Cortes Bank, a shallow seamount 100 miles into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, is a mystical place; a legendary, yet fabled spot in the world of big-wave surfing. But Cortes Bank is also a remarkable force of nature on the planet we all call home.
It's 100 miles out to sea, with no landmark in sight, surrounded by nothing but ocean, birds, seals and sharks. And when the perfect swell hits—giant, pristine waves.
The newest season of HBO's 100 Foot Wave chronicles a legendary mission some of the world's best big-wave surfers—Garrett McNamara, Andrew "Cotty" Cotton, Lucas "Chumbo" Chianca, Justine Dupont, Nic von Rupp and Will Skudin—took to the depths of the Pacific when an unparalleled swell came for Cortes. They made their way to San Diego from different corners of the world, dropping everything to make it in time.
"The hardest part [of the mission to Cortes], hands down, was just getting there," Cotton told Sports Illustrated. "We were reacting to a storm in the Pacific, and I was literally in the middle of nowhere in Ireland when I got the call. So the clock started ticking—trying to get myself to San Diego in time, with all the right equipment, was a serious logistical challenge. That mad scramble is part of what makes big-wave surfing so intense—there’s no set schedule, you just have to drop everything and go."
The mad dash is all worth it, though, because the swell the crew chased rarely comes for Cortes Bank. The waves break this way once, maybe twice a decade. But this swell, these conditions, these waves—they will never truly be replicated.
Bill Sharp, who was involved in pioneering Cortes Bank and an organizer of the mission, called the storm the "best one we've seen in the entire 30 years we've been looking at it."
A fishing boat equipped with eight jet skis, a safety team, production crew and the surfers loaded up in San Diego. They pushed out into sea at dusk, moving slowly for 12 hours to make it to Cortes in time for sunrise and a full day of huge, clean waves. The crew prepared their equipment, discussed safety, stargazed and eventually tried to get some rest, though there weren't enough bunks for everyone. Some slept on the deck, using the bags in which they carried and stored their surf boards as a makeshift bed for the journey.
The morning of the swell started with coffee and breakfast as waves rocked the boat side-to-side. The sky was still dark. No sight of the waves yet—but they were certainly felt. The boat's radar even captured some waves because of how big they were.
As the sun rose over the Pacific, perfect conditions appeared. No wind, leaving the ocean surface unbothered and ideal for surf.
"It was glassy from dawn to dusk, we've never seen conditions so smooth," McNamara, the legendary big-wave surfer, told SI.
HBO's 100 Foot Wave has chronicled the globe-trotting adventures of McNamara, who pioneered Nazaré, Portugal, as a big-wave surfing hotspot. In 2011, he caught a 78-foot monster wave off the coast of Portugal that set a Guinness World Record and officially made Nazaré one of, if not the best big-wave surf destination on the planet. German surfer Sebastian Steudtner holds the record now, which he set on a 86-foot bomb back in 2020 that he caught in, you guessed it, Nazaré.
When the rare swell appeared in Cortes Bank, it presented an opportunity for McNamara, Cotton, Chumbo, Dupont, von Rupp and Skudin to catch the waves of their lives.
"That trip [to Cortes], I've never experienced conditions like we had," Nicole McNamara, Garrett's wife who was doing safety on the boat, told SI. "It was just stunningly beautiful and magnificient and every person on that boat was high vibration."
Once the jet skis were dropped into the water, the crew of surfers and in-water safety team drove closer to the action before Garrett gathered the full group together in a safe zone for an emotional prayer before the epic session began. The mission to Cortes came on the heels of the death of Brazilian surfing legend Márcio Freire during an accident in Nazaré, where he was recovered in the water and brought to shore by Chumbo. The accident and the passing of a celebrated member of the big-wave community and a dear friend rested heavy on the minds of Chumbo and the rest of the crew.
"I just wanted to thank Mother Earth for all of the abundance," Garrett began in the water, holding Dupont's hand at the front of their jet skis while Cotton and Chumbo interlocked just behind. "And thank the goddess of the ocean, Yemayá, for this amazing experience. I'm just so grateful to be here with all of you. We ask for permission to enter and ask for guidance and protection for all of us here, all of our family, all of our friends and everybody in the world. Thank you, thank you, thank you—we love you."
Garrett began to cry tears of joy as he spoke, overwhelmed with gratitude and love for the ocean, the people he was with and the experience they were about to have.
As they waited for sets to roll in, "big fish, big fish" came in over the team’s radio system. Those words can only mean one thing—shark. A big great white shark bit a tuna in half, leaving the head in front of the water safety crew and cameramen, causing any surfers lying in the water, waiting to get towed into a wave, to pop back up onto their jet ski. Out in the middle of the ocean, you're in the marine animals’ world.
Moments later, the coast was clear and they were ready to go. With no landmark in sight, surfing Cortes is a different experience for even the best surfers. It's incredibly difficult to find the right position on the wave and know where it will break. Luckily, the night before Chumbo and Dupont called Brazilian surf legend Carlos Burle, who rode the waves at Cortes before and provided a tip—follow the sea lions. He said that the waves will break where the sea lions are.
Chumbo and Dupont saw a sea lion pop up from the water and quickly followed, finding the perfect spot on the wave. Dupont was towed into a huge wave, which put an enormous smile on Chumbo's face as he looked on from the jet ski.
It was on. The whole crew took turns riding the perfect, big blue waves.
"I thought the waves would be 100 feet maybe bigger, just these monstrous walls, but what we got was something more refined—still powerful, still heavy, but rideable in the best way," Cotton said. "I knew I’d be in the water all day, either towing Garrett or catching waves myself, and it ended up being probably the longest session I’ve ever had. When that big one came through, all I felt was gratitude and focus—fully present in the moment, and just stoked to finally be living something I’d only ever dreamed about."
Garrett, 57, charged some big waves himself. Chumbo got a monster, endlessly riding down before he did his signature celebratory spin on his board at the bottom.
As the day neared its close, the group wanted to wait for one more set to finish the session on a high note. That's when the big one came for Cotton. From the boat, Nicole spotted some waves that broke with solid barrels. A barrel forms when a wave breaks in a perfect, cylindrical shape, creating a tunnel of water that surfers can ride through. When the wave folds over the surfer and they get "barreled," riding out on the other side, it's a celebratory moment.
Cotton liked how a wave he saw was shaping up, so he had Garrett tow him in for the ride. It broke perfectly over him. Depending on the angle, some onlookers could see him in the barrel and others couldn't even see where he was as the water covered him and his board. He didn't think he got barreled, but everyone on the boat seemed to disagree.
"Everyone on the boat was stoked, and it did feel good to have that shared buzz. A nice bit of an ego massage, I won’t lie. But deep down, I know there’s more to do out there."
A lot of hugs were shared on the boat as the session ended, along with jaw-dropped smiles of the photos of Cotton in the barrel. The jet skis were loaded up and tied down before the trip back toward land began. There were celebrations of both the waves rode and that everyone was on their way back in one piece. Still on a high from one of the best surf missions of all-time, reality waited at shore. Bags were packed so there was no delay in stepping onto the dock as soon as the boat returned. Flights awaited to return each passenger back to the corner of the world they ventured from, all equipped with a new, unforgettable experience.
The thing about surfing, though, is there's always something to chase—a bigger wave, a new spot, the next swell. Who knows when a similar storm will come for Cortes Bank. But the same one—with those exact perfect and glassy conditions—will never hit again. Each surfer on the trip doesn't know if they will get a chance to surf Cortes again. But if they do, when that swell comes, they will be ready to drop everything and go.
"If I get the chance to go back, I want to surf that wave a lot deeper and really get a proper barrel at Cortes," Cotton said.
Until then, Cortes will be there. A hundred miles out to sea in the middle of the Pacific, stuck in surfer's minds.
"It’s coming—next mission," he said.
More on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as A Rare Swell Hit 100 Miles Out to Sea, These Big-Wave Surfers Dropped Everything to Go.
