Sean Breslin
Published: May 5,2015
Hundreds of people gathered along the beaches to observe the most skilled surfers as they attempted to ride the huge swells, according to ABC7.com. The waves were generated by a storm in the Southern Hemisphere that pushed large swells toward the Southern California coast.
"Powerful storm systems in the Southern Hemisphere often generate large waves that travel thousands of miles away to the Southern California coast," said weather.com meteorologist Chris Dolce. "This typically occurs during the Southern Hemisphere winter and the adjacent spring and fall months when the strong weather systems are most common. The wave energy spreads out across the ocean as it moves away from the source that generated it, lessening the size of the waves by the time they reach shallower waters and break."
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The storm created more than a day's worth of great surfing conditions from San Diego to Los Angeles, but there were at least 17 rescues in the water over the weekend, ABC7.com also reported.
One of those surfers who took advantage of the big waves was 50-year-old South African Robin Mohr. He told the AP that he was hit in the head by a surfboard while out on the water Monday, but understood the risks of surfing in the violent sea.
"You're just super-alert to where you're positioned, because the worst-case scenario is you land with your head on the sand," Mohr, who drove from San Diego to Newport Beach, told the AP.
Minor flooding was reported along low-lying Seal Beach during high tide, according to the Orange County Register, but no damage was reported. A Carnival cruise ship bound for Long Beach was forced to dock Sunday in San Diego due to worries that the large waves could make it unsafe to keep a gangway connected, the Associated Press reported.
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