Top 3 Hurricane Swells ever

I'm younger, but the one that stands out in my mind was Hurricane Bill in '09. I've never seen waves that big on LI.

Sounds like '95 was pretty epic.

 

Utah!!!!!! ........... Gimme two!!!

 

Damn man that made my day! Thanks for the laugh dude.

 

My vote is for the "Halloween swell 1991."

Long before jet skis, tow-ins, and hand-held video cameras... God damn, Surfline was just a 900 number and a billboard on I-95.

Here's the only video that I know of it. The storm hit during a Super-moon High Tide.
http://youtu.be/47hmqfXuA3A

 

Dudes I felt it was the most appropriate welcome for our new member.

PRpoet that video was neat, I liked the creepy apocolyptic sounds too.

 

Heres a whole hour of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFkIUiBaZQQ

 

Here is about an hour of footage from Satellite Beach Florida from that halloween 1991 swell. Clean and well overhead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFkIUiBaZQQ&list=PLwuvWzT0MNM2Pb6r7bwco0AZVBE5ZQzeg

Indian River Inlet was firing the same day (november 1, 1991) this footage was shot. The previous two days had been clean and so huge and long period that everywhere i saw on Delmarva was just closing out under blue skies. Buoy 44009 was showing about 12-15 feet @ 17 seconds on October 30-31.

 

YES!! FLOYD!! that was the first storm i remember surfing as well haha. i would say hurricane Leslie on LI, NY was firing head high barrels for everybody got my longest barrel ride ever had to be over 6 seconds behind the curtain. Also surfed hurricane sandy the night before it made landfall in ny that monday morning.. longest right of my life. pulled under 3 different peaks on the same wave it was fun but scary at the same time.

 

'95 yup remember that... but that whole fall of '99 helped to change the direction of my life. I had surfed since I was a little kid but my water time had decreased during the last two years of high school because I couldn't stay out of trouble. June of '99 I managed to (barely) graduate high school. Dad was stoked and bought me a new board. Several close friends had spiraled out of control and ended up in prison. I needed a change. Working 2 summer jobs kept me busy, saving up money, and generally out of trouble during the summer. When community college started I needed something to kill the unprecedented amount of free time I had...enter cindy, dennis, floyd, gert, irene, and jose...two hurricane swells a month kept me posted up in VA or traveling to NC. That was it...no going back.

 

Dude that pilot at the end is a total doppleganger for Goose from Top Gun.

 

Hurricane Gabrielle, 1989. Danced around for 4-5 days off of Cape Cod. Blues sky's, 80 degree air temps and a weeks worth of big swell. Never seen New England have a stretch like that since.

 

I wasn't surfing in the 90s,but damn them canes look cereal!!

don't really recall really epic cane swells.real epic noresters I can recall.id say for me cane bill and nor'ida were it for me.nor ida tried to murder me.bill I think it took me 35 minutes to paddle in.don't really have a 3rd,plenty of tropical storms in the 2000s but none worth mentioning

 

+1 for Halloween 1991! I was 16 surfing in Lake Worth Beach, Florida and in way over my head. 'Surfing' might be a generous term. It was completely insane. I waited about 45 minutes for what I thought was a lull, got worked paddling out, drifted (waaay south) in absolute terror and eventually got one wave that I rode straight in. It took me over an hour to walk back to my car and then I had some 'issues' with the local officials, which was eventually followed by 50 hours of community service. I have no idea how big the waves actually were, but I would guess a conservative 12', quite possibly the biggest I've surfed in my life.

 

Lake Worth Beach's lone surf shop had their own free dial surf report; Surfline was cost prohibitive for me at that point. Tow-in surfing did exist, I remember seeing an article on 'Power surfing' in Surfer Magazine while working in Winn Dixie in Wellington about a year before and thinking these waves were worth 'power surfing' into. That said, without the funds to use Surfline's $.35 service, a ski was pretty far out of my budget.

If any of you surfed Lake Worth, Juno (before there was a pier) or Jupiter back in those days, PM me, we probably know each other.

 

'95 was an epic year. In particular, I remember Felix, because that storm did a complete loop in right in the perfect spot in our swell window, and gave us clean, pumping surf for almost a week. It wasn't the strength of the storm that made it memorable, but the location just west of Hatteras and the duration. But that summer and into the fall was incredible.

After that, unfortunately, Hurricane Sandy... all for the wrong reasons... and hurricane Irene, just because it was so recent, and so freakin' good for a few hours.

 

Summer/Fall of 99 I was in college and skipped quite a few classes driving to OCNJ, Margate, Atlantic City. Recently Bill in 09 was memorable in OCMD. The shorebreak was so big and gnar I was sure I was going to break my board coming in. Earl was fun.

I will always remember how good the waves were on September 11, 2001. I surfed all day long at 9th/8th Street in OCMD and would take quick breaks to watch the news at Malibus and also to call my parents back home. It wasn't a Hurricane, but the waves were so much fun. The tourists were gone, stiff offshores, and fun tubes for hours. I remember talking to Big Ern about if we were going to war over the attack. Little did we know how long the wars would last.

 

It most surely sure was a hurricane! Erin. and Cat 3 when it was right in our swell window! That morning was BIG!

 

Bill, Irene, Sandy, Isabel was my runner up