Kangaroo Island's Coastal Conflict

Meeting With A Rogue Wave

Kangaroo Island's coastline has everything, from surf pounded cliffs to becalmed coves, famous sweeps of sand to secret rocky inlets.

Point Ellen, the western headland of Vivonne Bay, about 60km from Kingscote is my subject for today.
The day began with thoughts of adventure especially for our Border-collie pups keen for their morning's walk to one of Point Ellen's little coves. The cove Colin & I chose was perfect for all with only a short climb down a small cliff face, over some rugged gnarly rocks and finally onto a pure white sandy beach littered with drift wood, seaweed, broken shells, just all the right ingredients for a good fossick.
The stunning colours in the crystal clear waters of this lagoon reflected so bright that we were nearly blinded by the sheer dazzle of it all.
The cove was secure or so we thought as there was a reef some 150 metres out to sea from the cliff face which broke the huge pounding deadly waves that from time to time have taken unsuspecting lives.
Our pups swam in the cold crisp clear waters while Colin enjoyed poking under stones and looking into the small cliff face caves, just doing what one does while on a remote desolate beach.
I had my 500mm lens attached to my camera so off I trotted across the reef towards the open seas to get some great photography of these huge waves. Every eighth wave seemed to be the big one so I positioned myself in a fairly safe and secure spot and waited!
The 500mm lens reaches pretty far out to sea so this is one huge advantage when photographing waves, especially big ones!
The locals told us to always keep an eye out for the possibility of a rogue wave as there have been numerous victims to such encounters.
Trying to show the hugeness of these angry waves is not easy.
Finding a comparison also is not easy!
In this photo with only waves in it the aqua wave is my big wave, the black wave at the back was in this instance, my comparison!

You got it, A ROGUE WAVE!
It came at us fast, I yelled to Colin to get the pups out of the water and run to the cliffs while I had my running shoes on as well.
Our good fortune was the reef!
It broke the wave and a wall of water about a metre high simply came at us.
By the time it reached us it washed up around our feet, we had made it far enough away as not to get caught. What happened next was simply scary! The wave that had broken over the reef and washed up to the cliff face went back out to sea taking all the water out of the lagoon...!
We stood there in a state of disbelief realizing just how deadly these waves can be and how vulnerable we are to natures splendour!

This next photo with the sea washing over the rock was taken at Point Ellen and this is the rock where waves have claimed some victims.
On our trip when I took this photo, only three days after we had left to go home two more lives were taken from this very point!
Rogue waves, sometimes known as freak waves, monster waves, killer waves, extreme waves are an uncommon ocean phenomenon in which winds, currents, non-linear phenomena such as solitons (self-reinforcing solitary wave) and other circumstances cause a wave to briefly form that is larger than the "average" large occurring wave (the significant wave height of SWH) of that time and place.
Rogue waves seem not to have a single distinct cause, but occur where physical factors such as high winds and strong currents cause waves to merge to create a single exceptionally large wave.

Untamed Power: The Sea 

 

Canon EOS 50D

Sigma 50-500mm lens

     

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