biggest swell of the year.

I believe you but it was posssible to get out. In the OBX there would've been dudes on it. I paddled out in 15 foot boilers and there was a line up out there like 400 yards off shore. I actually saw the ghost of a sailor in the pilot house of the boiler in the trough of one of those giants.

For real bros strap on your big boy board shorts next time and paddle out.

 

My days of having something to prove are long gone, brother... to myself or anybody else.

If it ain't fun... well... it just ain't fun. I went to a more protected spot and surfed chest + perfect barrels and had a great session. Dozens of waves...

 

Surfline's extended winter forecast was calling for an above average spring forecast, but less consistent winter. It's in between an El Nino and La Nina atmosphere, so predictions are pretty hard to say though. Still interesting to read up on. Gotta travel for winter, score home in the spring!!

 

I still hate jerz

 

There were plenty of guys out getting sick waves and getting drilled.
But it's a lot easier to go out in relentless DOH when i's 55 degrees out and the waters 50. Taking a bunch of those on the head when it 20 degrees out with 43 water is different. I don't care where you live, the crowd gets real thin

 

Brahs.... You really should have been there- belmar had had some EPIC swells this years.... But then again Belmar,NJ always has Epic swells

#epicswellinbelmar

 

No you are right. Wetsuits make duck diving deep a lot more difficult. Period and wind matter too. If its blowing 30 mph offshore with a 13 second period from a hurricane you can usually get under one or two and be out. If its doh 10 second wind swell from a noreaster that's brutal. I just ditch my board in that stuff and unless my leash breaks I'm good.

 

How did HHI end up being? I was at 2nd Street on Tybee and it was super clean about chest-shoulder high with maybe some occasional head high sets.

 

The biggest swell I remember from this year was the day after the surfers for autism event at Tybee that I volunteered at, on September 8th, solid head high with some 1ft+ sets and super clean.

 

Sweet, yeah they had some nice power here too. Felt really refreshing here haha, first time surfing in over month, board rack broke a few days before thanksgiving and the boards flew out and got pretty dinged up and luckily I just got em back today. What suit are you in? gloves/boots? I'm in a 3/2 with no boots or gloves and it felt like I had one big toe on each foot hahahaha.

 

Your conditions must have been way better than ours. It was chest high here, but super windy in the wrong direction. Looked like a lot of closeouts. I didn't bother going out.

 

The biggest swell of the year was in my pants when I brought the labarow from the girls volleyball team home with me from the bar and showed her the time of her life.

 

Haha. Nice. I got out after the ravens game... I got to the beach with pure hate in my heart, but it was actually pretty fun. It was 2-3ft. max. I really wanted to hit in the morning as the swell filled in to its peak, but that GD low tide was there, and you and I both know what that means. Low Tide took a super fun Sandy swell to a screeching halt right after i moved here last year. From then on, I knew....

Still fun though. I would have to say the "biggest" swell I surf here on HHI was a super choppy windswell with a ton of drift. I think it was at the end of July. Mid day high tide. it was a true 4-6 foot. Got some fun waves. Started at the Tiki Hut at Coligny and ended up about a mile north in 20 minutes. Got out, walked back and repeated this about 5 times....

There were a couple other, fun clean swells, but that was the biggest I have seen all year. 4-6 feet. Lasted about 2 hours, and then she was gone....

 

What time did you get out? Did you end up going "where everyone else does around here" or did you get out at those other mile markers? I got there at about 4pm and it was pretty crowded. about 3-5MPH offshore wind. Glassy conditions. Swell had obviously dropped based on what you had seen. I assume you got out earlier. Got a little squat down cover up on my last wave, but there was nothing special really going on out there. Little power here and there. Speedier takoffs with steep drops, but then there wasn't much going on down the line.

 

3.5mil, Pyschofreak, which is basically a 4/3. Its just so thin, it feels like a 2 mil. That gets me through the whole winter. If its cold and windy out, I will throw on the 2 mil boots, but until the water is down to 52 or so, I don't require the boots. The wetsuit keeps my core temp up enough I never get needle feed or too cold. By the End of January, I will be in booties every session, for comfort. Never gloves. Never a hood. Its only low 50s around here in the dead of winter, and we almost always have favorable air temps throughout the winter.

 

I feel like this year kind of sucked. Maybe a couple head high days in vb. Lots of 2-3 "thank god I have a longboard" days to keep you entertained, but very few real swells. Not-a-one during 'cane season.

 

Yeah man... Its been a tough one. Only positive side to any of this, was that we all live in coastal areas throughout the eastern seaboard and there was no destruction from mother ocean. No homes destroyed. I know, its a stretch, but I am trying to avoid swell depression. I thought it would be a seasonal ailment, but it has gone on way too long now.