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January 19, 2001 By 7 a.m. PST, surfers will be riding waves 100 miles off the coast of Southern California. This isn't like your average group of lucky travelers tackling overhead wraps on some far-flung Polynesian atoll. We're talking about potentially Maverick's-scale surf in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with no land in sight and nothing to cling to but a boat and a few PWCs. Titled "Project Neptune", it is a truly large-scale production involving photographers, boats, airplanes and a seafloor anomaly known as Cortes Bank. There will be two tow-in teams -- Mike Parsons and Brad Gerlach, Peter Mel and Ken "Skindog" Collins -- plus boat captain John Walla and Swell Editor Evan Slater, both of whom are prepared to paddle in. But perhaps the greatest player of all has been time, and nobody knows it like veteran surf photographer Larry "Flame" Moore. Since first photographing Cortes Bank more than 10 years ago, Flame has patiently worked to see the wave ridden at its full potential. And as his labor draws to a close, it is only fitting that he detail what has been a true surfing saga: "Cortes Bank is a seamount located approximately 100 miles from Dana Point Harbor and almost equally the same distance from San Diego. Basically, it's an underwater mountain that peaks at approximately half a fathom. So, at a mean low tide, the water's 3 feet deep out there. There's a history of all sorts of shipwrecks going back to the 1700s. And, actually, what prompted me to think about surfing the place was my obsession with boating. Looking at the charts, I was always mesmerized by this thing sitting in the middle of the ocean, thinking, 'God, waves should break out there.' "The first time I actually saw it break -- and took pictures of it breaking -- was during the Eddie Aikau swell in January of 1990. The idea had been kicking around in the back of my mind for quite a while, but we never planned the first attack. Surfline was just calling this huge swell, so we decided to go. And I can remember literally flying along with Mike Castillo going, 'I wonder if it's going to break?' It broke alright. It very well could have been one of the biggest swells we've had in the 11 years that I've been trying to get out there. I don't know exactly how big -- it's hard to tell from the air even when you have something to gauge it by -- but it was like 50- to 60-foot faces probably. "A year later we rode it. We decided to give it a dry run when it was one of those magic, sheet-glass days. There wasn't a breath of wind. The swell was small. Bill Sharp, George Hulse, Sam George and I boated out there, and I believe George Hulse was the first one to ride a wave out there, followed by Bill Sharp. Even at 8- to 10-foot Hawaiian, it was just barely breaking. And both of those guys will tell you that it was extremely difficult to catch. So there was a problem: we'd seen it breaking huge, but could anyone actually ride it? And the solution to that wasn't realized until tow-ins became popular. And that's when Bill Sharp spurned us to get it going again last year with the revelation that these guys can ride anything now. "So that's why we never got it together until last year. And since then, it's been a matter of getting all the factors together. You'd be amazed at how many times there have been opportunities and the boat's broken down. Or you get everything in order and you look at the buoy readings and, out of nowhere, the wind starts gusting to 40. Another factor is the athletes. Last year we had a perfect day to go, but the Maverick's contest was on. "But this time, there's swell, there's conditions, there's athletes, there's swell, there's photographers, there's a boat -- everything's in place. And I'd say if the swell is 12 to 15 feet pure, it should triple it out there, which would be 35 to 45 feet on the face. And there's no reason why they shouldn't be able to ride that -- paddle or tow. I'd say by sunrise tomorrow, there will be people surfing 100 miles off the coast. If they can get the Jet Ski on the boat in San Diego and off the boat out 100 miles, it's game on." Check back with Swell in the coming days for updates on the taming of Cortes Bank. -- Matt Walker  |
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