High Tide

Alabama won the Bowl Championship Series national title Thursday night, 37-21, using two jarring back blows to two Texas quarterbacks to turn the Rose Bowl into Crimson, clover and game over. Two back shots is what it took, one at the beginning and one near the end. Defensive end Marcell Dareus knocked Texas starter Colt McCoy out with a right shoulder injury on the Longhorns' fifth play -- ripping the spark plug out of Texas' engine. "I really didn't try to hit him that hard," Dareus said.

Damian Gadal got this shot of a human-and-dog jogging duo at Santa Barbara's Butterfly Beach, a popular spot for dog owners and their pets. He used a Sony Alpha NEX-7. "Depending on the tide, this is a great beach to photograph sunsets, provided it's low tide," Gadal says. "At high tide the beach more or less disappears. " Each week, we're featuring photos of Southern California submitted by readers. Share your photos on our  Flickr page  or  reader submission gallery .  Follow us on Twitter  or visit  latimes.com/socalmoments  for more on this photo series.

Unusually high tides during December may have a big effect on boaters and people living on the coast, weather officials said Friday. The San Diego coast will experience high tides of 7.8 feet Dec. 2 and 31 because of a rare alignment of several planets and a full moon, called proxigee, said Wilbur Shigehara, meteorologist at the National Weather Service. The average rise of the tide in San Diego is 5 feet, 9 inches.

Navigating through the floor of the L.A. Times Travel Show is a mini-cultural exploration of its own. You can stop by the Guam booth and watch traditional dancers perform, or listen to live sanshin music as you pass by the Okinawa booth. You can also stop by the Fiji booth tucked away by the Xtreme Adventure stage and the rock climbing wall and participate in a cultural activity firsthand. The booth features special guests Joji Ramasima, Jesom Tuikana and Paula Rokotuiveikan Nabuta - dancers and musicians studying at the Conservatorium of Music in Fiji.

Surfside's makeshift beach barrier held through another 7-foot high tide Friday, but the oceanfront community faces another test this weekend, when more big tides and a storm are expected. At Friday morning's high tide, the gentle surf took the kick out of waves, which failed to hit the barrier of sand bags, boulders, a sand berm and rock wall. In December, two 7.1-foot high tides shot waves over the barrier toward homes on Surfside's eroded beach but caused no damage.

One lane of Pacific Coast Highway between Huntington Beach and Seal Beach was closed for a time today because of an unusually high tide caused by a rare weeklong alignment of the sun, moon and Earth, authorities said. The tide rose to 7.2 feet, about 1 1/2 feet higher than normal, at 7:44 a.m. The tide is predicted to rise to its highest level of 7.3 feet Wednesday morning before subsiding.

A cold front that will bring rain to San Diego County today is expected to cause only moderate surf along area beaches where unusually high tides are forecast for the next several days. As a result, National Weather Service meteorologists predict minor tidal flooding in low-lying areas. A high tide of 7.2 feet will occur at 7:15 a.m. this morning, followed by a high tide of 7.5 feet at 8:01 a.m. Monday and another of 7.6 feet at 8:50 a.m.

The National Weather Service on Friday advised residents who live near Orange County beaches to watch for possible flooding due to an unusually high tide during the weekend. "Minor tidal overflow will likely occur along some low-lying areas of the Southern California coast," a statement issued by the weather service warned. "Very high astronomical tides are predicted Friday and Saturday evenings with high tides rising to near 7 feet." Normal high tides are about 4 feet.

Newport Beach's Balboa Island regularly vanished from sight during high tides in the early 1900s. Formed by silt deposited as the Santa Ana River flowed into Newport Bay, it was just a high spot in the mud. In the 1920s, the river was diverted into the ocean, and channels were dredged around the island, leaving it high and dry. Source: "Mission County" by Warren F. Morgan

What do you get when the moon and sun align with the Earth? The dawning of the Age of Aquarius? No, the meteorological equivalent of the comet Kahoutek. The highest tide in 17 years struck Southern California on Sunday morning with all the force of an overfilled tub sloshing onto the bathroom floor. Homeowners and merchants up and down the coast braced for the 7.3-foot high tide at 8:08 a.m.

On ltsukushima island, off the coast of Hiroshima in Japan, Steve Kato photographed the torii that stands in front of 12 th century ltsukushima Shinto Shrine. At high tide, water surrounds the vermillion gate, which stands about 52 feet high. Kato and his wife, Kathleen, visited ltsukushima in spring 2011, just in time to see its cherry blossoms in full bloom. The San Gabriel resident used a Nikon D60. To submit your photos, visit our reader photo gallery . When you upload your photos, tell us where they were taken and when.

SEATTLE -- An Arctic drilling rig beached for several days on a remote, rocky shore in southern Alaska was refloated early Monday and towed toward safe harbor in a sheltered bay on Kodiak Island. The Kulluk, which ran aground New Year's Eve after it broke free of its tow lines during severe weather, was hooked up to new lines and hoisted off the rocks toward safety during a high tide. Officials with the U.S. Coast Guard and Shell Alaska, which operated the rig during offshore oil operations this summer, were taking the vessel to a location in Kiliuda Bay, where it could be carefully inspected for damage.

BABYLON, N.Y. -- Mike Haynes' phone keeps ringing. He is a real estate appraiser and super storm Sandy has made him a wanted man. Many pending real estate transactions in the area require another inspection, to make sure the storm didn't do enough damage to change the value of the house. The power is still out in his part of town. To keep his phone charged -- and the calls from banks and agents coming -- Haynes has run an extension cord from his neighbor's generator across a few puddles into his house.

NEW YORK -- The city that never sleeps resembled one that clearly does. Even Lady Liberty seemed to doze Monday as she faded in and out of view, shrouded in mist swirling over the whitecaps of New York's harbor as Hurricane Sandy crept closer to the city. On land, streets that normally are jammed at the start of the workweek were nearly deserted save for emergency workers and gawkers who couldn't resist watching the rivers, the harbor and the sea rise around them. "I don't think the flood is really going to get all the way to our apartment," Nicholas Martin said hopefully -- and a bit uncertainly -- as he stood at the end of a street that drops off into the harbor, in Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood.

Helicopters circled, crowds gathered to gawk and worry, and traffic snarled along Pacific Coast Highway as a disoriented dolphin circled in the shallow, murky waters of the Bolsa Chica wetlands Friday. The 7-foot dolphin - nicknamed Fred by some of the spectators - apparently swam mistakenly into the wetlands with five companions earlier in the week. While the dolphin's pod mates returned to sea, the one called Fred stayed behind. "They were probably chasing fish through the Huntington Harbour and lost their way," said Dean Gomersall, animal care supervisor with the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach.

Large, powerful waves pounded the Southern California coastline Friday, causing one pier to close as officials warned beachgoers to exercise caution. A high-surf advisory through Saturday, issued by the National Weather Service, forecasts swells of up to 10 feet, high tides and possible flooding in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The monstrous waves drew thrill-seeking surfers into the ocean and observers to the beaches. But officials advised those in and near the sea to be aware of waves powerful enough to topple unsuspecting people walking on the beach.

The job of forecasting ocean tides has its ups and downs. The lows come when experts have to issue urgent calls for sandbagging to keep coastal homes from washing away and emergency evacuation orders to save beachfront residents' lives. The highs come on days such as Friday, when experts predicted that an especially high tide will hit Southland beaches on Sunday but cause little or no damage between Santa Barbara and San Diego.

There was no catastrophe along San Diego's coast. Not even a minor disaster. Perhaps one or two irksome inconveniences, such as soggy sneakers and wet doormats, as the sun and moon lined up to create a series of very high and low tides. The heralded 7.7-foot tide Tuesday and a slightly higher 7.8 one arriving at 8:44 a.m. today are impressive but harmless, except for an extra-heavy loss of sand on the beaches, lifeguards along the county's 76-mile coastline reported.

Moderate surges were reported along the Oregon coast as coastal communities in the Pacific Northwest were pounded with waves of up to 6 feet, but the effects by mid-morning Friday were moderate and there were no reports of substantial damage. A couple swimming in southwest Oregon between Brookings and Gold Beach were swept about 50 yards out to sea, but were quickly rescued by the Pistol River Fire Department, emergency officials said. "I can tell you both of them were recovered from the ocean and placed in an ambulance," Curry County Sheriff's Deputy Kim Wood said.

Eight-foot waves from the Japan tsunami destroyed much of Crescent City harbor, battered boats, closed the 101 Freeway and left one person missing. KDRV-TV reported that four people were washed out to sea Friday. Three were hurt and one is feared dead. Photos: Scenes from the earthquake Local residents reported that about three dozen boats were "crushed" in the harbor and that surging waters significantly damaged or destroyed most of the docks. Ocean water surging up Elk Creek north of the harbor reportedly lapped up to front doors of the community's cultural center.