Out of the Army, and In to the Atlantic!!

There hasn't been too much going on the last few days. We've had a fun little longboard wave to play with, and virtually no wind to speak of, so it's been pretty glassy and clean. My buddy Alex just got out of the Army, so he decided to come down to the beach and hang out for a few days. He's just getting into surfing, so the conditions suited him just fine!

Alex and Anne, waiting for a set

Alex has this funny hybrid board. It looks like a rockered out mini longboard, with a thruster fin set up. It's really wide, but very thin. Odd duck. Looks like it'd be fun on a bigger wave than we had... So I put him on the Kalama 11'6" SUP. It took him about 5 minutes to get the thing dialed in. By the end of the sesh, he was connecting rides all the way to the inside shorebreak section! Sweet!

Alex Getting his "Sea Legs"

And driving down the line, 5 minutes later!

We had the beach all to ourselves, until this big group of people on horses came trotting on by. I thought it was interesting to see the two modes of transportation side by side. I'm pretty darned sure the environmental footprint of a truck is bigger than that of a horse. But my truck didn't leave any huge piles of steaming crap on the beach, like the horses did!

Centuries old vs one month old transportation!

In other news, the Hatteras WaveFest 2008 starts in just about a week, with a clinic being held at Sailworld Cape Hatteras. We've got tons of swag to give away, and a brand new sail to raffle off at the clinic (not to mention the invaluable techniques and advice you'll learn)! So sign up, and swing on by the shop!!

Speaking of the shop, it's getting on towards closeout time of the year!! If you're coming down to Hatteras this fall, and have any specific items on your wish list, give us a call {(252)995-5441} to make sure we've got what you're looking for. We can get virtually anything under the sun, as long as you give us enough lead time (at least 2 weeks is preferable). See ya soon, I'll have your new stick waiting for you when you arrive!! : )

Ra-chesta, Noo Yawuk

This has been the summer of committed weekends for me. I've been off-island for more weekend trips this summer than in the last 8 years combined. Not that I'm complaining, because every one of those events has been well worth the effort of getting there. Including this last weekend, which I spent in Rochester, NY for my friend Chad's wedding. He's also known as "Chaeyud" in the local dialect.

This ain't Hatteras! The View from our 25th story hotel room! My ears popped on exiting the elevator...

It was an all out affair, so I did some self grooming, and put on a tuxedo for the first time in almost a decade! We had a blast, dining, dancing, and generally partying it up for a few days with some buddies from the good ol' days! It was a really fun weekend!

All Cleaned Up, and ready to rock and roll!

While driving home, Anne and I noticed these huge ugly wind mills on a hill top. I can't believe how much they disrupted the otherwise pristine view. Doesn't whoever put them up know that there's probably at least a few weeks worth of coal underneath that mountain? If they were to cut that hill top wide open and pull out all the natural resources, the local kids would end up with a sweet swimming hole to cliff jump into.


Sometimes sarcasm is hard to infer in print form, so I'll just go ahead and tell ya: The last paragraph was meant to be sarcastic. I actually enjoy seeing wind farms. I think they're a relatively clean, low impact energy source. Concerning the manipulation of the landscape "argument", well, I think they're majestic looking. I'd much rather see a wind farm than a huge steam cloud pouring out of a monstrous nuclear reactor, or smoke puffing out of a coal or wood powered energy plant. Seriously, smoke and steam are visible from dozens of miles away, even over the horizon from the original source. Wind farms, on the other hand, well, you pretty much have to squint to see a windmill from more than 2 miles away, even on a clear day...

Anyway, Pete DeKay nailed it perfectly with his Summer 2008 Windsport editorial. The first sentence reads: "Don't you love it when your best friend schedules his wedding for "Big Saturday," the windiest day of the summer?" I'm sure you've all seen the local Hatteras coverage of Tropical Storm Hanna, but if you haven't, check out Bill and George's reports. Looks like I missed a pretty sweet Cove day, some high wind Canadian Hole blasting, and a meaty Lifeguard Beach session... So, if you were here and caught it, I'm currently accepting Thank You notes for being the official Tropical Storm Hanna Hatteras Wind Sacrifice...

Hanna, Days 3 and 4

Long, clean lines! (Anne pic)

Surf, surf, and more surf! Nothing huge the last few days, but a whole lot of fun. Light north winds created offshore and clean wave conditions across the South side of Hatteras Island all day Tuesday! I was lucky enough to snag two solid sessions, one at dawn and another at dusk. I used my 5'8" fish in the morning. Drew called in a report of longboard conditions for the evening sesh, so I grabbed a 10'2" from the shop. Funny to be on such different boards, all in the same day! Funny thing is, they both work great in similar conditions...

That 10'2" drives pretty well (Anne pic)

What a way to end the day!

Unfortunately, Drew got injured out there. He took a 25 pound SUP to the groin. Yikes!! The impact was about 3" to the left of being DEVASTATING... So it's good and bad at the same time. He chilled on the beach and shot some pics and video while the rest of us enjoyed the evening. Here's a short clip of one of my waves from last night:



This morning, Wednesday, the wind switched to a very light west. That's side shore on the south side, and straight offshore on the East beaches. Stuart called and said the Buxton beaches were looking a little weak, so we decided to hit the south beaches up for a dawn sesh. It was a little choppy, but there were some great waves rolling in, setting up for some really long rides. Good stuff!!

Stuart setting up for a long left!

We also surfed in Buxton, super clean, but a bit warbly. We've got a bunch of video and more pictures to sort through, so check back in a few days for the meat and potatoes of the story!

I Love Hurricane Hanna

...at least for now. We'll see how I feel about her in a few days when she makes landfall... In the meantime, she's been pumping us some really fun waves! The South side has been lit up with overhead sets for the last 2 days. I got some great surfing in yesterday, including one of the longest lefts of my life! This thing just kept opening up for me, section after section after section... This, however, is what most of 'em looked like:

Unknown on a sectiony one

This morning (Monday), the wind picked up just enough to do a schlog session. I caught up with Stuart just as he set out at the Lighthouse. It was chock full of lumpy bombs that were basically breaking right up onto the beach. Gnarly, especially for how light the wind was. But he made it out (eventually), and caught one good wave. Here's the sequence in it's entirety:Shorebreak? Nah, whatever...

Looked a little like death on a stick to me, so Keith, Martine and I started a South Side reconnaissance mission. We ended up down on Ocracoke, after seeing reeling left hand barrels and NO wind at Isabels. Somehow, we lucked out and jumped right on the ferry, with no wait whatsoever (which is pretty much the only reason we went. A long line is a major deterrent for me).


I'm always amazed at how playful the Ocracoke wave is, no matter how big it gets. Today, the sets were a bit overhead, and standing up way outside, with a tiny bit of fizzle off the top all the way in to the inside section, where they would detonate. Super fun, and lined up for 5, 6, 7 bottom turns on the good ones! Very fun schlog sesh!

Keith lining one upLong Lines (Keith pic)No Wind (Keith Pic)

Bill showed up just as the wind really lightened up, he took a few passes, and then we all went surfing for the rest of the afternoon. Killer day down in Ocracoke! I'm exhausted right now, with more surf on the horizon, pretty much indefinitely at this point! Awww yeah! See ya out there!!