The 2010 Todos Santos Big Wave Paddle-in event is ON today. Just got a call from Hetherington and Gove, they are estimating sets 25-30ft with bigger rogues
Hetherington said it's the biggest waves he's ever seen. Conditions are good now, but yesterday's storm put a little chop into the face
Chad Cox is doing water patrol on his ski and they said Jeff Clark is helping out with that as well. Guys are taking two or three on the head before they can get in there to pull them out
Bummed I'm missing it!
Here's the link - they have heat results, but no live cam unfortunately. Peter Mel is entered, not sure when he surfs.
Peter Mel too ... seen commentating the Quicksilver Pro at Snapper Rocks today. Didn't look much like he was enjoying himself. Here's hoping he can make it to Mexico in time for his heat.
Randiego wrote:Peter Mel too ... seen commentating the Quicksilver Pro at Snapper Rocks today. Didn't look much like he was enjoying himself. Here's hoping he can make it to Mexico in time for his heat.
That explains why he was listed on the "Surfers" page as one of the 24 competitors, but later on I couldn't find him in any heats...
Thanks to my friend and fellow Mexico charger Denny Moody, we were able to experience the Todos contest yesterday. Going out in his 22' Parker, we traversed our heaviest seas ever to get out to the island. The tide was full, so the channel between the islands wasn't closed out, yet. What we found when we got out to the lineup was incredible. 15-20 jet skis were milling about just inside the takeoff zone, 4 boats moving in and out in the same area, all with photographers aboard, and another 10 boats anchored further back taking in the spectacle. The takeoff point was at least a hundred yards past the rocks where we normally line up on a double overhead day. Conditions were great-sunny, light winds, some bump from the windswell mixed in, but overall good contestable conditions. I shot around 300 photos in the hour and a half we sat there, and Surfline picked up one which appears as photo # 7 in their collection. They described it as a grassroots contest, a low budget affair (first prize was a modest trophy and a huge bottle of Patron tequila donated by the owner of Costco) with only bragging rights and no cash prizes, but overall a great event. Water patrol was putting themselves in harm's way to pull the unfortunate out of the maelstrom. There was so much foam in the water that Chad descibed it as trying to operate a ski in shaving cream.
Last edited by Bob Gove on Mon Mar 01, 2010 7:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.
After an hour and a half we decided to head back to the mainland to surf another boat only access spot, and got the shot for Surfline before we went back through the channel between the islands. The tide had dropped, and the swell was nearly closing out the passage, making us all a bit nervous. On the run to the mainland we saw some cloudbreaks I have never seen before in the middle of the 9 mile wide channel. Our surf session was a modest 2-3' overhead, quite a contrast from the bombs we had witnessed earlier, but a great session with only 10 guys out, at a spot which used to see up to 60 on a good swell before they closed the access. I put together a small slide show of the contest, if anyone wants a copy of it you can email me at: gove@san.rr.com
Bob Gove wrote:After an hour and a half we decided to head back to the mainland to surf another boat only access spot, and got the shot for Surfline before we went back through the channel between the islands. The tide had dropped, and the swell was nearly closing out the passage, making us all a bit nervous. On the run to the mainland we saw some cloudbreaks I have never seen before in the middle of the 9 mile wide channel. Our surf session was a modest 2-3' overhead, quite a contrast from the bombs we had witnessed earlier, but a great session with only 10 guys out, at a spot which used to see up to 60 on a good swell before they closed the access. I put together a small slide show of the contest, if anyone wants a copy of it you can email me at: gove@san.rr.com
Really nice pic there.
Nice wet suit for Mark too. Did I miss the return to the '70's surf style. Are black suits and clear boards out again?
