"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
I've run across this picture a couple places on the net and am wondering
if it is real or a digital paste up.

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2004/...b__430x275.jpg

If real, it is very spooky because of the relatively benign conditions
around it. You would expect something like this in a well developed major
storm but not in the general sea state shown.

It doesn't look like a breaking shoal. If these things do exist, they
must be exceedingly rare and this must be one of the luckiest pictures
ever taken.

I'm guessing this is a digital fake.

--

Roger Long



Roger
I've been surfing all my life and I'm 54 now.
The wave is real - what puts it "out" is the cropping of the shot. It is a
fairly standard wave breaking on a flat reef complex probably very close to
a shore or headland. You just don't get a look at the surrounding features.
It's probably not all that big either, it's just the perspective it's taken
from.

Sure is ugly, though. I would bet there's very little space between where
it's breaking and where it will end up - if'n you had your boat in between
the two, I'd guess the rocks would be more of a problem than the wave
itself.

The following posters' Mavericks shots are scarier because they're a long
way off shore and they're mighty big. The only good thing about them is
that you'd get pounded all the way out of the zone and into flat water if
you stayed together long enough.

regards
Hoges in WA (as in Western Australia)