[Cicero]

About 35 years ago, I was walking on the beach in Oregon at low tide, not far from the bank, with a baby strapped to my back, a small daughter about three years old holding my hand, and a long-haired dachshund on a leash trotting alongside. It was a wide, flat sandy beach, and the ocean was a long way off, hundreds of yards. All of a sudden a huge wave came in out of nowhere. I jumped up on a huge piece of driftwood nearby--a dead douglas fir about three or four feet in diameter and maybe a hundred feet long. The wave roared up the beach and picked up the tree I was standing on like a toothpick.

I had yanked my daughter up with me by one arm and swung the dog several times around my head by the leash with my other arm to keep him out of the water. Luckily the wave just picked up the tree, lifted it a few feet, and receded without carrying the tree away with it. There was just that one wave, and then the water drained back to where it was originally. A scary experience.

[marktwain]

Wow.

Sometimes things just happen.

I am empressed with your reactions

So, what is the status of dog and children now?

[Musket]

I often take hiking vacations on the Oregon and Northern California Coast and range and just about every piece of literature on the subject warns of these "rouge waves" so they must happen pretty often. You're the first person that I've met(online) that's actually experienced one. Wow! Must have scared the crap out of you all. Like they say, never turn your back on the ocean!

Thanks for the first person account!

[mlo]

....A scary experience.

I hate it when that happens.

[willyone]

Those are called sneaker wves up there. Pretty dangerous and not uncommon.