Jan. 11, 2005 - The string of powerful winter storms careening through the North Pacific Ocean over the last few weeks, along with some 21st century surf forecasting, has been proving a boon to monster wave surfers in California.

From Northern Mexico to Central California, waves topping an estimated 65 feet have been roaring in, many seen with the tiny figures of some of the world's most daring and experienced surfers tearing down their faces.

The largest wave ridden so far this winter may have been on Dec. 21, off the western shore of Todos Santos Island, nine miles from the Northern Mexico city of Ensenada.

It was there, about a half hour before sunset on the shortest day of the year, that surfer Brad Gerlach caught what is estimated to be a 65-footer - just a few feet shy of the 70-foot world record from 2004.

"It's just incredibly impressive," said professional photographer Robert Brown, who captured an image of surfer Gerlach on the wall of water before hightailing it back to Ensenada before night set in.

Brown has tracked big waves to Todos Santos many times over the years, he said, but this was the biggest he had ever seen there.

Among the other surfers who took on the outsized waves at Todos Santos were brothers Greg and Rusty Long.

"We all had a go and we probably surfed the tallest waves of our lives," said Greg Long, reached on his cell phone on Jan. 9.

The Longs were on the road to yet another forecasted big wave encounter at an infamous big surf spot called Mavericks, near Half Moon Bay on California's Central Coast.

It's the second time in just two weeks that the Mavericks giant-wave machine has been switched on by a storm swell. Last week, a storm 1,000 miles off shore pumped waves at least 50 feet tall into Mavericks and a spot known as Ghost Trees, near Pebble Beach, Calif.

Surfers looking to catch the season's giants have been coming from as far as Europe and Australia. They are succeeding because of advances in the science of surf forecasting, as pioneered by Sean Collins of Surfline.com.

Like modern weather forecasting, surf forecasting takes into account data from satellites, ocean buoys and the like.

Unlike weather, however, surf forecasters need to add to the mix weather at the surf spots - far from the wave-making storms - along with how various surf spots are known to respond to waves of different sizes coming from different compass direction at different times in the tidal cycle.

"Every location has its sweet spot," said Collins. By using his own surf forecasting model, Collins has been able to help surfers, movie makers and others get to the right spot at the right time.

"A lot of times I'm talking to guys in Australia who are thinking of flying to Hawaii," to find big waves, he said.

"You drop quite a bit of dough to get to these places," said Brown, who has shot big wave events far and wide. So you need to know the waves will be there when you arrive, he said.