Yesterday, Sept. 29th, 2009 a 8.3 magnitude earthquake occurred near the islands of Samoa and Tonga in the South Pacific. After reports of a tsunami hitting Samoa and other islands near the earthquake, tsunami warnings were quickly put in effect for Hawaii. As the news buzzed with the idea of large waves marching towards the island, surfers eyes got large and all they could think about was Patrick Swayze in the movie Point Break and the large wave he wanted to surf in Australia.

I spent the day at Sunset Beach and everyone on the North Shore seemed to stay pretty calm. The lifeguards and policemen were telling people of the tsunami advisory (it was downgraded from a warning to advisory by 10:00am in Hawaii) and that they should use caution while on the beach. Tourists were buzzing with the news and seemed to be more excited than worried. Surfers kept surfing and people were playing in the water even with the strong currents. You would see someone get in the water and within 30 seconds they were 200 feet down the beach. Kammies and Vals reef had some really fun waves in the waist to shoulder high range, but were all these conditions due to the tsunami?

I surf Vals reef and Kammies a lot and the conditions I saw yesterday with the strong currents and random sets were nothing new. Fellow Big Wave Blog writer Tim surfed Log Cabins and said the conditions were similar, with sets being a bit larger, and that nothing seemed to be out of ordinary either. As I watched the ocean all day, (I was there from 10am-6:30pm) I didn’t see any signs of a tsunami type surge of water. Some reports say a surge happened around 3:00pm but it was minor and if it was noticeable it would have been on the South Shore. I could not find any reports about it’s effects in California.

But what do tsunami warnings mean for surfers?

We would all love to think that this is what is created by a tsunami, but in reality it isn’t. However this is what happens.

Tsunamis are commonly known as tidal waves. They involve long period ocean waves caused by earthquakes and other below ocean disturbances. Tsunamis travel at speeds of up to 500 knots. The surges they create can be walls of water from anywhere between 3-30 feet. The waves or surges caused by tsunamis are not surfable. They are quite the opposite. Instead of creating a joyous occasion of big wave surfing, they create chaos and mass destruction.