RE: [Paddlewise] East Coast (US) boomers?

From: Kirk Olsen <kolsen_at_imagelan.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 13:47:54 -0400 (EDT)
On Thu, 23 Sep 1999, Reeves, Debbie (Debbie) wrote:

> I ditto Mark's comments and appreciate the additional clarification by Dave.
> "Boomers" are new to me.  Does anyone know if these occur anywhere on the
> East Coast.  Maine seems a likely place, but with all of my paddling up
> there, I still have never heard of them.  As Dave mentioned below, should I
> ever paddle on the West Coast, you'll find me at the back of the pack.  :-)

I don't know about boomers, but, I do know people who have been hit by
rogue waves while on the beach.  One incident was on Cape Cod the other
was at Pemaquid Point in Maine.  

In the case in Maine my cousin and her husband were walking along the 
beach and a wave broke over them.  He ended up on some rocks, a little 
offshore, with a broken leg.  When the rescue crew came to try and get him
off the rocks one "sensitive" rescue team commented to her "I hope we get 
to him in time, we lost the last guy."

In the case on the cape a husband and wife were surf fishing, 
separately.  Each got hit by a rogue wave.  Neither told the other they had 
had a wave come up and break over them.  Each was too proud to admit 
they had been caught by a wave, the story came out when visiting some 
friends a couple of years later.

I just reread Dave Kruger's explanation of Boomers.  Sure, they'll happen
anywhere there are rocks/ledges/shallows offshore and waves come over them.
As he noted, it's the spots that only trigger every 100th wave that will get
you...

kirk
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List
Submissions:     paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
Subscriptions:   paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************
Received on Thu Sep 23 1999 - 10:49:48 PDT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:13 PDT