Wednesday, October 1, 2008

3.6 feet at 13 seconds...

...measured on the Diamond Shoals Buoy looks like this:


This big closeout in front of the Avon Pier illustrates what makes Hatteras so rad for ocean lovers. A small 3.6 foot wave can turn into a well overhead heaving barrel, due to the proximity of deep ocean water and shallow concrete-like sandbars.


Light offshore breeze combined with this small but powerful swell this morning, creating unreal surf conditions. It was sizable, and very fast. I was super picky in my wave selection, after getting severely thrashed on the first wave I tried to take off on. I haven't been pushed around like that in a pretty long time... Good Stuff!!

We've got some wind forecasted this afternoon, and it looks like it's trying to fill in. There's some serious wavesailing potential, however, there are a few slight issues to contend with:

1) The swell is mostly breaking as lefts ripping south down the beach (think: Pipeline orientation).
2) The wind is coming from the south, which is side to side offshore and sets up starboard tack wavesailing (think: Ho'okipa orientation).
3) Now, mentally combine a big fat Ho'okipa bottom turn right into a heaving left-hand Pipeline wave.... If you time it right, you might be able to get one big hit. If you don't time it right, you get completely thrashed!!

Maybe I'll do some recconnaisance to try to find a random right hander breaking on some rogue sandbar somewhere... Something tells me I'm not gonna find it, though...

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