you ASAP. And remember, tomorrow (Saturday) from 1-4 pm is our Sunrise Santa Cruz Holiday Sale where you can purchase 4 beautiful greeting cards for $10 or matted 8″ x 12″ prints for just $25. The address is 128 Echo Street on the westside. Hope to see you there. Have a great weekend and enjoy high surf action.