Mr. Towed’s Wild Ride

It was a turbulent day in December that will remain in the minds of men who ride mountains for some time. And the day after wasn’t bad, either.

“Was it the most insane day surfed anywhere? Who knows,” Frank Quirarte, publisher of https://www.mavsurfer.com, mused in a posting on his site. “What we do know is that, unquestionably, Friday, Dec. 22, 2000, will be ranked among the best big-wave days anywhere.”

Unquestionably indeed. The shifting, heaving peaks at Maverick’s off Half Moon Bay reached such formidable heights--60 feet from crest to trough--that those employing arm power alone had little chance of paddling out, much less catching waves.

“They basically just sat and watched,” said Peter Mel, a big-wave specialist from Santa Cruz, who is among a growing number of Maverick’s regulars using specialized boards to ski, behind jet-powered personal watercraft, into waves too swift and large to paddle into.

A day later, the same swell hit Todos Santos Island off Ensenada, where a much smaller contingent was on hand, and again, most of the paddlers seemed to be in over their heads, leaving the jet-powered San Clemente team of Mike Parsons and Brad Gerlach with an obvious advantage, enabling them to catch and carve wave after wave, both before the paddle-in crew arrived and after it had been beaten into submission.

Parsons and Gerlach are new to tow-in, and had been eagerly anticipating the day they could try out their new toy--a $15,000 Wave Runner--on a big day at the island.

“I was pretty nervous the night before; I only slept about one hour because the buoy [readings] were so big and I was way too excited,” said Parsons, 35, who for years has ruled Todos Santos with a conventional surfboard. “Then when we got there, I was disappointed that it wasn’t a little bigger.”

Naturally. The faces of the waves at a break called Killers topped out at only about 50 feet.

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What all this illustrates, of course, is that the increasing use of jet power is not only taking an already extreme sport to its outer limits, it probably will produce the winner of the Swell XXL contest, in progress through March 15, awarding $60,000 to the surfer who negotiates the largest wave this season, and $10,000 to the person who documents it on film.

If this sounds familiar, it is. Bill Sharp, now publisher of Surf News in Costa Mesa, spearheaded the controversial K2 Big Wave Challenge in 1998, which ultimately awarded $50,000 to Carlsbad’s Taylor Knox for his wild drop down a 52-foot face of a Todos Santos breaker. Sharp is behind this event as well, serving as head judge.

What’s unique about the Swell XXL, sponsored by https://www.swell.com, is that the paddle-power-only clause has been removed, opening the door to a tow-in crowd that is starting to swell in ranks, and is capable of conquering much larger and potentially much more dangerous waves.

“What we were thinking would happen has already happened,” said Evan Slater, editor of swell.com and a big-wave rider of considerable repute. “The waves they were riding out there [in late December] supersede the paddle-in waves of ’98. Obviously tow-in has proven to be a popular means to catch and ride bigger waves. And basically what we’re seeing is that, of all the purists of the past, more than a few have taken up the rope.”

Slater said entries have come from Maui’s Jaws, birthplace of big-wave tow-in, and also from Maverick’s and Todos Santos. And although the first two are considered favorites to produce a contest winner, neither Slater nor Parsons has ruled out Todos Santos, which upstaged both Jaws and the “Wicked Pitch of the North” during the Big Wave Challenge.

In a swell.com posting, Slater describes the paddle-in crew’s brave attempts to tackle the mammoth walls of water cascading over the reef at Todos Santos two weeks ago:

“But before long, Killers took its toll on the infantry class. Broken boards, strained necks and sustained beatings forced most of the paddle-in crew back to the boats by noon.

“With the lineup cleared, Parsons and Gerlach broke out the bazooka again and fired away until late afternoon. Purists may cringe at the ever-encroaching Jet Ski in big-wave lineups, but [Dec. 23] is another case in point for tow-in advocates: Parsons and Gerlach rode 40 waves each and ripped; young charger Rusty Long caught two waves and is still nursing a sore back.”

BLUE-SKY BLUES

As beautiful as days have been, there are those longing for ominous clouds blotting out the sky. They, of course, are California ski-area operators, trying to find a silver lining in the absence of clouds.

“Temperatures have not been super cooperative for snow-making, but we have been able to make snow in patches,” said Joani Saari, spokeswoman for Mammoth Mountain, which boasts an un-Mammoth-like machine-groomed base of 12-24 inches.

“We’re doing the best we can, making snow when we can, and our [holiday period] numbers are up significantly compared to last year.”

Saari pointed out that conditions were similar last season, before a mid-January storm dumped 10 feet of powder in 10 days.

THE SILVER LINING

Bob Roberts, executive director of the California Ski Industry Assn., was asked for an overview and responded, via e-mail:

“Compared to last year, these holidays have been great. The Tahoe numbers are solid and strong. Heavenly seems to have done particularly well. A $20-million new gondola will do that. The weather is a mixed blessing. Sunny skies bring out the masses but the paucity of fresh snow deters the hard-core.

“Room bookings are still very strong in Tahoe for this week, so January should start out strongly. We will need a good dump soon to keep the [momentum]. As you no doubt know, the SoCal resorts have been doing quite well, at least the big three. Snow Summit, Mountain High and Big Bear Mountain have been pleased with the numbers to date. However, Mother Nature is a fickle broad, so nobody is boasting too loudly.”

THE SILVER BIRD

At Mammoth, they’re celebrating the recent FAA authorization of a $30-million grant to upgrade Mammoth-Yosemite Airport so it can accommodate commercial jetliners. Starting next December, American Airlines will have two flights a day with an extra flight on weekends from Dallas and Chicago. The second year, if all goes as planned, flights will arrive daily from Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

WHAR SHE BLOWS?

Even when the fog has lifted, gray whales have proved elusive this winter. The reason? A delayed southbound migration, perhaps caused by warmer than usual conditions in the Bering Sea. Volunteers for the American Cetacean Society’s Gray Whale Census Project on the Palos Verdes Peninsula recorded one of their lowest December counts ever--25 southbound and one northbound--but say persistent fog was a contributing factor.

“We just couldn’t see the whales going by,” said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, director of the project.

Schulman-Janiger predicts a season similar to the previous two, “with a later migration and a lot of skinny whales with not too many calves.” A decrease in productivity in the mammals’ home waters is being blamed on their new and unfortunate look.

CATCHING THEIR DRIFT

Nobody’s complaining about blue sky in Cabo San Lucas, where under the Baja California sun sits a sea of striped marlin just waiting to be caught. The billfish have settled among huge schools of mackerel, eliminating the need to troll for hours during an often fruitless search. A spokeswoman for the Hacienda Beach Resort called it the best fishing in 15 years.

Larry Edwards of Cortez Yacht Charters in Lemon Grove, Calif., the U.S. rep for the Gaviota Fleet, added: “Many anglers that have fished for marlin in other parts of the globe find drifting for marlin an odd way to fish. Once the double and triple hookups start, they become believers in the system.”

WINDING UP

If you plant them, they will come. . . .

Such is the philosophy of operators at Santa Ana River Lakes, a series of three reservoirs in Anaheim. SARL last week produced a probable state-record rainbow trout weighing 23.76 pounds, and this week yielded a 23 1/4-pounder, which is also bigger than the existing record, a 23-pounder pulled out of Lake Natoma in Northern California last January.

A special accomplishment? It’s subject to debate, because both fish that came out of SARL were raised to record size in a trout farm before being planted. But since the Department of Fish and Game has no policy against this, the rainbow roped by Craig Joachim of Anaheim will probably be rubber-stamped as a record.

“People just love to catch big fish,” said Doug Elliott, who runs the concession at SARL. And to his credit, by spending about $750,000 a year on hatchery-raised trout and catfish, he gives them an excellent chance to do so.

“People spend thousands of dollars, going to Canada or Alaska to catch big trout, and we’ve brought the same kind of angling experience, or even better, here for only $16,” Elliott said. “What we’ve done is brought all this to urban America.”

Now all he needs to do is plant some trees and import a few grizzly bears to enhance that experience.

“Or maybe a caribou or an elk,” he said, laughing.

* FISH REPORT, D10