Just when we all thought we were safe and no more responsibilities would be shirked, the life of the California based surf community turned on it’s axis from the arrival of swell three of the 2009-2010 El Nino Season.
The storm which spawned our most recent pulse, began in similar fashion to the prior. It was another early season storm. It began life as a series of somewhat unimpressive low pressures, which were all affected by a series of high pressures. The storm initiated at a latitude that gave it an ideal fetch angle for a 290 degree WNW swell track.
As the storm developed, the lows cycled into one deeper approx 959 MB low and as the winds peaked, a combination of strengthening high pressure over California and in the Pacific basin along with a rising Northern jet stream sent the behemoth spinning into the Bay of Alaska with the largest percentage of swell energy occurring at points North of Central Ca. As the angle of the swell cycled more northerly as a result of the storm path and coincided with increasing intensity, we really missed an epic swell maker due to the early season character traits. But some places did not.
My call from Chuck Patterson came as he wearily dragged home, after getting an amazing slab session in Central California. Jeff Clark sent word and images of truly epic NorCal as Mavericks broke at a solid twenty feet on the old Hawaiian scale with dead glassy conditions.
What we saw in Southern California, were warm, Santa Ana kissed days. Shirt sleeve weather bloomed, as the page on the calendar turned, and Winter fell upon us.
Another 750 images went through my Canon 5D Mark 2 body as I looked for and found some solitary respite.
The images below show some of what I saw, from the pulse created in the heartbeat of a storm which for a couple days two thousand five hundred miles away the energy of the sun injected into the North Western Pacific.
It is why I like shooting water really: those dawn images, sun hanging in barrel, when turning, spinning, swell transforms into a stained water chathedral, leaves me rapt, and frequently brings me to a place where it feels like I have been touched by God. And in a way, I have been.
Click on any of the images in the gallery below for a larger view of our new Winter, which is frequently the best Summer one could imagine.
You never cease to amaze me with what you bring home from these shoots. You don’t “get lucky” every once in a while, instead, you consistently capture the magic every time you go out. I always admired your work, even before we met because you have the God-given talent to capture in such a way that makes the rest of us feel like we are there with you when we look at your images.
like looking a the most beautiful liquid glass. This is one household (among many I’m sure) that thanks God for El Nino winters. God has blessed us each and every one ;).