King waves kill

We've all seen the sign on the internet, and many of us have made the pilgrimmage to see it in person.

But how many of us have actually witnessed a king wave?

I saw one yesterday. It scared the shiz out of me.

I was at Canal Rocks, fishing off the walkway. I'd read reports on the internet that you can climb down from the walkway and stand further out if you want to. At the time it was just starting to get light so I decided to stay on the walkway. I'm glad I did.

This was pretty much my view, minus the people and a lot darker:
/images/misc/forum-image-missing.gif

There was a good 3-3.5 metres between the bottom of the walkway, and the water channel there. Occasionally a wave would break over the rocks to the far left of the picture, and water would flow through the channel, much as this picture shows. Most of the time the water was reasonably still, there was a bit of movement, but not really moving very much.

I'd been there for about an hour when I heard a loud crash from a LARGE wave breaking, I looked at the bridge, and saw a fkn tsunami bearing down on it. The whitewater was over the walkway, and went halfway up the railing. I'm so glad I decided to set up away from the bridge -- I don't think it would have washed me off, but I would have gotten really wet. Had I decided to fish further out from the walkway on the rocks, then there is no way I would have stayed on the rocks. The set only had 2 waves in it, the second one was almost as big, it still washed over the bridge. After that had gone, everything settled down back to normal.


So that's a first -- I've actually seen a king wave. I'm not sure if you'd recognise it if you're surfing, you might just think "Fark I'm getting the hell away from that one" but in the context of standing on rocks, this one was as clear as day.


Has anyone else seen a king wave?

I can imagine the size of them. The huge rocks at Esperance where many foolish people lost their lives show evidence of waves over them. And I am talking about at least 10 M or more in height.

The location in the photo depicts a channel. That probably magnified the effects. It is a bit like a wind tunnel. I wonder of there are warning signs ? But would people give a damn about signs anyway ?

I was 10 when I got washed along the rocks and into a culvert that drained the rocks at Sth Whale in Sydney. We'd been mucking around well above the tide when a monster wave came out of nowhere, heaps, heaps bigger than the sets.

It was very ouchy and cutty. Luckily I was able to wedge myself at some point and stop the drag ride. I didn't have brown shorts just red Speedos. It was a really embarrassing and painful experience. I looked like a stupid grom rubberneck because of a freak wave.

King waves are real...
As per the canal rocks story its not a wave thats once or twice the size of others, it is a wave so disproportionately bigger that it just makes everything else look like a little peeler..

The below video gives an example amd many on here would of seen it but its certainly worth a watch, this is only a " clean up set" it is not a king wave......however gives an example of how quickly things can change...
www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DMSIB-Ey-kKA&ved=0ahUKEwjv4qOb_brVAhWCpJQKHa4BC3wQwqsBCC4wAA&usg=AFQjCNF2hy71fPuuW9OR_OMcAaRQ3V_vRg



There are two distinct instances where I have seen king waves which will be etched into my mind for ever.

It was the cray season of 97 and we were out on first bank in 25 metres of water on acommercial cray boat, thats right 25 metres of water.... the swell was 3.5 metres and waves were featherung maybe half a kilometre in from us in the 18-20 metre depth range, dependent on speed of swell will determine what ratio of size to depth a wave will actually break.
Plenty of 4 metre swells throughout the morning with the odd 4.5 to 5 metre swell every few hours..
It was big and there were certainly waves a 60 foot cray boat could pull into if you were that way inclined.
In the peak of the tide (on both occasions whether coincidental or not i dont know) a wave came through which broke out half a kilometre further than we were in 28-30 metres of water ....It was at least an 8 metre swell line, as it peeled through it was like watching a cartoon, we headed for the "shoulder " and made it hust over the lip busting out two windows and copping a deck full of water, it peeled through the next kilometre or so making a terrifying sound and was to this day the largwst wave I have ever seen in real life, it was the equivelent to surfing head height beachies with a 25 foot waimea wave coming through...totally out of scale and totally not required.

The second time was actually at the bluff.. head height day sitting in on the reef heaps of decent gems and heaps of good waves.... A 4 -6x overhead set came through and took out the line up and really busted people up. 2014 june also right near high tide........
This set was ridiculous and how no one drowned was absolutely a miracle.. One guy was pretty busted up and everyone helped him through the keyhole and onto the rocks. It was horrific and if it had of been on the sunset surf or early morning in poor light someone would of drowned for sure...I dont like to put a foot size on waves but it was giant and could of easily won xxl wave of the year if anyone was another 500 metres out and had the balls to paddle in, the only thing i think that saved everyone was the fact it was so much bigger meant it had alrwady broken for 15 -20 seconds before it hit the line up, if it was 3/4 the size it would of killed people for sure.

And that my friends is a summary of two of my closest calls to davey jones locker

I remember getting family photos at mushroom (?) rock in Kalbari in the 80s.
On the walk back. Wave broke over the top of it.
Almost got washed of the canal rocks bridge as a youngster too. Managed to hold on to dad. Not a king wave but didn't time the sets.

A better version of the clean up set Raz posted earlier.

Thanks Greeny, I'll give you a bell.

Was just checking it out, hadn't been there before and wanted to go on a bit of a dawn mission. Had read reports that there were some deep spots just off the rocks, and was hoping for a pre-dawn pinky with all the swell. After that was seeing if there were any herring around.

Didn't realise just how sketchy the place was. Probably won't be going back there unless the swell is right down!

I'm not a fisherman, but if I was going to consider fishing on the rocks, I'd use an inflatable jacket with built in harness, then tether to the anchor points provided.

I have a Spinlock deck vest that has these for on the boat, they're pretty comfortable.If you expect to get drenched, then maybe a manual inflate version.

Great vids. You can keep those waves to yourselves thanks.