The DJs Life: Videos of Surfers Shredding Waves from the Japanese Tsunami

As you know by now, yesterday's 8.9-magnitude Sendai Earthquake sent a devastating tsunami surge across the Pacific. The waves caused $17 million in damage to harbor facilities and boats in Santa Cruz, California, sinking at least 17 boats. Further north along the California coast, in Crescent City, eight-foot waves tossed boats like toys in the harbor and claimed the life of a 25-year old man who was swept away while photographing the surge. With damage estimated over 24 million dollars, it's a huge big blow to the economy of a coastal town that relies on its fishing industry. In Hawaii, where authorities are stating they "dodged a bullet," the waters flooded streets, swept away cars, and destroyed at least three homes, reports the LA Times. Meanwhile, the news in Japan remains dismal at best, with 686 confirmed deaths from the catastrophe. After a pumping system failure, a nuclear power plant in Fukushima exploded and seawater is being pumped into the facility as a “last-ditch effort” to avoid a meltdown.

Despite the doom and gloom, where there's big waves, there's surfers. Especially on the Left coast. Fortunately for us, a few of them grabbed their GoPros for the ride.

In Southern California, Orange County beaches were closed on Friday morning. Further north, near San Francisco, Vimeo uploader Andrei Soen got a Tsunami Day session in, writing he had "a great session of fun waves (about shoulder high - 1 ft overhead)," with no one else in the water except two other buddies. Here's how he describes a once-in-a-blue-moon surfing experience.

Watched the surge happen for abit in the bay but the waves looked too good, so a couple buddies and I decided to sprint across the highway, into the jetty.

No cops came after us, and it was a great session of fun waves (about shoulder high - 1 ft overhead) and no one else out but the three of us. =)

You could feel the tsunami surge every 30 mins or so, as the whole ocean would calm down and all of a sudden swell from all directions come inshore real fast. Then the surge would suck everything back out into the ocean again. It was weird.