Welcome to part deux of my favorite dawn buster of 2006. I love the cloud color and textured reflection of these sunrise shots. The fifth photo is pretty unusual as we are looking west at sunrise. As we know, the sun rises in the east and that where the color usually hangs out but this morning was something very special, much like my bris.

Speaking of special, today is December 13th and birthday wishes today go out to my good friend Carol Conta. Carol roller skated by my house on West Cliff Drive thirty years ago and has been on my radar even since, phoning in cloud reports, helping me frame my Sunrise Santa Cruz photos and encouraging me to pursue my career as a hand model.

Last week we featured two blogs that highlighted the giant swell that battered the central coast. It also produced the biggest day ever for waves at Mavericks, a big surf break forty-five miles up the coast in Half Moon Bay. In an article written by Bruce Jenkins in the San Francisco Chronicle, surfers are now referring to last Tuesday as “The Big Ugly.” According to big wave surfer Grant Washburn, the faces of the waves were 50 to 80 feet and “Guys were turning, carving, snapping off the top, getting barreled like never before.” And also wiping out like never before, which is basically looking death in the face.

Here’s how big wave surfer Peter Mel of Santa Cruz described last Tuesday. “That was the thickest, meanest swell we’ve ever had, really an extreme direction from the west. Most of the good ones are sort of inviting, like it’s our destiny to go out and catch a few. This was a crazy angry swell, it did not feel welcome. After a while it reached the point where I knew it was too dangerous, that I had to get out of there.” All in all, last Tuesday was a day that will go down in history, much like my bar mitzvah but with more white water and less matzoh.

So that’s it for bonus Thursday. Tune in tomorrow when we’ll finish off the week with a sunset that will knock at least one of your socks off.