Play safe this week. Sizeable swells from Erin are going to pulsate up along the entire east coast this week!
The lifeguards are going to have a busy week.
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and, hey, the rest of you 2025 hurricanes: Erin knows how to do it, follow Erins track.
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Still need them to come close enough for some beneficial rainfall. New England is light on precipitation this summer and is headed to drought conditions…
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If you need life guards you should be out there.
I agree ideally. But reality says otherwise. Just this past week:
Gonna be a busy week, I am guessing.
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We could definitely use a drenching rain.
Sad and unfortunate. We need to understand and fully appreciate our limitations.
I wonder if the answer is not closing the beach, but allowing responsible people to take a water safety class, and show a pass or permit. It would certainly cut down on summer crowds lifeguards have to deal with. I have been involved in several rescues where people who have no ocean experience got in trouble because they didn’t recognize rough conditions or their limitations. The conditions in the video might be life threatening for some but not for experienced .
I lived for several years in Yardley/Morrisville PA area on the other side of the Delaware River, and not surprised by Trentonites making very poor choices; the news media needs to label stupidity
The best part of life is growing to adulthood and being able to make independent decisions. Even if it kills us, so choose wisely.
I heard someone say you should never tell a child that something he or she did was stupid. I had to ask, “Then how will they know?”
First time I surfed the Oqunquit River break was with a local surf kayaker on a rainy,foggy fall day. We launched not from the public beach, but from across the river, off a steep rocky shoreline fronting big beach homes. I honestly couldn’t see that much of the shore and river features because of the fog. It was a decent swell of 3-4’. What I remember was that outgoing current of the river helped speed us past the breaking waves and then we would surf back in on the side of the current along the steep shoreline. Didn’t appreciate the way the river contributes to major outgoing current until I went back on a bright sunny day. That river is boon for the surfers because of the huge rip and the sandbars created on either side. But, it is definitely a dangerous feature for the unsuspecting swimmer or surfer because how fast you can get pushed beyond the breakers.
The rips are going to be significant for the surfers hoping to get an easier paddle out through what are expected to be decent size to big Erin swells. I am meeting up at a south facing break with a local waveskier in middle of the coming week. If it proves too big (Thursday will definitely be beyond my current conditioning), he’ll show me some spots with smaller, wrap around swells. In the meantime, I’ve been out three times in the past five days, surfing (and, importantly, rolling in) small 1.5-2’ waves just to stayed loose and more tuned up for the bigger swells expected over the coming week.
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We have been drenched with rain in the central Piedmont of SC for the last two months. I would be more than glad if it moved up your way.
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Rip currents in rough conditions can be dangerous even for very experienced swimmers. A rip can carry you a long way out very quickly and if you have waves breaking over your head can quickly exhaust you. The general advice is to swim parallel to the beach, but sometimes rips move the same way and if you choose wrong will find yourself even farther out. Your best hope is to choose correctly and hope to get in a countercurrent that can carry you back to the beach. People in water that is less than waist deep can be suddenly swept off their feet and quickly carried out in a rip.
I grew up on the Jersey Shore. Now in Maryland, I’m amazed at the number of rescues performed every day on the ocean beaches.
Generally, the waves won’t be breaking as much in a rip current, if at all, because of the deeper channel scoured by the outgoing current. The astute surfer will conserve energy on the paddle out by looking for the “flattened” channels in between breaking waves. It’s a nice conveyer belt to get quickly to the outside. If the waves are breaking on you, chances are that one is outside of the rip current. The times I’ve been separated from my waveski, I stay relax, side stroke (looking backwards at oncoming waves) and try to body surf a bit on each wave to get back towards shore.
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It amazes me how often I’ve heard warning about rip currents, how to spot the outflow and how to escape the force. It’s unfortunate that some remain ignorant of the threat. Even as a kid, I was aware of the danger due to my parents and friends repeating the potential of drowning from cramps (true or not, we repeated the mantra that you had to wait a magical one hour, to the minute, before smwimming in a 15 foot by 3 foot deep pool, after eating). Beware of the undertow! Yet some still either don’t heed the warnings or arrogantly think that the threats only applies to stupid people. Still others have learned to take advantage of the rip tide condition and seek it for a free ride.
The answer might be found in safety classes, signs (which typically exist on the most dangerous of beaches, or not because most locals are fully aware of the conditions), public service announcements, or news highlights that detail the tragic outcome of lemgthy recovery efforts.
Given the mass awareness about the topic, I wonder what would be the benefit of formal training, certification, and badging (but what if you leave your badge home, so maybe a rip tide certificate tattoo on your wrist that you show an attendant who issues a PFD, but will rogues swimmers ultimately counterfeit the tattoo).
In the end, what are the odds that the vulnerable would just think the whole thing nonsensical and simply disregard authorities and do what comes naturally to them. Next, will there be signs in “rock gardens” warning kayakers to KEEP OUT. How about “Hurricane Warning - Dangerous Surf. Keep Off the Beach, Dangerous Rip Currents. Violators will be a
Prosecuted.” Imagine the Coast Guard issuing a ticket for brazenly riding the rip current out. In court, the officer explains to the judge that you laughed when issued the citation for doing 13 mph in a rip current zone. Never happen?!
After years of hiking specific trails with shear rockface overlooks, I started seeing signs warning that “This is a Natural Environmemtal Setting with Dangerous Drop Offs, Falling Rocks, Crevasess, where you could sustain serious injury, life threatening falls, encounter deadly wildlife, poisonous snakes, wild predators, and mentally unstable humans. Enter at your own risk!”
I didn’t know. I had no idea! So I never went back. If such sign don’t convince you, I’d gamble that a class on safety in the wilderness (and another class for safety on the water and swimming safety would be of little benefit). Like the warning on cigarettes, whiskey, and unprotected intimacy.
I’m all for you guys challenging the storm surge and looking forward to the videos. Enjoy it before you need a surfing license. We need to be careful what we wish for. We might get it.
The waves I was referring to are just one foot or so short period waves that you might find once outside of a rip. Enough to repeatedly break over he head of a swimmer, but surfers would not really pay attention to them.
On the news last night they mentioned over 60 surf rescues alone on one section of the Outer Banks yesterday. Didn’t say if any restrictions were in place.
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Got some 2.6’ waves @ 10 seconds this AM, courtesy of a local cold front. Took the Jester Storm IC out for a change of pace. Planning on meeting two other MA based waveskiers tomorrow at a south facing break to catch the initial Erin swells. Play safe, folks.
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I wonder how many decided to never do it again, and how many considered it the ride of their life and went back out.
Tao Berman did a massive wave tow-in and then retired. Said he didn’t feel any challenges left for him with kayaking. This guy was an amazing kayak surfer. Saw him surfed a SeaKayak for the heck of it in an International Class (9-11’) surf kayak competition in Santa Cruz. The waves were almost 10’. To this day, I have yet to see anyone surf a longboat like he did that day. Yowsa!!!
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I’m getting old, I talked with him once and I don’t remember where it was, maybe Davenport ? I think it’s interesting why people take up surf kayaking, for me it wasn’t crossing off a list of challenges, but once I got the rush of tapping the power of the wave and playing in mother ocean, and being at the edge of total destruction where time stands still, I was hooked. Helped me deal with stress of running my own company by getting out on the water several times a week in the dark, and often stormy conditions, where it seems like you are in a wilderness just a few hundred yards offshore.
One thing I noticed in the video was how much bouncing his boat was doing while ripping the wave face. You know when that happens you are moving and a huge wall of punishment is right behind you.
I am more of your sentiment. But, folks like Berman drives the sport and the evolution of the equipment.
I thought he should had used a longer IC surf kayak instead of the long HP boat. Not like he was doing huge cutbacks and air on that massive wave. It was gun, run and survive. (Shrug).
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