"The conditions on Saturday were as good as it gets," said Alex Gray. "It was pretty much glassy all day. By 3pm, everybody had their fill. Everybody got huge waves and got beat up and it was like OK, 'It's time to go home now, everyone is safe, satisfied.'" Photo: Aaron Goulding

"There were giant waves ridden," Healey said. "Guys were going; manning up big time. I guess every swell like this raises the bar a little more. I think it was definitely up there as far as us knowing what's possible and matching that with such a high confidence level." Photo: Rob Brown

"It was really big out there," Healey said. "It's really hard to put a number on Cortes, because it's just so open-ocean and vast. Waves can pop and look absolutely giant, and you'll be shitting yourself and paddling for the horizon, and then thing doesn't even end up breaking. Whereas other ones you sit there feeling kinda safe and then you end up bailing your board." Photo: Rob Brown

Beautiful satellite imagery of the massive storm that took over most of the eastern North Pacific on December 19th and 20th. The cellular, 'popcorn' looking clouds under the yellow arrow suggest the system was bringing down a great deal of cold air from the north. Cold air over warmer waters allows stronger winds from aloft to be brought down to the ocean's surface. Strong, long lasting wind over a large area (fetch) equals big waves.

"I would say Shawn Dollar's wave (pictured) was up there as one of the gnarliest, craziest waves of the trip," Pete Mel said. "He rode two waves, basically. He rode one that he kind of ate it on and luckily didn't get completely smashed, so he went back out and put himself right back into the pit and one of the biggest waves of the time came in and he took it. It had three sections, it was pretty amazing." Photo: Rob Brown

"After looking at [Greg's wipeout/injury], we could do better," Pete Mel said. "I think that if we're going to continue to be doing something like this, there needs to be...maybe you can have two surfers to one safety team, which is OK I think." Photo: Rob Brown

Healey, digging in his heels just ahead of a pending avalanche. Photo: Rob Brown

Some waves would lurch up and wall up down the line, while others preferred a more widow's peak style. Danilo Couto, in early. Sequence: Rob Brown

Shane Dorian arrived on a big boat with a bunch of other Billabong riders. That's Greg Long in the background, prior to his wipeout and subsequent air-lift out.

"Each crew on this trip had a different safety ratio," Mel said. "But what happens is anyone who's doing safety starts to take care of the whole posse. And that's what happened. So maybe in the future, as we continue to do these pioneering adventures, maybe there needs to be a protocol -- so that we don't have three or four skis going in and scrambling. Basically it should be a safety team taking care of their surfers, going in only for their surfers." Photo: Rob Brown

Grant "Twiggy" Baker -- 100 miles out and forty feet up. Photo: Rob Brown; video: SK

Garrett readies the WaveJet; he ended up catching the wave in front of Greg when Greg went down. Photo: Aaron Goulding

"There's no such thing as a lineup at Cortes Bank," Healey said. "It's a totally different beast. I don't think that wave is really built for paddling." Photo: Rob Brown

Surfline's in-house, proprietary swell model for Cortes Bank, which takes into account the remarkable bathymetry of the break to estimate the size and timing of incoming swells. And this was no small swell....

Landon McNamara is 16 years old. This was his first boat trip, his first time in a fullsuit and his first time riding a new Rusty 10'6". Photo: Rob Brown; video: SK

NorCal's Shawn Dollar, pictured here, was one of the swell's standouts, according to Pete Mel. Photo: Rob Brown

Shawn Dollar at the point of no return. "And what you don't realize is just how shallow it is out there," Gray said. "The place is littered with boils. I mean, you could see the bottom just sitting out there. Dave Wassel claims 15-20 feet deep at some places. I mean, you'd be sitting out there waiting for a wave and all of a sudden this boil would surge around you and you'd look down and it was so shallow it was kicking up sand." Photo: Rob Brown

The crew - some 25 of the world's best big-wave riders - ended up spending the night on various boats Friday, knowing that the swell would hold and wind conditions would be fine through the morning. Photo: Aaron Goulding

"This whole thing is a group effort," Gray said. "Everyone is trying to catch the biggest wave ever ridden. And everybody's trying to make sure each one of us gets home safe and sound. And that's the bottom line of where big wave surfing is right now. I mean, everyone out there was well qualified to be riding those kinds of waves in that kind of a situation." Photo: Rob Brown

Luxury camping in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Photo: Rob Brown

Good morning, sunshine! "It does move you around the lineup a lot," said Mel. "It's not like a steady current. The wave comes from the west and it moves you the other way. Then sets will push you in 50 yards. The thing that's nice is that there are lobster pots out there. They are what we line up off of out there. If they weren't there we'd be blind. Those things are a blessing." Photo: Rob Brown

Over a decade after Cortes was pioneered by Project Neptune, Aaron Gold and crew were pulling into the end bowl. Photo: Rob Brown

"Thank god we've been so focused on safety and making sure that we have skis and everything out there," Healey said. "People don't realize that when something happens -- especially at a place like that -- you could be right next to a situation and not know what's going on. Cortes is such a dangerous place." Photo: Rob Brown

Kohl Christensen, big, bright and blue on Saturday morning. Photo: Rob Brown

"If people are thinking of going out there, you better have your own skis and your own safety team when you come out, 'cause there is seriously a lot of risk out there," Healey said. "And if you come out there without your own safety you're putting everybody else at risk, because now they have to keep an eye on that many more people. It's not a place you show up half-cocked." Photo: Rob Brown

Here's the wave that mowed Greg Long over, driving him underwater for a three-wave hold-down and sending him to the UCSD emergency room. Greg: "Having trained for extreme breath holding, at no point did I allow myself to panic or lose confidence that I was going to survive this incident. I do, however, fully acknowledge that I did exceed my limits of endurance..." Here's Greg's complete statement regarding his wipeout. (That's Garrett in front.) Sequence: Rob Brown

Somebody with a very expensive ride got a bird's-eye view of the action. Photo: Aaron Goulding

Alex Gray, snowboarding. "Waves were running for 250 yards off the deeper lobster buoy, if you got the right one," Gray said. "Or you were dropping into boils and not making the wave. A lot of the guys were just eating crap because halfway down the face, there's a lot of bump out there." Photo: Rob Brown

Shawn Alladio rescues one fallen soldier. "On our boat there was probably 150 feet worth of surfboard," Alex Gray said. "Nobody brought anything under 10'0". It was all 10- to 11-foot boards." Photo: Rob Brown

Aaron Gold -- not mushy. Not small. Photo: Aaron Goulding

"You know, you can do the 'ignorance is bliss' thing -- that's how I was for a long time," Healey said. "But once you learn about big waves and you get a taste, when you've been a part of it for a while and when you've seen really bad things happen, you know that it (death) will happen, eventually." Photo: Rob Brown

It wasn't all drop and go straight; Ben Wilkinson stalls for a meaty section that's a hundred miles from shore. Photo: Aaron Goulding

Aaron Gold, again, pop up a-frame. Photo: Rob Brown

Time to pack up and head home. Life vests: check. PWCs: check. Giant surfboards: check. Just another day of surfing for some guys. Photo: Rob Brown