The third in our triage of close encounters of the Marine kind off sunny California. And while we’ve seen some pretty funky sh*t on this blog, especially off the coast of California, I gotta say this one will make you soil yourself more than any other. The scene, a surfer lazily taking in a nice day off Santa Cruz, California. And then…watch. The third tag I’ve added to this post sums it up pretty nicely.

You don’t really equate Portugal with massive waves, but big wave rider Garrett McNamara knew a sick wave when he saw one. So, he pulled a Bodhi and rode it. Now the video’s making the rounds, the general consensus is that the wave is 90 feet high and…if that’s true, you’re lookin’ at the biggest wave ever surfed. And I thought surfing Tofino was hard! McNamara, you might recall, surfed a wave caused by a falling glacier in Alaska a while back. Suffice to say, he’s got balls big enough to fit in a dump truck.

Think of surfing and the obvious names pop up: Hawaii, Jeffery’s Bay and California. And there are plenty of other popular surfing destinations, but sometimes there’s ridiculous surf in other places that don’t register in the collective surfing conscious. As with any form of adventure travel, in the surfing world it pays to get off the beaten track. Check out six surf destinations you’d never think of at gadling.com

Man, some guys just look death in the face and tell it to F&#k Off.  Fortunately for Ramiana van Bastolaer, the world-renowned big wave surfer did just that, with an Oh Shit moment for the record books and a video that will make your jaw hit the floor.

Watch this video, of Reef McIntosh’s jet ski flying over head and literally, I mean literally, miss Bastolaer by inches. McIntosh had towed Bastolaer out for some big wave surfing action and bailed right when the wave turned nasty and, well, the full story is here.

The jet ski didn’t make it, but McIntosh and Bastolaer and both ok, and Bastolaer stayed on the wave and has one of the sickest, narrow miss videos in history to prove it. Sick Sick Sick. Bastolaer, as someone comments on YouTube, is a F%$*ing Ninja.

To each their own. Canada has hockey, the Norwegians have wing-suits. And the Aussies? They have waves that would give Kelly Slater wet dreams for the next fifty years. This is a compilation video, of just some absolutely disgusting waves and the surfers who ride them. This is big wave surfing, by the way. Don’t try this at home.

Even if you’re not a surfer, you gotta see this. Zoltan Torkos, aside from having a seriously cool name, now has the distinction of performing the first ever triple kick-flip. Or at least the first one caught on film. This is just nuts. He took home 10K for that little move. Bodhi, AKA Patrick Swayze, is looking down on this with some serious surf zen approval.

There’s been some confusion over the years whether or not a great white shark was caught off Ucluelet in 2005.  Specifically, it’s this image, of what appears to be a large great white, dead and hoisted above the wharf.  Go here to see one of the many posts regarding this rumour.

Anyway, while it appears to be a great white, it’s actually a mako shark, which look similar and are closely related, but it’s not JAWS.  The harbour isn’t Ucluelet either.  Rather, it’s Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.  Tanya Dowdall, a park ranger at Pacific Rim National Park points out that the area code (902) on the boom in the background of the picture gives it away.  And as she also comments, it’s a sad story how this shark died.  The mako shark is a magnificent creature that can leap right out of the water.  Only a privileged few have seen the mako – the world’s fastest swimmer – in its natural environment.  It’s also critically endangered.  So why kill it?  Sheer f*#%ing stupidity.

So to answer a question that pops up from time to time.  Are there great white sharks off Tofino (and Vancouver Island)?  Actually, there are.  But  they’re very, very rare.  There’s photographic evidence of juvenile great white shark bites at the BC Shark Reports blog (where Tanya Dowdall sometimes contributes).  To my knowledge this is the only proof of great whites off Vancouver Island, although I’ve heard that surfers and fishermen occasionally see them far off shore.  The great whites that do swim this way are usually juveniles, and the theory is they learn the art of stealth and hunting when they’re this far north.

I should emphasize though that great whites in Canadian waters are very, very rare, and if you actually saw one, you’d be in very select company, as there have been less than five confirmed sightings of great whites off Vancouver Island in 50 years.  We do get the odd salmon shark, but its sexy cousin, the great white, is pretty darn elusive.

And I’ve said this a thousand times. GREAT WHITE SHARKS DON’T EAT PEOPLE.  In the few occasions when they have taken a swimmer or surfer, it’s a case of mistaken identity (a surfer looks very much like an elephant seal from below), and they swim away.  But when this happens, the media jumps all over it and demonizes sharks, and the authorities and “do-gooders” with an IQ below 75 slaughter the sharks (to the point that some species are down 90%).

Sorry, I’m done preaching for the day.  Are there great white sharks off Tofino?  On a very few special occasions, but the way they’re being killed, our generation could be the last to see one, if at all.  Unless we do something to protect them.

We may be in the doldrums of winter, but Mother Nature’s always up for some seriously killer surf…of the glacier variety!  This video is a combination of big wave surfer Garrett McNamara and a jet ski being in the right place at the right time.  Watch as this glacier conveniently topples into the water in time for these guys to get their polar bear surf on in some intense ways.  Truth be told, I never would’ve thought this possible.  But Oh My God, f*^&*ing intense.  Nice!!

One word to describe this video – cold. Only in Canada would someone be crazy enough to surf in the snow. Actually, some surfers say the swells are better in winter than in summer. No arguments here, these are some nice looking waves. This is Peter DeVries, and he just tears it up here in this snow storm. It’s just that he might need to, you know, thaw out for about ten hours after surfing. That’s dedication.

More proof that Tofino is making a name for itself in the surfing community.  This weekend, the O’Neill Coldwater Classic tournament returns to Tofino for the second consecutive year.  Tofino surfing guru Peter DeVries won last year’s tournament, which certainly didn’t hurt O’Neill’s decision to come back to the surfing capital of Canada.  You’ll be seeing lots more of this up in Tofino this weekend.  With Thanksgiving coming up, I just realized that I’m thankful for living on Vancouver Island.  The best freakin’ place on Earth.  I think most Canadian surfers would agree.