On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 02:40:36 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

But, those are shoreline breaks. One of the articles in which that
picture appeared indicated that it was occurring in deep water and
that this the kind of thing you could encounter offshore.

I'd take that with a grain of salt although it could happen with large
storm waves hitting an adverse current. Mavericks is somewhat off
shore however and in relatively deep water, it's just shallow compared
to the surrounding area. There are places like that on the east coast
but not as well known, such as Southwest Ledge at Block Island
(N41-07.08, W71-39.37, depth 21 to 35 feet, about 3 miles off shore).
It would probably be as well known as Mavericks if the North Atlantic
was consistently prone to the same sort of large swells that the
Pacific has. I have seen some very impressive swells near Block
Island and also on the coast of Maine after a hurricane has passed a
few hundred miles offshore.