Thursday December 6, 2007:  Today I read about the humongous waves I experienced yesterday (see Offshore crush below).  They actually started out as swells several days before ~ hundreds of miles out to sea. Somewhere between Hawaii and California; they got amp’d. Tuesday they started slamming into Mavericks (a beach near San Francisco) at a height of around 50 feet.  From there they traveled south ~ mellowing a bit ~ and managed to slip in-between the Channel Islands (which usually serve as a break water for Santa Barbara) ~ where they hit Rincon at just over 20 feet ~ which is cool if you were at Rincon ~ because there’s a rocky point where the waves peel off ~ creating a nice side-ways barrel ride.  That was not the case where I was, however ~ at Hammonds they were ‘beach break’ ~ which means skull crushing waves that crash all at once ~ offering no chance of escape.