[drhogan]

i love the ocean but i have never heard of a rogue wave before. how often do they hit? do you know if they are only in the pacific or if they are in the atlantic also? do you know what causes them? are specific beaches with certain types of terrain more likely to have them?
my daughter will soon be going to college in CA, so i am interested to learn about these things.
thanks.

[Cicero]

I don't really know how common it is. I'd say they are very rare, but they do seem to happen once in a while. You could do some investigating, but I'd say the most important thing is to know how to swim, just in case.

In my instance, I was taken by surprise and had two small children to deal with. (I loved the dog, but if it was him or my children, he would have had to take second place.) In this recent tragedy, you have another child who probably couldn't swim and an uncle who may have swum out too far looking for him.