These waves are 40-50 feet, it’s really scary to see, I would never walk on the beach when this is happening but I’m super cautious.
There’s an oceanfront restaurant in Pacifica that has had its windows broken out a few times by sneaker waves.
I moved because I was afraid of my apartment falling into the ocean which is also a thing that happens in Pacifica, many homes have been lost. The cliffs are eroding from being battered by the sea, when the waves hit the cliff it’s like a bomb plus an earthquake. Everytime. It’s beautiful there but sometimes you can’t sleep. The low lying neighborhoods are flooded by the ocean regularly Nov-Mar.
Several people die in the Northern California sea every year, even on a good day without giant waves, even the best swimmers need a wetsuit because if you get caught in there for too long for some reason, like an undertow or rip current, hypothermia will kill you, that water is very cold.
Drownings happen a lot at SF area beaches because tourists and city people often don’t realize what they are getting into, just a walk on the beach or a quick swim can turn deadly, sometimes they’re trying to save their dog.
It’s nothing like an East Coast beach, the rip can quickly take you out to the ocean superhighway “California current” and down the coast.
There are some homeless people living along the coast too, there are actual grocery carts abandoned in Pacifica that they managed to get down the beach carrying their stuff. There’s good public transportation, buses go to the beaches even up in Sonoma Co, so it’s all accessible and I’ve seen people on buses with grocery carts filled with their possessions.
I always worry about them because people may not even know they are gone
ETA:
Most beaches in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California have signs warning beachgoers of sneaker waves. Credit: Daveynin, CC BY 2.0.
Since 2005, more than two dozen confirmed fatalities in California and Oregon have been caused by so-called sneaker waves
Taking the surprise out of sneaker waves