Well it has been quite a week. We've been in a remote part of the
Oregon/Washington border at the Columbia River. The river is about 2-3 miles wide and very very deep in the middle. When the winter rains are pouring it can flow between 8-12 knots of current.

At the mouth is a point called Cape Disappointment. It has two major sea walls that run for about two miles out to sea on the north and south side of the river. The river is the home to all the Northwest major shipping. On the Southside of the river there is a constant swell anywhere between 6-20 ft of swell. This swell is broken up and all over the place. In the winter, on the northern end, below a big cliff that has the lighthouse, there is a zone inside the north wall that gets a swell and big clean wave. A right and a shorter left. It only starts to cap at 15-20 ft. The coast guard has a base on the point where they are stationed and perform over 300-500 rescues a year. So far this year they have performed 250 rescues with 10 fatalities. The lads there say they have seen 50-80 ft rideable surf there. The wave goes for over a mile before unloading onto another sea wall that runs north to south and in towards the center of the river.

The Coast Guard guys are legends who have 40-50 ft rescue boats that charge into the surf. They took us for a ride the first day when the surf was 10-12 ft. They head straight into this confused sea and surf and take it on. They get hammered. One of their drills is to roll the boat in the surf. They do this to practice their rescue technique for the non stop rescues they perform, many in the middle of the night.

8 of the worlds best big wave surfers were here for the safety clinic and
rehearsal for the Billabong Odyssey, a 3 year completive search for and
tracking down and surfing the biggest wave they can find. Billabong brought over Brian Keahalana, Hawaii's #1 water safety expert, and pioneer of jet ski rescue, to train all the competitors and water units of the Odyssey in the latest course that he has put together. The coast guard and a local fire rescue unit joined us in all of the drills. Although normally a 5 day course, he crammed it into 3 days of intense classroom and ocean senerios that tested us all to the max.

The last day was held on open beach on the other side of the north sea wall, in 10-12 ft perfect storm conditions where we dropped people into the water and performed rescues 100 -300 yards off shore. . The air and water were freezing cold and the wind gusting to 45 mph blowing dogs off chains. It was what Brian called the most challenging conditions he's ever done a clinic in.

We all came away with a knowledge and understanding that is beyond words. A close bond between surfers and crew emerged. Everyone is now on a 72 hour stand by for a big North Pacific storm that they hope will generate surf in excess of 50 foot and beyond. At that time we will all drop everything and respond to the hopefully perfect conditions for the first of many event for the first of what we hope will be a ground breaking event in Big Wave Surfing. We will keep you posted and updated here first hand.

A special big Aloha to Craig Davidson, Archie Kalepa and Brian Keaulana for the expert advise and teaching in the "Risk Technician" course all on the water unit attended. It was brilliant. Thank you very very much.

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