Cortes Bank: Great waves, near tragedy [SURFING]
“I got a call from Garrett McNamara the afternoon of December 19 saying we needed to find a way out to Cortes Bank. The maps were showing a swell that was going to hit that location perfectly on the 21st and no where else on the California coast” Body Glove Entertainment Director Greg Browning recalled. Photo by Mike Balzer/Body Glove “His plan was to organize a boat, a film crew, and a safety crew to be 100 miles out at Cortes Bank and surfing in two days. Five minutes after I got off the phone with Garrett, Alex Gray and Dave Wassel called wanting to do the same thing”. The crew, which included McNamara, his nephew Landon, Browning, fellow Body Glove photographer Mike Balzer and an EMT certified safety team. They arrived in Point Loma Harbor at 2 in the morning and jumped aboard the Condor. The trip to Cortes Bank took 11 hours. The crew awoke to see massive walls of white water breaking in the middle of the ocean. Two other boats had also arrived. Their surfers included well known big wave riders Greg Long, Mark Healy, Peter Mel, Shane Dorian, and Ian Walsh. That afternoon 15 surfers paddled out on their 11-foot boards and began working their way over to the break, using a…
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