Black Friday Surfing

Instead of fighting the crowds down at the stores, I thought it would be better to take advantage of the thigh and waist high semi-glassy breaks down at Wrightsville and I wasn't disappointed. I caught a good number of waves, I was focusing on getting ahead of the crest and I started to be pretty successful towards the end. The weather did move in and kick up some wind with rain which caused some of the waves to resist breaking as well as send spray out to sea as you can see in some of the photos. All in all a good day, I'm really glad I wore my booties, I just don't have the traction in the cold water otherwise, type of wax regardless. I'm actually tempted to get a light weight pair for the summertime for the traction boost. Hope you all enjoyed the holiday.

Surfing in November: Free Parking

So it's finally November and I've had to suck it up and put on the wetsuit. Feels like I'm exercising with elastic bands with any movement I make. It won't be long before the booties are necessary either. Waves have been picking up and are a lot better than they were a couple weeks ago. The last session I was out was probably the best surfing I've had out in NC, and I've finally been getting used to surfing in the wetsuit so I don't fly off like I was doing at the beginning of the month. See if I can get out more, being that my schedule this past week has been a little off. I'll throw some pics in of late October if there's any cool ones.

Waves, finally

Finally got some waves this week with the storms that have been moving through this half of the country. I haven't been able to get to the beach early enough until today, and I wasn't disappointed. Waves varied from knee high, many waist high, and the occasional larger way. I was out at Crystal pier, there was a group of several dolphins about 100 yards out. They were making some good sized splashes. The breaks were pretty crowded.

Early October Surfing

Temperatures have dropped following the week of rain we've gotten. Waves have been breaking further out which shows promise.


The tide was so high today that the waves were breaking directly on the beach. The guy in this photo caught a wave and face planted into the sand a second afterwords. This is him emerging from the sea rather confused.



The sign that no one obeys. Your supposed to stay 500' to the left and right of the pier, but then you'll miss out on the good part of the break.

Crazy shells washed up on the beach last Friday. Now they've been pulled back into the sea at the waterline and you cut your feet on them.

Wave catching technique

I've been developing a technique that helps me catch better waves. I've found that when I'm paddling laterally to reposition myself among the break, I end up catching a pretty good wave. This has happened ever since I started surfing; so it's about time that I start using this technique to catch better waves. Once you get the hang of standing up, turning, etc, you begin to realize to that sometimes the hardest part of surfing is getting in position to catch a wave. So here's the basic steps:

1. Get out to the break and position yourself facing the oncoming waves at a forty-five degree angle. I.E.- if the waves are coming out of the north, face northwest or northeast. I recommend facing the direction you surf the wave. I surf goofy so, if I look at the beach from the break, I'm planning on trying to cut to the left if possible.

2. When you see a wave coming towards you, begin paddling parallel to it, and pick up speed. I find this helpful in getting enough speed to properly catch the wave so your less likely to be pitched over the falls. Also, you won't have to hold off on paddling to prevent yourself from passing the idea breaking point of the wave. I find that when I tried to hold off paddling, I'm moving to slow by the time I start paddling that I might hit the wave at the right spot, but I'm going to slow to catch the wave low enough.

3. When the wave is almost upon you, angle towards the beach, you wanna be at least a 30 degree angle or more.

4. Catch the wave as you normally would, catch the wave and enjoy the ride.

Cape Hatteras weekend, Sat-Sun 25/6 Sept 10

On Friday I decided to pull chocks and get out of Wilmington for the weekend. I've been meaning to get up to Cape Hatteras and see how good the waves are, etc. Since I'm gonna be busy next weekend, I decided to go on Saturday. I got up early Saturday morning (really surprised I woke up as early as I did) and packed my stuff and got on the road. I really wanted to take the ferry to save the mileage on my car, but I was time limited so I decided to pass up the Cedar Island / Ocracoke ferry. Instead I made the long trip up 17 and over on 64 to Roanoke Island. I ended up stopping to check out the historical sites, there really isn't much since it was a "lost" colony. I really wish that there would've been a little more information about the site.














I got back on the road and headed to the Outer Bank islands. I headed north up to Kill Devils Hills, where Kittyhawk is located. It was pretty sweet. If you have any interest in history, this is a place you can't pass up. There is a big field with a huge hill with a monument on top. I guess it's not as sandy as it used to be, but it's only ten minutes out of the way of the southern road that heads down to Hatteras.




































I drove a minute or two across the island to the nearest beach entrance to catch a couple smaller waves to add a sand sample to my collection. Not much for waves, and the water reminded me of Corpus with it's murky conditions. Waves were also smoother than the area I've been surfing lately, so it doesn't crest as fast and produces less aggressive waves, like in Corpus. I felt the same about the waves I caught off Hatteras.















I proceeded about fifty miles down the coast to the town of Buxton. Here you can find the famous Cape Hatteras light house dating back to the 1870's. It got really close to the sea with some erosion, so the National Park service moved it back about a half mile or so. I found a hotel and stayed the night. Note - hotels and about everything else is a little more expensive when your miles from the mainland, so be prepared to pay a little more. I brought a small tent just in case. I got up the next day and took a trip to a small surf shop called the Natural Art Surf Shop. The woman in there was pretty helpful and told me that the area by the light house was the best surfing. I went back up to the light house and paid the $7 fee to climb up it. I couldn't help but notice how short the hand rail was as I climbed up every 256 steps. I ended up on the far side of the stairs, close to the outer wall so I wouldn't have to worry about falling over the rail. At the top the view was fantastic. You could really truly appreciate how remote the island is. When looking towards the mainland, you can only see blue horizon. Still, there are a lot of people living on the outer banks and some pretty huge houses.
















































I checked out of my overpriced hotel and headed to the beach near the light house to finally do the some real surfing. Waves were decent, not big but not small. Conditions were pretty glassy at first, but then the storm out at sea rolled in and the size and chop picked up. I love surfing in the rain though. I moved a little closer to the sea wall / jetty that was by the base of the old light house and I was able to catch some other waves that were a lot better. I didn't stay too long, I cut the side of my finger on the backside of a fin and I had to get back to Wilmington before it was too late. All in all a good trip, I'll definitely be back to Hatteras if I get a longer weekend. Now that I got a lot of the side trips out of the way, I'll be able to spend more time surfing. But there is an old iron clad replica that I'm looking forward to checking out...