Surf's Up...and Deadly

Coastal California is getting hit with some of the biggest waves we've seen in a long time right now, and while it has the ardent surfer crowd pretty "stoked", it's nothing to play with:

SAN FRANCISCO — A big wave rider died Tuesday at the unforgiving surf break known as Ghost Trees, a Monterey County spot known for its fast-moving waves, in a powerful swell reported as high as 37 feet.

Peter Davi, 45, of Monterey, lost his surfboard and was attempting to swim to shore, but never made it, witnesses told authorities. Friends of Davi lost sight of him and later found him floating in the water unconscious.

Monterey County Sheriff's Sgt. Dennis English said a department search and rescue team responded to a report of a surfer in distress, but that Davi was dead by the time the team got to Pebble Beach....

The scary surf also attracted spectators who had to be chased off cliffside property in exclusive Pebble Beach, English said. California Highway Patrol officers were called in to ticket motorists who flooded the scenic 17-mile Drive.

That photo was taken a couple of years ago along the 17 mile drive in an area known as the "Restless Sea". If they're getting big waves in that area, it wouldn't be safe to be standing where Mrs. HolyCoast was standing. That area is turbulent on a calm day - I can't imaging what 20' waves would be like.