num_pages: 326
description: From Susan Casey bestselling author of The Devils Teeth an astonishing book about colossal ship-swallowing rogue waves and the surfers who seek them out.For centuries mariners have spun tales of gargantuan waves 100-feet high or taller. Until recently scientists dismissed these storieswaves that high would seem to violate the laws of physics. But in the past few decades as a startling number of ships vanished and new evidence has emerged oceanographers realized something scary was brewing in the planets waters. They found their proof in February 2000 when a British research vessel was trapped in a vortex of impossibly mammoth waves in the North Seaincluding several that approached 100 feet.As scientists scramble to understand this phenomenon others view the giant waves as the ultimate challenge. These are extreme surfers who fly around the world trying to ride the oceans most destructive monsters. The pioneer of extreme surfing is the legendary Laird Hamilton who with a group of friends in Hawaii figured out how to board suicidally large waves of 70 and 80 feet. Casey follows this unique tribe of people as they seek to conquer the holy grail of their sport a 100-foot wave.In this mesmerizing account the exploits of Hamilton and his fellow surfers are juxtaposed against scientists urgent efforts to understand the destructive powers of wavesfrom the tsunami that wiped out 250000 people in the Pacific in 2004 to the 1740-foot-wave that recently leveled part of the Alaskan coast.Like Jon Krakauers Into Thin Air The Wave brilliantly portrays human beings confronting nature at its most ferocious.
language: English
title: The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean
publisher: Doubleday