JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers BIG WEDNESDAY- An unidentified surfer drops into a wave in Malibu Wednesday morning. A pair of large storms that originated north of the Hawaiian Islands produced powerful waves along the West Coast earlier this week. In Ventura County, wave faces reached 15 feet on the biggest sets. By Monday, ocean buoys off the California coast had climbed to 30 feet, an extremely large number, no matter the season for surfing.

"We only usually see this every few years, if that," said Nathan Cool, chief forecaster for Wetsand.com and a Newbury Park resident. "This is a rare swell, one that'll bring a lot of power, especially up north."

Twenty-four hours later, a pair of large-scale storms that had formed north of the Hawaiian Islands more than 10 days ago slowly began producing the massive waves that hit the West Coast late Tuesday and into Wednesday.

Locally, according to Surfline.com, wave heights throughout Ventura County maxed out at 15 feet on the faces early Wednesday morning, with sets typically running in the 8to-12 foot range. South-facing breaks in Malibu, often dormant in the winter, were getting overhead waves as well.

Cool said the swell's large scale and westnorthwest direction of 260-270 degrees were major factors in dispersing mountains waves throughout northern L.A. and Ventura County. Typical winter swells in Ventura come in from a northwest direction of 290 degrees or higher, he added.

"The difference with this swell compared to most winter swells is its westerly angle," Cool said. "A lot of times swells come in from the northwest, and there's less energy to wrap around the point-breaks in the south. But the lower the angle, the better chance waves can get into the south-facing breaks."

When he learned about the building super-swell late last week, Anthony Mendes, owner of Winner's Pizza & Pasta in Agoura Hills and an avid surfer, began to rearrange his schedule.

"I've been eating properly, watching the maps and tracking the swell as it hit Hawaii a few days ago," Mendes said. "I called my buddies in Hawaii to find out how things were going."

By Tuesday Mendes was traveling the coast, surfing breaks from Oxnard to Santa Barbara County. He stayed closer to home Wednesday morning, and summed up a lot of surfer's feeling from a bluff atop Malibu.

"Look at those lines," Mendes said. "There's tons of swell out there. So many places are going off right now."

While Mendes and many others embraced the challenge of trying to ride the large waves, the heavy surf also put lifeguards on high alert.

Steve Snyder, the Royal High boys' water polo coach who's spent the past 41 years as an L.A. County Lifeguard, including more than two decades working Surfrider Beach in Malibu, said the Internet-age has made surfing lineups even more congested on the largest days, thus increasing the risk of injury in the water.

"You no longer are going to be at a spot and have nobody else know about it," Snyder said. "The Internet, the news media, everyone gets word of it, and they come running from Palmdale, the Inland Empire and everywhere else. . . .

"A lot of people underestimate their own ability, and that can make a crowded situation more difficult," Snyder said. "This is when my colleagues, the guys that work all year, really have their work cut out for them, not only from just rescuing people who are in trouble but from the added pressure of the injuries that occur from the excess of crowds."

On Tuesday, Northern California surfer Peter Davi, 45, drowned in 30-foot-plus surf at Ghost Tree, a big-wave spot near Pebble Beach.