East coast hurricane stories.

there was nothing good that I remember about Hugo..working 17 hrs a day , taking showers in cold water with a flashlight drinking hot beer

 

This wasn't a hurricane, but bad weather.

Camped out in outer banks and one of the nights, thewinds pick up, it started really coming down and then we heard the alarms going off.

We ditch the tent and pack 4 guys into a small Tacoma. As a bolt of lightning flashed, we saw the water spouts pretty fvcking close to us. Decide to head for cover. Pull into one of those Easter egg color, 7 story houses on the beach side and park under the house. A buddy of mine checked the doors of the house and one of em was open. We spent the night watching the storm on the weather channel and stealing all their TP.

#college

 

IRI, cloudy rainy day and the line up was empty, maybe 7 people out. 4 to 6 foot and glassy! Waves were spread out so you didn't have to sit on top of each other. Not a hurricane, but a good day! Ps, it was prob 18 years ago but I still remember that day like it was yesterday.

 

One of my fondest was Irene... I had boarded up the house and hunkered down for the storm. It came and went, and as soon as I took all the plywood down and stowed it away, I ran down to my local to see the biggest and most perfect surf I had ever seen at that beach. It was 15' (faces) and absolutely barreling... long, clean, fast, firing rights, as hollow as you can imagine. I had my 7'0 rounded pin ready to go, and got it like that for a solid hour before the swell started to fade. By sunset it was still solid overhead and tubing. Without a doubt, the best day I've had up here since I moved here 21 years ago. Right size, right conditions, right board. Biggest, driest barrels I've ever had in my life... drier than Tres at the same size.

This video was south of where I was, and shot after the swell started to back down.

[video=youtube;BiRD6i3hVlw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiRD6i3hVlw[/video]

 

Hurricane Bill 2009.
Andy Irons surfed Manasquan Inlet in the afternoon.
Then surfed Sea Girt the next morning in 8-10 foot (face) hurricane swell. Peter Mendia was there too.

 

Oh yeah....early AM, I went out during said storm--12-14fr faces. Only one other person could get out (I managed by pure luck). Took 45 minutes to break through and get out. I take off on very large left...up and down--when I get to wave top, I look back and I see giant foam balls coming. I kicked out, turned to beach, and rode a foam ball in all the way. Got to beach, absolutely exhausted!! One of two times in my surfing career I was glad to make it back in. Way too much water moving around, paddling was very hard. The other person did same-one and done.

 

Had a good time with Bill too. I was at Nuns Beach, riding my trusty longbort. Dropped into a huge left, a little late, and felt my fin come out and the tail start to slide. I held on, and made the drop when the fin reconnected. Rode that b!tch for several blocks, all the way in, headed back to the car and swapped out fins and rocked the rest of the day!!!



First fin was the Harbour HP 10? (second from right), upgraded to the Velzy B-2 (far right). The Harbour is great in smaller stuff, but once it gets HH+ the Velzy gets the nod.

 

What's the middle fin with the cool woodwork?

 

It is a custom fin I bought from a guy in San Diego. I (rarely) use it in a 2+1 configuration.

The (baby) hatchet is from a futures set, that has two V2 side fins, and the hatchet center.

The small orange fin is for a thruster setup, using futures twin fins in the sides that are the same size.

 

Can't remember what hurricane but maybe 5-6 years ago we had some large swell coming straight south so we went to holden. I'll never forget driving over the bridge... big offshore corduroy rolling in. Had to of been 10 to 12 foot faces that day.

 

lol I know I said this before,but I went to the inlet that day aswell aug 27 or 29 something like that,the bigger day.the only reason I went was to hopefully surf with pete mendia,cory lopez,and alek parker,they were doing their "the hunt" show where they were chasing canes all over the coast.

long story short I got out there like 630 am.place was packed,guys were paddling out through the inlet,cameramen were bobbing around in the rip.i didn't see any pros that day.i even got old vhs footage from a camcorder of that day,biggest I ever seen it here,wasnt good quality,lots of closeouts and such,but it was big.

so a month later I'm at b&n looking at a surfer mag,and I see pete mendia on the other side of the jetty,im like fuk I was there lol,then later heard andy irons was there.what a complete mindfuk,i didn't get to see any of them.

 

ok now il share..first off I'm not a big fan of hurricanes here,they usually suck if its longer than 12 second period,which it always is since its a groundswell.its nice to surf in warm water but majority of the time its just closeouts.

anyway,hurricane earl in mb.i got out of work at like 630pm,got down there around 730,i believe it was peaking and just offshore of nj at the time.theres a bunch of people lined up,only 1 guy in the water.paddled out on a 6'10 becker I had at the time...now every else was just shorebreak,nothing happening.here there was an outside sandbar way way way out,definitly the furthest I ever been in the sea.it was like a mini waimea,it wasn't no tubes or nothing,just giant crumbly whitewashy takeoff waves.it was pretty scary.there was also a person swimming out there,not as far out but he was out there swimming parallel ,don't know if he ever made it in.it was crazy conditions there was probably 7' shorebreak..waves were big that day id say 10-12'

another funny time was when I was out in lb during a tropical storm that was really close to my location and the swell was building.went from like 3' to 6' in like 10 minutes.it wasn't a big day or anything,lb cant handle that size but it was pretty good.anyway I'm all the way out there like I normally am and the swell is building so the sets keep getting bigger and break further out,which is the reason I paddled out that far.idk it was like a 5 wave set or something that cleaned everyone up,i scratched to get over the last 2 and I'm like yea I'm safe.then I turn around towards the beach and see I'm the only one out,everybody got washed in.idk it was just funny to me,good times,i had my buddy out there too and he got washed in and isn't a great surfer but a great swimmer.tried to wave him back in but he wouldn't come out lol

 

Anything above 12' you guys r liars.

 

So many big days here and there to remember. The one that's stands out for me was hurricane Gloria in 85. Probably because, at the time we had rented a house in Buxton, NC, prior to the storm.
My wife and I were living in Atl. Highlands at the time on the second floor of an old Victorian home with a great view. During the storm which had become extra tropical after hitting Hatteras, we watched as trees doubled over and the wind whipping everything up, including the surf. The anticipation of the wind shift and big surf couldn't happen quick enough. This was my first hurricane session and I wasn't going to miss out on something epic and almost a right of passage. I had paddled out into big surf before but this was a hurricane!
The wind finally shifted by late afternoon and we made our way to the beach to find 10 to 15 foot breakers, groomed by the strong westerly winds. It was awesome to see, almost to the point that I was getting uneasy about the thought of even paddling out. My finally said " well, are you going out or what?" At that time we were only married for almost a year and dam it, she married a "surfer!"
So I suited up in my 3 mil, grabbed my one and only board which was a six foot single fin and made my way to the edge. Fortunately for me there was two other surfers ready to paddle out which gave me a little more courage. We all decided that to take the least amount of punishment, it would be easier to hop off the nearest jetty into mess. Trying to time the sets, one by one we jumped into the white water. After an eternity of battle paddling I was out, and exhausted. I remember sitting there on my board feeling all that power and energy, something different than what I've ever experienced in the ocean and wondering if maybe I should choose another life passion. This is what we live for, isn't it? That very thought gave me the go for it. So now I'm trying to catch everything, basically paddling in the whole time and drifting when suddenly I'm in the right spot and feel the lift. It's now or nothing. Get to my feet and speed down the face of this wave in shock. The bottom turn had so many opposing forces in my legs, board and water that's knees almost gave out. As I barely made the turn and glided mid way up the face, I saw that it was going to shut me down. Lost speed out of bewilderment and was caught by the lip. Took a bubble bath, collected myself and paddled in. So very stoked on my achievement but so spent to give it another go, I called it a day. My wife was not impressed.
We did end up going to Hatteras that week which was semi operational but no electricity with limited food supply We made the best of it till mid week when the power was restored. Living out of a cooler and a grill. The homeowner was a little reluctant to let us stay due to the circumstances. He probably was a surfer himself.

 

Not necessarily the biggest but some of the longest rides I've ever had in NJ were during Hurricane Dennis in 1999. At ye old wooden jetty on El Bee Eye. I still remember the tremendous speed I was able to generate. Probably 6 or 7 foot max size but very meaty swell. What was weird was it was the first day of the swell event, the next day it was a way overhead sloppy mess.

 

hurricane sandy, holden beach inlet north carolina. if you were there you know

 

Not the biggest day. But it was pretty damn prefect. The way things happened I'll always remember. It was two winters ago. Not juno, but the year before we got a prey big snow storm. This day was a week after that storm when we got hit with a second blizzard.

I was off that day but didn't surf in the AM like usual because winds weren't right or whatever. It looked like things were going to pick up in the afternoon. So my buddy leaves work early saying he wants to leave before the storm hits. I met him down there at the beach. Some older guy the lot said it didn't look good. We ran onto the beach, on the way we had to pass through this tunnel that had a foot of water in it. Bad idea. We thought it wasn't so deep. Feet damn near froze. Boots were soaked. But instead of running back to the cars we just ran onto the beach to check it. Might as well, we already made the stupid decision to trek through freezing water. Got onto the beach and it was big and perfect A frames. Maybe HH-1 ft OH. Blizzard didn't hit yet. No snow. Gray skies. No one out. We saw one wave and ran back to the cars to thaw our feet out and get suited up.

Paddled out. Caught a few really good waves. Really big open faces. Nice peel to them. No close outs. Everything was just prefect. After a few waves, the blizzard hit. It started snowing. White out conditions. Surfed a little longer then got out. Such a fun sesh.

The rude home that was usually 30 min took 3 hours. Drove the whole way home with my head out the window because my defrostes weren't working and I couldn't see out the wind shield. Couldn't see the road. Nothing. Sketchy drive home. Got home and my friend texted me some pictures. Apparently some instagram surf photo guy was up in the dunes and had taken pictures of us and threw then on his page. That was pretty cool

 

11' @ 10 sec = 15' faces

I'm too old to make up lies.

 

OCMD, Gloria in 86. Got evacuated and tried to get back in at first light put cops so no dice. Parked at Isle of Wright and paddled over. Biggest surf ive ever seen in OC and dodging giant pieces of boardwalk didnt help.