New Island off Cape Hatteras

fvckin russians again

 

I have fished that point. One of my first times down I met a feller camping next to me that was out there casting to schools of mackerel. He would wade out to almost chest deep water and cast. As he caught them, he would tie them to a line tied to his waste. I told him he was nuts! He was also taking the roe from the mackerel and cooking it up with his eggs in the morning. No thank you.

 

That "island" was barely anything when I was there in late April / early May if I recall. That happened fast!

 

Potential!

 

That's cool. Looks like potential for some interesting surf.

That place is constantly evolving. Four years ago we walked out to the point from Ramp 43 (habitat conservation). There was a small "island" probably aboot where the vehicles are parked near the tip in the photo. We had to swim across a sketchy channel with swift current to get out there. Full of big whelk shells. Last August there was no island just the typical clashing waves at the point.

The big "lake" in the middle of the point was created in the '70s when they mined it for sand to pump in front of the houses and hotels north of the lighthouse. At one time the ocean breached on the south side and for a while connected the "lake" with the ocean. We would play in the swiftly moving water. That lake looks to be aboot a quarter mile or more from the ocean on the south side now. That gives you an idea of how much the sand has accreted in forty years. This is where all the re-nourishment sand that is currently being pumped north of here eventually ends up.

 

I've checked it but never surfed it. Long walk if you don't have the right vehicle to drive on the beach.


[video=youtube_share;TEaugXCX1m4]http://youtu.be/TEaugXCX1m4[/video]

 

Isn't that area like Ground Zero for the Gulf Stream?

 

It's where the Gulfstream and Labrador currents meet and clash. The Gulfstream makes it's turn out to sea and toward England here. The result is Diamond Shoals, a series of constantly shifting sand bars that extend miles out to sea. Known as The Graveyard of the Atlantic because of the treacherous navigation and so many vessels having been lost there. Sometimes you can have totally different conditions on either side of the point. Clear, warm and tropical like water on the south side and cool, brown water just a few hundred feet over on the north side. It's an awesome place.

 

Yeah that's what I thought. There's gotta be some gnarly wind and ocean activity out there on a global scale. Can't be very predictable lol

And the sharks? Fk that sh!t

 

Well said Val and on point (pun intended).

I have tried to surf the "point" a number of times over the last 3 decades. I have never caught it like the video CJ posted of Barley from years ago. I have surfed further inside...coming in from Frisco side and on very large swells and the right conditions, it can be pretty fun. I have not done this in recent years b/c of the beach driving restrictions.

 

I guess it does help if one lives there considering how frequently conditions change. I've never surfed it but I did body surf the north side last year. Since we had no ORV, we had to walk out from Ramp 44. No way I was schlepping a boart out that far especially since there was hardly any surf.

We also walked out in 2012 and '13 when it was shut down to vehicles for "resource management" (plovers and turtles). Long ass 2+ mile walk. Because of that, there was nobody else out there. It was amazing as I had never been there before without sharing it with at least a dozen beer drinking fishermen. Very special place for me.

 

Those black tips are by far the biggest ones I've seen. Very well gorged on mullet, they prolly start out aboot 3 or 4 feet long down here and eat their way up the buffet line till they get to Hatteras. They commonly get 6 foot plus up there, and fat.

 

a high quality drone to check the conditions would be perfect for this place

 

The Lighthouse can be the most beautiful wave or where the lighthouse used to be ,but Hatteras has lots of good places to surf ,the ship wrecks used to be like secret spots in the late 60s and early 70s, but nowdays i guess they are pretty well known,it can be really nice sized and still hold a swell that at most beach breaks would be closeouts ,the wrecks do have a lot of sealife around them so remember that they are a haven for fish and bigger fish and so on and so forth.

 

Shackelford, Hatteras and Pea Island are my happy places in late spring and fall. I caught the lighthouse shoulder high and perfect a few days ago. So fun, and make-able barrels. That's not something we get at WB or Mase very often. I wonder how that island will do with a solid tropical south swell, perhaps a Cat 2 sitting off the coast of Charleston. That's normally when I head to Shackelford, but that new island is interesting.

 

I keep havin this vision of metard plantin a Waffle House flag in the sand and claimin it as a new country.

He would always be allowed to drive there. Diplomatic immunity and sh!t.

Set up a web cam so we can watch when it's firin, dude.

 

When I tried the point...it has sucked...big time. Way better at other locales in the general area. This was many many years ago. Now, I just surf the normal areas, frisco area...and areas north of the lighthouse.

 

Surfed there on the "extra long period" Thursday, first at the eastern tip of the island. That was a bit of a CF, as there was multiple swells in the water (none of them too big). You could catch one wave and go west, and then another going north. Later, we surfed the sandbar between the point and the island (exposed in the low tide photo), that was fun, clean and about chest to head high.

It could be interesting with a solid swell. If my brother's beach buggy is still functional, we'll probably re-visit this in the late summer/fall, when we try to hit the hurricane swells.

Lots of shells on the island. I found a few pieces of coral. Two of them fist sized, and one the size of a football.

Didn't see any marine activity there. Saw a big ray (3' from wingtip to wingtip) the day before up in Rodanthe. Scared the crap out of me until my brain got past the "dorsal fin" and realized it was a ray.

 

Talk about "blowing up your spot"...

Yahoo has picked this up!
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/island-no...ews-travel.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=2_14