The storm that came up the east coast from Florida was a doozy! Not tropical but acted like one. Flooding and wind destruction all along the way. In midst of the storm on Monday, huge oak trees across the street as well as down the street came. Luckily, no houses hit. Just down power line. 90 MPH wind recorded at the Blue Hill Observatory. This was only several miles from my house. Understandable why my stockade fence went down, with two of the fence posts snapped completely. Heard from my neighbors up in western Maine that a lot of the power lines around my camp came down. Major roads also got washed out.
The plus for me is that we have waves. Tuesday we got 12’ plus, Wednesday we had 9’. Yesterday and even today has been 6’ plus. Went down to the beach break for a look. Pretty clean but with 8-9 second intervals, it would be a bit challenging than I want to take on. Only surfer out on the whole break. Nah, I decided to sit out until tomorrow.
I saw the pictures from the Jersey Shore - 25 foot barrels, I don’t think the waves were taller than 2’ the entire time I lived in Bucks County PA and we would visit the Ocean. Good surf here but I am packing moving boxes day and night.
I grew up on the East Coast. We waited around for storm waves and a chance to go out in them. We surfed everything we could find from about May until Nov.
Then I moved to the West Coast and found great surf all the time.
Now I am in the mountains.
Pretty big surf earlier in the week by east coast standards. Bigger than I can take on these days with my current physical condition. The waves really dialed down in size overnight. Only 2’ plus instead of my hoped for 3-5’. So, my gung-ho (more ego driven) side was second guessing my decision to not paddle out yesterday in the 6’ plus. Took the longboat instead of the waveski. No pucker factor in the waves today. So I really could pay attention and focus in on the edge turns with the Stratos (as the saying goes, "practice class III moves on a class II run. ") Really want to get a good sense of it before I take it out for rockplay.
At the end of the day, I got out for a couple of hours of good fun and practice. And, I was able to come back onshore with no wear, or worse. Gratitude.
Went for a surf today (Christmas day). Weird that lately I’m more interested in surfing the long boat than actual surfboards…LOL Water temp 75°F and air temp 62°F, but the wind warrants a dry top.
Have a couple of longboards that I used with my boys when they were young. Exhilarating when I got my first successful pop up and then the short ride to shore on the thigh high waves.
With my bad knee, I am a much better surfer in a kayak. Even more so with a waveski.
Glad you have some waves to help celebrated your Christmas!
Went back to the Sterling Progression kayak and the Gearlab Kalleq GP. After riding the Stratos 14.5 - a good surfing longboat - for several previous sessions, I am again blown away by the performance of the Sterling in comparision. The Sterling is like a “thoroughbred” longboat for the waves. Front or back surf, the Sterling is fast and responsive on the waveface. Just “Wow!”
