Rush for riders.Byline: Winston Ross The Register-Guard LINCOLN CITY Lincoln City can refer to:
Oregon's first-ever big wave surfing Big wave surfing is a discipline in surfing where riders paddle into or are towed onto waves which are at least 20 feet (6,2 m) high, on surf boards known as "guns" or "rhino chasers". The bigger the wave, the faster it travels, and the bigger the surf board needed to catch it. contest was on. It'd take Clark two full days to drive to Lincoln City, but that's a minor detail for the guy who discovered Mavericks, one of the biggest waves in the world. Twenty-five-foot breakers have a way of calling out to surf legends. So Clark hopped in the car and began the journey, joining 30 professional surfers from all over the globe who converged on this unlikely locale for an invitation-only "tow-in" surfing competition Sunday with a $20,000 purse. The date was officially agreed upon Adj. 1. agreed upon - constituted or contracted by stipulation or agreement; "stipulatory obligations" stipulatory noncontroversial, uncontroversial - not likely to arouse controversy last Wednesday after contest organizers agreed the conditions were just right. Surfers got 48 hours' notice. "Things were lining up in the eastern Pacific," said Clark, 48, who finally arrived at the competition site at 1:30 a.m. Saturday. "The bad weather broke down at the dateline. The rock had been dropped in the pond In the Pond is a 1998 novel by Ha Jin, who has also written Under the Red Flag, Ocean of Winds, and Waiting. He has been praised for his works relating to Chinese life and culture. ." In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke" put differently , a low-pressure system was rolling toward the coast, bringing 12-foot swells with it and the potential for much bigger waves to Nelscott Reef Nelscott Reef is an ocean reef near Lincoln City, Oregon, United States that creates a reef break (where waves spill over to create whitewater) that is known as the only place on the Oregon Coast with the right conditions for tow-in surfing. , hailed as one of the world's top five surf breaks. Only a few surfers know its secrets - and can reach its monstrous crashers. The underwater reef is a half-mile off shore. The only way to approach it sanely is with the help of a jet ski Jet Ski A trademark used for a personal watercraft. jet ski Noun a small self-propelled vehicle resembling a scooter, which skims across water on a flat keel jet skiing n . As a helicopter hovered overhead to capture video footage, surfers worked the waves in tandem, one towing the other to the right spot and then cutting loose. This is the "safe" approach, but there's nothing safe about catching waves that rise several stories above a surfer's head. Breakers this big can pummel pum·mel tr.v. pum·meled also pum·melled, pum·mel·ing also pum·mel·ling, pum·mels also pum·mels To beat, as with the fists; pommel: The angry crowd pummeled the thief. a surfer underwater and thrash him for up to a minute like an alligator alligator, large aquatic reptile of the genus Alligator, in the same order as the crocodile. There are two species—a large type found in the S United States and a small type found in E China. Alligators differ from crocodiles in several ways. in a swamp. Only the best - or the bravest - ply the breaks of a place such as Nelscott. "The pantheon of big waves begins with Jaws, in Hawaii," said Roland Hoyle, one of the contest's organizers. "On the West Coast, you start down in Baja, with a wave called Todos Santos. Further up the road, the next really legitimate big wave is Ghost Trees, at the 18th hole of Pebble Beach, then Mavericks at Half Moon Bay, then us." Us? In little old Oregon? "This is an insane surf spot out here," says Clark. "It's on par with any wave in the world." While no one's sure just how big it's gotten at Nelscott Reef, the geology holds the potential for wave faces as high as 80 feet, with a 40-foot swell, Hoyle said. Jaws, where the tallest waves in the world have been recorded, routinely delivers 60-footers, by comparison. What creates the potential for big waves at Nelscott Reef is the stark contrast between water depths at the continental shelf. When water deeper than 300 feet meets land as shallow as 16 feet, there's nowhere to go but up. The reef was "discovered" in 1995 by an Oregonian named John Forse, another contest organizer and a legend in his own right for paddling out into the surf with nothing but a board to get him there. Nobody surfs Nelscott without a jet ski. After Sunday, Hoyle predicted, the reef's notoriety is sure to grow, luring surfers to Oregon's icy waters. "The genie is out of the bottle," he said. Kevin Ranker, a San Juan county San Juan County is the name of four counties in the United States:
Organizers asked Ranker if he could make it down to judge the event. "I'm dealing with a $49 million budget for the county, but I went home and grabbed my board," said Ranker, peering through binoculars and scoring surfers based on their most difficult maneuver. "We were on a ferry in an hour and a half." Santa Barbara natives Pablo Schulte and Davey Smith also made the long drive to Oregon with glee, despite the 20-hour drive and a night on a hard floor at Schulte's sister-in-law's house in Ashland. The trip back will be a bit lighter, however. He had to ditch his board after getting caught in some rough water where a wave had just closed out. Smith and Schulte searched for several minutes, to no avail. The reef had consumed it. Winston Ross can be reached at (541) 902-9030 or rgcoast@ oregonfast.net. CAPTION(S): Surfers use personal water craft to ride to and from Nelscott Reef, about a half-mile off Lincoln City, for Sunday's competition. Winston Ross / The Register-Guard Jet skis enable the surfers in Sunday's invitation-only competition to reach Nelscott Reef. The reef was "discovered" in 1995 by Oregonian John Forse, who helped organize the contest. |
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