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Mike Parsons surfs 64 foot wave on the Cortes Bank

Off the coast of southern California lie some of the largest waves in the world.  Cortes Bank is a chain of underwater mountains in the Pacific Ocean, about 100 miles west of San Diego, USA, the peaks are a hazard to shipping, but help create a noted big-wave surfing spot.  In 2001, Mike Parsons challenged the bank and conquered a 65 foot wave:

"The ocean was just alive. The amount of chaos going on over that reef was amazing. There was probably a mile and a half of white water." - Mike Parsons

Click Here to watch this ride with commentary along with others riding the Cortes Bank

More about the Cortes Bank:

In the early 1990s Larry Moore, photo editor at Surfing magazine, made flights out across the bank on rumours of giant waves. By 1995 he'd seen and photographed waves and that year he led an expedition with a small group of surfers out there (including Surfing magazine editor Bill Sharp). But conditions were poor and they only surfed a few small waves.

A kind of inner-circle of surfers planned for the ideal conditions at the bank. In 2001 a storm called "Storm 15" in the Gulf of Alaska and a high pressure ridge over California came together to create huge swells but light wind over the bank. A team of surfers went out on a fishing boat, with big-wave tow surfers Ken Collins, Peter Mel, Brad Gerlach and Mike Parsons, plus paddle-surfers Evan Slater and John Walla. On the morning of 19 January 2001 they found smooth glassy conditions and enormous waves breaking across about 1 mile (1.5 kilometer) of reef, with the last part of it ridable.

Larry Moore photographed from a circling plane, Dana Brown shot from a boat for his surf film Step Into Liquid, and Fran Battaglia shot from two other boats for his wave science film for Surfline *Making The Call: Big Waves of the North Pacific, his documentary for Swell, XXL, NBC Dateline, The Billabong Odyssey and Activision's Kelly Slater Pro Surfer video game. Parsons was towed into the wave of the day, estimated at 66 feet (20 m) on the face. It won him the Swell XXL Biggest Wave Award (now Billabong XXL) prize of $60,000 for the biggest northern hemisphere wave surfed in 2000/2001.

On January 5, 2008, Mike Parsons, Brad Gerlach, Grant "Twiggy" Baker and Greg Long challenged the spot again. Mike Parsons was photographed on a wave bigger than his award winning ride of 2001, judged by the Billabong XXL judges as 70+ feet on the face.

Although very difficult to get to, the reputation of Cortes Bank draws crowds when conditions are good. On a trip with the Billabong Odyssey in January 2004 Sean Collins (surf forecaster and one of the initial inner circle) counted 10 or 12 boats with about 40 surfers.

from Wikipedia