The last king tides of the season and the only day that wave and weather looked to come together. And now the high tide is dropping. This is were I was at early afternoon in February 2024. I had been photographing the detail in the waves using my 200-600mm lens most of the high tide and then switched to a wide angle to capture a really neat sun dog with the scene. No really distinct big waves had formed yet.

You see in this particular spot if the wind, tide, and waves are right they will hit the cliff and then backwash out to sea. And if another wave is coming in and hits that backwash there can be a spectacular arial display of water! This had not happened yet and I was about to pack it up. But the lighting was good and I decided to throw my 60-180mm lens on just to grab a couple lighthouse pics with waves. I kid you not a minute or two after I had put that lens on this happened! The backwash and the curl! You could hear all the other photographers that had stuck it out oooing and awwwwingg as it happened. I was yelling myself as I machine gunned images into my camera! I got it all! The lighthouse, wave, everything! And if I had not put that particular lens on last second it would have never happened. Coincidence? I think not.