SEEKING to ride waves 10 times their height, the world’s best surfers have reinvented the sport by using jet skis to tow each other into peak position. As the planet has warmed, the oceans have grown more restless, and these athletes are determined to get a piece of the action. Somewhat less enthusiastic about the rising size of waves are shipping companies, who lose dozens of vessels each year to freak waves.
For the past decade, Susan Casey has followed these stories, along with those of the scientists trying to make sense of the “mosh pit of variables” underlying so-called…
