Big Wave Surfing Strike Mission to Cortes Bank - 100 miles off the California Coast

100 Miles off the coast of California... Some of the best big wave surfers in the World take on XXL Cortes Bank in pristine glass conditions. As a commercial fisherman I have spent a lot of time out on the Ocean in good and bad weather. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen as good as conditions that we got on this Day ( January 13th, 2023 ) Perfect big waves coming in all day, and not a land mass in sight. It was a pretty surreal experience. A great white shark, 50 seals, and a bunch of surfers and water rescue shared the lineup that day. With a big film crew and a few boats watching from the channel documenting this rare in special day off the coast in the middle of no where. Bill Sharp was the mastermind of this trip. After the session he claimed it to be “The Greatest Surf Trip of All Time“. Which we all agreed. This was being filmed for an upcoming season of HBO’s 100 foot wave. Out of all the surfers that day, the only one that had ever surfed out there was Garrett McNamara. Lucas Chianca, Justine Dupont, Andrew Cotton, Nic Von Rupp, and Will Skudin had their first experience out there. And as you can see they all took advantage. I Actually filmed a couple days before at Jaws, then went off the chase the same swell! took the red eye after to make it on the trip to cortes. We left San Diego Thursday Night and got to Cortes early Friday morning. Surfed from morning to about 3:00 PM and then headed back to San Diego and got back early Saturday morning. It was a quick and precise trip. One that I will always remember!
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