This is the same storm that brought all the snow to the NE on the weekend of Dec 19/20. After raining and blowing up to 55 out of the SE on Friday night you can see the weekend started out with pretty stormy surf on Saturday morning, unlike everywhere else on the east coast the weather was actually pretty nice for about an hour.   The surf was a mess but it was light wind and sunny skies. About mid morning it started blowing offshore and by 11 it was really starting to kick in out of the NW at about 25-35 with higher gusts. Sound tide got on the road in Avon again and they close the road at S-Curves also. A couple of people paddled out but it was too much wind and swell still.  We watched for a while and a few short shoulders were caught and that was about it.  The swell dropped a bit and it became more manageable but there were very few rides. Occasionally a good one was had. I watched someone try to paddle into one and their board got ripped out of their hands by the wind and was spinning in the air like a top.  A very peaky shifty swell from several directions.  Someone brought out some jet skis and they did some tow ins allowing people to get into the wave early enough to get behind the peak for a barrel which was pretty impressive to see.  Jeff and I paddled out between the jetties, the wind was slightly more manageable there and it wasn’t breaking out quite so far.  It wasn’t as big as behind the motels but we were able to get more rides.  We were amazed when getting in the water as it easily had to be close to 70 degrees. Unheard of for Dec. and with the Air temps around 40 with a 25-40 mph wind it made it bearable as the wind just cut right through you.  Swell came up pretty strong out of the north this am and the water temps plummeted overnight to the coldest of the season. My guess would be about 52 degrees.  What a temperature change in about 12 hours. Jeff said as he was going out of Hatteras inlet this am the water temp was 45 degrees. If you got lucky today there was a good one to be had but there was a mega current out of the north and a lot of close outs.  There was a lot of denial paddle outs and most everyone lasted for just a few waves before getting tired of the battle. On Monday morning there was still a strong swell coming in out of the north and the water temps dropped even more hitting our first day in the upper 40’s.  It might have been 50 but it was a cold 50 with the air temps only reaching a high of 42 with a cold NW wind still blowing.  The tide was too high all morning making for strange conditions with the good wave if you got in the right place at the right time.  For about 45 minutes in the early afternoon at mid tide it was good , lining up nicely with a current you could almost keep up with. But then the tide dropped and the current increased rapidly and even though there was the occasional great wave it was really hard to find.  As I’m finishing this up on Tuesday the swell is all but gone.

Curtis Cromwell, who does all the glassing here and works in the shop, likes his boards a little different than most people.  He really likes the raised deck idea ( having had several of them), so this one is no different but this one comes with a much flatter and fuller raised deck than his past ones trying to gain a little extra paddling power for the up coming winter in 5/4/3’s. This one was also designed with a much deeper single concave than the past ones so a little more rise in the deck should help the float out also.  We’ve brought the tail in fairly thin so hopefully it’s not to “corky” feeling and hold in on the steeper and more powerful waves of winter. We like the epoxy construction and the blank is a 2 lb density EPS.  The rails are wrapped as you can see with a 6 lb. density  MDI urethane foam.   We have been doing this to all of our EPS blanks, it is stronger against rail dings and if you do get a small ding in the rail you won’t have the problem of it soaking up to much water unlike the straight EPS foam.  Dimensions, 6′4″ x 19 3/8″x 2 1/2″. It has a 12 1/8″ nose and a 14 3/8″ tail.

After all the November swells and storms today we experienced, today was our first almost flat day in quite some time. It is Sunday November 29th and also the first nice sunny day we have seen in about 3 weeks.  Not unusual for this time of year. Seems like a lot of years the first couple weeks of December usually brings small conditions with extreme tides and that is what we experienced today. After all the severe erosion and storm surge of the remnants of Ida, and another swell shortly thereafter the sand bars have been rearranged in a way very rarely seen. It was one of those days that you only wish you could only shrink yourself down to a foot high and you could catch some of the best waves ever seen on the Outer Banks.  In some places there is no beach at all and 100 yds north or south the beach is as wide as we have seen in years. Definitely a unique day on the Outer Banks. 

As the wind and waves subside from the remnants of Ida, a quick follow up on what’s happening.  All in all I think everyone around here has seen worse damage from other storms. It was more similar to a Nor’easter without the winds, and it definitely wasn’t tropical in nature either. As of today on Tuesday the 17th the road is open again to traffic but only if you have 4 wheel drive. You can see the track in the picture.  I’ve heard rumor that they may get one lane of pavement open today , if not today they will do it as soon as possible. They have put a ferry in place that runs from Stumpy Point to Rodanthe, crossing time 1 hr 45 min.  This will be used to bring down vehicles that cannot pass on the sand road.  For more info on this check out Island Free Press.  I love the aerial view of the point, It changes so much it is incredible. It almost looks like a little wave could wrap in but I know with that kind of shape it would be really hard to have a swell direction and wind that would combine to make any kind of a wave.  For more aerial view pics check out Don Bowers photo gallery on islandfreepress.org.   As far as the surf goes, yesterday finally provided a decent day of waves. As usual , there was a lot of current to paddle against and the vast majority of waves were to fast to make but if you got in the right place at the right time there was a good one to be had.  Here is the follow up the buried Porsche on Cottage Ave.

I know it has been a while since I posted but I just got busy and shortly I will backtrack and post some thing from the past couple of months but this is about right now.  On the 1st of November, my friend Jeff Oden and I went to visit a friend who just finished building a beautiful new home aptly named Ventana a las Olas in Rancho Santana, Nicaragua.  Hoping to get some good waves and a last shot of warm water before the winter. Nicaragua is known for consistent offshores all day long. October is rainy season and almost always ends at the 1st of Nov. This year they have not had one so we were hoping for even better than normal conditions. The other phenomena that will bring the onshores is a a tropical disturbance in the Caribbean. Well, 2 days after arriving Ida formed, bringing with it rain and onshores. We still surfed daily, had fun, and enjoyed good times with old friends but didn’t quite get the waves we had hoped for thanks to Ida.  She finally pulled out of the Caribbean and headed up to the Gulf our last couple of days and we finally got the offshores back with a nice head high to overhead swell. Now it should be noted that I was traveling with Jeff Oden who owns the Sea Gull Motel in Hatteras village, the same one that was wrecked by another storm with the name of Isabel. Even he will tell you to stay away from women who’s name begins with the letter I.  Leaving Nicaragua and flying to Raleigh we flew right back into the remnants of Ida as she worked her way up the Eastern seaboard. Just like the abnormalities in Nicaragua they continued for us at home.  Usually, Hatteras is hit with the worst winds and rain and as we drove past Rocky Mount heading east the wind and rain increased. Driving past at least 10 car accidents in 30 miles it wasn’t looking good for us as we just knew it would be worse on the coast, confirming that as we drove past the flooded farms around Columbia. As we crossed the Alligator river bridge we were surprised to see it only blowing about 15-25 out of the NE. As we crossed the bridge to Manteo it was only blowing about 10-15 and by the time we crossed Oregon Inlet it was barely blowing. There was plenty of swell in the ocean and as we drove by the S-curves the dune was down but very little water on the road at low tide. We were fortunate to get thru as later that afternoon the road was washed over and out. While the ocean was about as big, rough and mixed up as could be the weather on Hatteras Island was 70 degrees, light wind and sunny, while Virginia Beach, Nags Head and Wilmington were getting pounded with rain and wind it was as nice as could be here. On Friday the 13th we woke up to the same but that would soon change, about 9 am the winds came out of the north along with the clouds and even more swell driving up the sound tides to combine with even stronger Ocean swells at the high tide that afternoon. On Thursday the swell was really confused coming from all directions but on Friday it became more northerly with a wrap around swell on the south side that was as usual mostly closing out with the odd one here and there. Stayed pretty stormy here all day on Saturday but I heard Joey and Brett made it out late this evening at the lighthouse. It doesn’t look good for the road in Rodanthe as it has sustained extensive damage. I only have a small camera but here is a short vid I took of the surf on Friday evening. Posted on You Tube Enjoy the gallery and check out the pics on Island Free Press.  Don Bowers slide show and Daniel Pullen slide show

Ross Byrd who runs the Goodtimes Surf Camp in Rodanthe brought me an old board that I built probably in 80 or 81. He said it is one of his favorite boards and rides it a lot in the summer when the waves are small. This one had a pretty boxy rail and even had a little bit of deck concave in the tail.  His request was to copy it but update it also and he thought he would like it a little thinner.

The new one doesn’t have the concave deck, not quite as thick and we updated the nose.  It doesn’t have the old school thick down rail nose. Color wise as you can see it was very similar.  Fun to do as I don’t get to do those kind of color jobs to much these days. It’s glossed and polished just like the old one and Curtis said it was a good one to polish because it really made the bright colors pop.

The old one I felt had some really small fins on it for a twin so we increased the area of the fins a little bit also. Dimensions are 5′ 7″ x 20 1/2″ x 2 1/2″  It has a 13 3/4″ nose and a 15 3/4″ tail.  The wing is up 10″ from the tail and across the tips of the swallow it is 4″.

By the way they do a good job at the surf camp in the summer if your looking to send someone, check them out at SurfHatteras.com

Early morning at the jetty

We’ve had a pretty good run of surf here this summer.  I wish I had some more pics of the better days but Daniel was one of the “surf sacrifices” for the first swell of the summer. The 24th of June produced a nice NE swell with clean conditions and the early morning had a few overhead sets with light offshores.

The day before my son Hyatt was working on his car and stuck his hand in the fan blade requiring seven stitches in the pinky finger. Daniel was out surfing early that morning and was caught inside on a larger set . Someone was outside taking off to late , and as Daniel did his duck dive the nose of the pearling board pierced his foot requiring stitches and left a nice bruise.

Todd up at OBBC took a nose to the leg , more stitches and we had all the makings of a surf sacrifice. Small rideable waves followed the rest of the week if you played the tides and the wind and on Monday the 6th of July there was a choppy swell on the south side with a pretty stiff SW wind that picked up Read the rest of this entry »