sports physics

There are few things more impressive than watching a big-wave surfer dropping into a monstrous "bomb" 60 or 70 feet high. Actually doing it must be quite an adrenaline rush. (I've been out in waves maybe a fifth that size and even then the energy of the wave can be, well... terrifying!) In the video we can see that the surfer gets towed into the wave with the aid of a jet ski. If you're familiar with surfing you might be aware that once waves get big enough (wave faces larger than 40 or 50 feet) it's impossible to paddle into them in the "traditional" way: you have to be towed in. Why is this? Not surprisingly, it all has to do with some basic principles of physics.