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60-Foot Rogue Wave Captured in Pacific Ocean (Video)
When thinking of rogue waves breaking out in the middle of the ocean, for surfers at least, one liquid monstrosity comes to mind – Cortes Bank, the mythical big wave gauntlet breaking some 100 miles off the California coast. As it turns out, however, these abnormally gigantic waves are breaking elsewhere in the world's oceans, too; and a team of scientists set out to explore them.
Specifically, the scientists looked at rogue waves being documented in the Pacific Ocean off Canada. They described: 'Once dismissed as a maritime myth, rogue waves are now increasingly being recorded in Canadian waters. A network of AI-powered buoys off the coast of B.C. is capturing these giants in real time. Johanna Wagstaffe meets the engineer developing new tools to understand — and maybe one day forecast — their chaotic nature.'
One in particular, which they detected back in 2020, was taller than a six-story building.
'So, this rogue wave was measured off near Tofino [Vancouver Island, Canada],' said Scott Beatty, CEO of MarineLabs Data Systems. 'There was a 17.5 meter [57 .4 feet] wave that came by. For context, that's about six stories. But the unusual thing about it, was that in the background the waves were six meters. It was the highest ever recorded. So, we had to go back and double, and triple check that.'
Unlike Cortes Bank, these waves are random. They happen sporadically, in the middle of the ocean, and are difficult to detect. When there's the right swell – and there's a crew willing to risk it all to motor out to Cortes, and attempt to surf it – things can be somewhat predictable. And they know where to find it. But these, open-ocean rogue waves are way more how the scientists describe them:
'These waves are at least twice as tall as the surrounding waves. They're unpredictable. They can come from unexpected directions, often against prevailing winds and swells. You need a whole cocktail of factors to come together – wind, swell, current. It's a chaotic, nonlinear wave interaction, where one wave will suddenly gather energy from others and explode in size.'
Rare and terrifying, yet fascinating. Makes one wonder about all the untapped big wave surf spot potential just hiding out in the vast, open oceans.60-Foot Rogue Wave Captured in Pacific Ocean (Video) first appeared on Surfer on Jun 27, 2025
