Watch: Strike Mission to Cortes Bank
100 miles off the coast of California, some of the best big wave surfers in the world take on XXL Cortes Bank in pristine glass conditions.
As a commercial fisherman I have spent a lot of time out on the ocean in good and bad weather. But I don't think I've ever seen as good as conditions that we got on this day (January 13th, 2023).
Perfect big waves coming in all day, and not a land mass in sight. It was a pretty surreal experience. A great white shark, fifty seals, and a bunch of surfers and water rescue shared the lineup that day. With a big film crew and a few boats watching from the channel documenting this rare in special day off the coast in the middle of no where.
Bill Sharp was the mastermind of this trip. After the session he claimed it to be "The Greatest Surf Trip of All Time", which we all agreed. This was being filmed for an upcoming season of HBO's 100 Foot Wave. Out of all the surfers that day, the only one that had ever surfed out there was Garrett McNamara.
Lucas Chianca, Justine Dupont, Andrew Cotton, Nic Von Rupp, and Will Skudin had their first experience out there. And as you can see they all took advantage.
I actually filmed a couple days before at Jaws, then went off the chase the same swell! took the red eye after to make it on the trip to cortes. We left San Diego Thursday Night and got to Cortes early Friday morning. Surfed from morning to about 3:00 PM and then headed back to San Diego and got back early Saturday morning. It was a quick and precise trip. One that I will always remember!
Comments
That was good. Nicely put together, with good music and no cringey NVR interviews.
Must be incredible out there in glassy conditions, but heck you need some good spotters on skis in the absence of lineup markers.
Gave me pimples
that is one step up the excitement level from the standard "I got goosebumps" comment ;)
Obviously I’m not going to do it but would be sick if they were taking off a bit deeper and getting spat out of monster pits.
Agree. Love the clip and I wouldn't be anywhere near the place but with the level that's been set at jaws recently I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't some back door tubes being ridden. Looks very doable
3.05 - OMG
The 15 seconds leading in to that too of the ski rider going across the top - the combo of those two shots was some of the coolest perspectives I've seen for years.
I look forward to seeing the progression of surfing on those reefs in the years to come
Majestical.
Nice.
Why didn't someone punch out the Great White? Mick would've..
I'd like to see that, too, wax-on. I have no idea, but, is it not possible? Looks possible. Don't ask me to have a go, though. Perfect positioning required. Maybe if they had a week of those conditions, by the end get it wired.
Another military operation...
It had to happen eventually. A Cortez bank vid with Neil Young’s ‘Cortez the Killer’ on the soundtrack. Worked well.
Extreme for sure; hat's off to all, but was it as big as the day that Greg Long, Mike Parsons & Brad Gerlach surfed it? Can't help but feel the upcoming HBO series is "driving the narrative" of "The Greatest Surf Trip of All Time",
Awesome amazing place…