If you thought your Mondays hit hard, try being a buoy off the coast of British Columbia on November 17, 2020. That’s when a four-story wall of water—out of nowhere—lifted this lonely little sensor 58 feet into the air. No warning. No storm. Just one towering freak of nature, recently officially crowned the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded.
That’s right: a wave so out-of-whack with its neighbors, scientists say an event of this magnitude should only happen once every 1,300 years. And yet, there it was, slapping physics in the face like it owed it money. Its name: Ucluelet (named for its proximity to Vancouver Island).
Rogue waves like Ucluelet have long lived in the realm of sailor’s yarns and soggy barstool tales. But ever since the infamous Draupner wave crashed into a Norwegian oil rig in 1995, these watery giants have become less folklore and more fact. Still, the Ucluelet wave broke new ground—not by being the tallest, but by being the most disproportionately tall. At nearly three times the size of the surrounding waves, it redefined what “rogue” really means.
Fortunately, no ships were swallowed in the making of history. But this wave did something equally epic: it helped scientists and engineers rethink how we monitor the ocean’s moods. Thanks to a savvy Canadian startup called MarineLabs, which placed the heroic buoy offshore, we now have better data to forecast when the sea might throw a surprise uppercut.
This has real stakes. Rogue waves can damage wind farms, oil rigs, and even threaten lives far from the coast. And with climate change pushing wave heights higher, these maritime monsters may become more common—and more dangerous.
Large wave in Nazaré, Portugal, where the record was set for the biggest wave ever surfed in 2017. (Alexander Ehlers/Getty Images Plus)
At Hamilton, we have a soft spot for things that roll big. Whether it’s a 60-ton trailer on our ultra-rugged casters or a record-breaking swell in Nazaré, Portugal (another big wave fave of ours), we respect the forces of nature that move with power and heft. But while the ocean may be unpredictable, you can always count on Hamilton to deliver rock-solid performance. No matter what design curveball you throw our way, we’ll keep you grounded in precision, stability and strength that lasts.
Consider it a shore thing.