High-Water Mark

The ocean rose to such heights and fell with such pounding fury that the Monterey Peninsula seemed to shake. Play on the 18th hole at Pebble Beach slowed, as golfers looked west in awe.

Otters that in more tranquil times frolic in amber forests of kelp could not be seen.

“That’s because they’re smarter than we are,” said Don Curry of nearby Carmel. “They know to get out of there.”

It was March 9, and the waves at a little-known surf break called Ghost Tree, within sight of the Lodge at Pebble Beach, had reached face heights of 60-plus feet.

Curry and Ed Guzman, and a few other tow-surfing tandems, used Jet Skis and ropes to pull each other onto the colossal shoulders of the waves as they crested and broke.

By tumultuous day’s end, two injuries had been endured and Curry and Tyler Smith were said to have negotiated the tallest of peaks. They’re among five finalists in the biggest-wave category of the annual Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards, which pay $1,000 a foot or up to $60,000 to the winning surfer.

The other finalists are Dan Moore, Shane Dorian and Garrett McNamara, all for waves ridden at Jaws off Maui. The winners -- there are also paddle-in and tube-riding categories -- will be announced April 22 at the Grove Theatre in Anaheim.

Jaws produced the last two winners of a contest in which judges base their decisions on photographic evidence.

Before that, it was Maverick’s near Half Moon Bay and Cortes Bank 100 miles west of Orange County.

Ghost Tree is far less known but no less dangerous, Curry said, explaining that the waves break over a shallow rock reef and that the surging walls of water also push relentlessly against a boulder-strewn coastline.

As the tide drops, some of the rocks become exposed in the wave faces, making them tricky to negotiate.

Smith was among the injured surfers. He suffered a torn rotator cuff during or after a wipeout that left him flailing in the foam-filled impact zone. His brother Russell attempted a Jet Ski rescue but was overcome by another wave. The two were fortunate to have been swept southward, along with the vessel, toward the safety of the channel.

The other injury involved Australia’s Justen “Jughead” Allport, whose foot failed to release from its strap during a wipeout. The abrupt twisting of the board broke his leg in four places.

“Bad only happens if you get hurt,” said Curry, 45, a personal fitness trainer, husband and father. Had he fallen on his biggest wave, he added, he would have either slammed onto or washed into the rocks.

But he maintained his footing as he streaked down the near-sheer wall and made a drawn-out turn to the right. The crest of the wave then threw-out overhead and blotted out the sky.

“I was pretty much inside the wave,” Curry said. “I was not tunnel vision -- I was not actually inside the barrel -- but I was almost completely covered, and the fact that I came out was the best thing about it.”

The gallery at No. 18 probably would agree.