I'm curious if breaking open-ocean swells are board/windsurfed regularly or at all anywhere in the world.?

Question

Out at sea, large open ocean swells travel long distances. Often these waves do not break because the water is too deep. Sometimes these waves do break because of the size or the wind? Are these breaking swells surfed anywhere, by anyone?

Answer 1

I seriously doubt it because you never would know when the break would occur....

most surfers on a beach are lined up in a parallel pattern waiting for the break and in the open ocean it would be a total guess with no sand or reef to break the wave...

interesting question though

Answer 2

There is an offshore mountain chain that runs just below the surface of the ocean about 100 miles off the coast of San Diego that creates huge open ocean swells when the conditions are perfect.  Here is a little info about it from Wikipedia:

Cortes Bank is a chain of underwater mountains in the Pacific Ocean, about 100 miles (170 kilometers) west of San Diego, USA, and about 40 miles (65 kilometers) south-west of San Clemente Island.

The chain of peaks is about 18 miles (30 kilometers) long and they rise from the ocean floor about 1/2 a mile (about 1 km)down. Some of the peaks come to just 20 feet (6 meters) below the surface. The peaks are a hazard to shipping, but help create a noted big-wave surfing spot.  

In the early 1990s Larry Moore, photo editor at Surfing magazine, made flights out across the bank on rumours of giant waves. By 1995 he'd seen and photographed waves and that year he led an expedition with a small group of surfers out there (including Surfing magazine editor Bill Sharp). But conditions were poor and they only surfed a few small waves.

A kind of inner-circle of surfers planned for the ideal conditions at the bank. In 2001 a storm called "Storm 15" in the Gulf of Alaska and a high pressure ridge over California came together to create huge swells but light wind over the bank. A team of surfers went out on a fishing boat, with big-wave tow surfers Ken Collins, Peter Mel, Brad Gerlach and Mike Parsons, plus paddle-surfers Evan Slater and John Walla. On the morning of 21 January 2001 they found smooth glassy conditions and enormous waves breaking across about 1 mile (1.5 kilometer) of reef, with the last part of it ridable.

Larry Moore photographed from a circling plane, Dana Brown shot from a boat for his surf film Step Into Liquid, and Fran Battaglia shot from two other boats for his wave science film for Surfline *Making The Call: Big Waves of the North Pacific, his documentary for Swell, XXL, NBC Dateline, The Billabong Odyssey and Activision's Kelly Slater Pro Surfer video game. Parsons was towed into the wave of the day, estimated at 66 feet (20 metres) on the face. It won him the Neptune Prize for the biggest northern hemisphere wave surfed in 2000/2001.

Although very difficult to get to, the notoriety of Cortes Bank draws crowds when conditions are good. On a trip with the Billabong Odyssey in January 2004 Sean Collins (surf forecaster and one of the initial inner circle) counted 10 or 12 boats with about 40 surfers. With a circus like that he thought it fortunate the waves weren't huge.

Answer 3

That is the orginal purpose of the hydrofoil boards. Was to try to surf open ocean swells.

Stand up paddle surf does down wind runs were you look to ride swells and connect them for a long ride.

Yes to your question. And everywhere now days.