Cortes Bank is a shallow chain of underwater mountains about 188 kilometers west of Point Loma San Diego, USA. It used to be an island off the coast of California but when the ice age hit, it sunk below the waters surface. Nowadays it is also the home to big wave surfing. The mountains are very close to the surface of the ocean (about 1 m at the highest point, Bishop Rock) and therefore allow for easier refraction and allowing more energy to be compressed into a small area.
VIEW OF CORTES BANK FROM UNDER THE WATER:
The big waves only occur in American Winter (December through February). It only forms in winter because the water moisture in the air is much easy to condense to droplets in cold weather rather than hot weather where is evaporates.
This is very different to most surfing spots because it is in open ocean. The light wind, low tide and 'perfect' storm (big storm swells from the north-west from the cold arctic) also affect the size and occurring of the big waves. Big waves also occur when there are big storm swells, which occur often in the isolated ocean space.
The wave height of these waves can get up to 100 feet or 30 meters tall when the conditions are perfect. This happened in January of 2001. This may have occurred several times before but because only within the last 2 decades has the jet ski been invented, little has been known about these waves. With the help of the jet ski towing ability, the surfers were taxied to the huge waves.
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