for a general rounded quality of life; surfing, culture and career. what city would be the best for relocating? i was thinking wilmington, nc or charleston, sc.
Here you go boy, this topic was just covered, a fella is wanting to relocate from San Diego and he was looking for some insight, perhaps this may help too: http://www.swellinfo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4097 Hope that helps
take a look at this thread if you haven't already: OBX vs everywhere else if you want a mix of city and beach living.. south of VA, you've got Wilmington, NC area and you've got some areas in Florida... If you are not as concerned with the surf quality, then there are some places in between.
Micah, This is andrew, we talked at your house awhile back about the my wife and i relocating. and yes i read every work of the above thread. i guess my real question is does charleston, sc have surf in comparison to other areas?
No. It reminds me a lot of Virginia Beach, but with smaller swell windows. Like anywhere it can have its days. Μagicseaweed isn't very good for real day-to-day forecasting, but it does have nice monthly statistical tables for surf conditions, e.g., see http://magicseaweed.com/Folly-Beach-Surf-Report/672/
hey andrew, Folly beach gets some surf, but generally not as much as other east coast areas. Having said that, I've never even been to south carolina. Maybe ask some questions in the southeast forum. Outside of surf, what are your other criterias? There is the wilmington, NC area, but have you taken a look at the emerald isle, atlantic beach area. That might be something to think about.
ooh man, Emerald Isle is beautiful! besides all the Bert's surf (kook) shops its awesome, and awesome blue-green water! Surf City, almost got arrested there
hey man, im the one who started those other threads. I will just pass along what I have learned from locals up and down the coast. I have family in hilton head sc. they moved there from ocean beach in san diego. they love hilton head. but, only one of the surfs, and that is a rarity. he can basically stand up on a long board. so although for him and his wife and two babies, hilton head offers great weather and beuatiful coastline. but the least amount of surf on the whole coast. so that deterred me from south carolina. it has a bowl affect that leaves the waves hittin florida and north carolina. so, from what I've been told, south of maryland, here is what u got. obx: very slow economy, cold winters but the best east coast surf around. florida: some say is better than obx, cause it gets all kinds of windswell etc, and the water is warm all year. 3 mil in the winter in central fl. vb and wilmington are sililar. large cities. ok surf. wilmington is warmer and has some pluses for a surfer, but as far as the surf, vb and wilmington area have about the same amount of ridable waves each year. so, if u r all about ur surfing, obx or florida is the spot. if u got family, responsibilties and u need a good job, vb or wilmington are pretty much it. charleston is chill too. nice weather, close to the beach, but almost no surf =( hope that helps.
thanks everyone for the info from magic seaweeds seasonal charts here is the some facts that i found interesting... averaged % of the time that the period is more that 7s and bigger than 3ft: delaware 20% va beach 23% kitty hawk(85 miles from vab) 27% holden beach(40 miles form wilmington, nc) 25.7% wrightsville beach had less than de and emerald or atlantic beaches were hours from wilmington the washout - folly beach, sc 25.6% 10 miles from charleston flagler beach, fl 26.5% san diego 59.5% (94 of that is ground swell!) if this info from magic seaweed is somewhat correct, i am not so sure charleston has been ruled out for me. i am a longboarder and actually prefer my waves to be around waist to chest. and everyone i have talked to has only great things to say about the city itself
More useless data from Magic Seaweed IMO. Maybe not useless but any measure of surfing consistency that puts Charleston, SC and Kitty Hawk in a virtual tie is nuts in my book. BTW, Charleston is a great city...been there many times, and dig it. Just not the waves.
wrightsville beach. even though we dont get good swell year round we are warm during the winter and only use a 4/3. but during the summer we get some good hurricane swell. we have good schools if you have kids. and we are know to have benny b. you know pro surfer on the wct or he was but now he's traveling for reef surfing good waves and so what. but reef and sweetwater surf shop (which benny b's parents own) do a surf comp every year during the summer really fun. i've done a few. finally we have jobs in what ever you have a degree in. plus we have good locals that dont get mad alot. but whatch out for the lifegaurds during the summer.
Magic Seaweed sucks, you shouldn't be allowed to bring that name up on this site. This is SWELLINFO!!!!!
those stats are pretty much garbage, because they are not real wave height data, but rather forecasted data (of which is off the coast). Listen to what others are saying about south carolina.
Not sure what data that you looked at but from what I see, OC/Md is twice as consistent in swellage and swell height than Folly Beach, and Hatteras is at least twice as good at OC/Md. Charleston is probably the nicest coastal city in the NY-SC stretch. BTW, as I said before, that tool is about the only thing Magic Seaweed has going for it. Maybe some day Swell Info will have that kinda of data - I don't know of anyone else beside MS that does.
I think you need to decide what your looking for from life. I found that the closer you live to a major city (NY, Philly, DC, Boston) the more money you will make, with the northeast paying signifigantly more. Some people can not handle living in urban areas or the cold but, remember everything is temporary. Thats why I choose to live in NJ. I don't live here for the barrels or the weather because there plenty of better spots in the world with warm water. The northeast does offer some options like some of the best street skating in the world, snowboarding, and pretty good school systems (if your planning on or have a family). I may sound like your dad here but to strickly base your relocation on surf and weather is not very smart but, if your true calling is to surf warm waves why are you locking yourself into the eastcoast?
