cape hatteras

December Storm

December 22, 2009 by busbey · Leave a Comment

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.

Filed Under: Surf Log · Tagged With: cape hatteras, cape hatteras lighthouse, cape hatteras surfing, December storm surf, Hatteras surf, hatteras surf movie

Ida follow up

November 17, 2009 by busbey · Leave a Comment

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.

Filed Under: Surf Log · Tagged With: aerial photography of outer banks, cape hatteras, Don Bowers photography, Hatteras surf, Ida, northeast swell, outer banks, stuck porsche, Surf from Ida

Following Ida, or is it following me?

November 14, 2009 by busbey · 1 Comment

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

Filed Under: Surf Log · Tagged With: buxton, cape hatteras, Daniel Pullen photograhy, Don Bowers photography, Ida, In The Eye Surfboards, outer banks, Outer banks storm surf, Storm surf pics, Surf from Ida, Ventana a las Olas

A Sad Goodbye to July

August 4, 2009 by busbey · Leave a Comment

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 more...]

Filed Under: Surf Log · Tagged With: Brett Barley, buxton, cape hatteras, cape hatteras lighthouse, Daniel Pullen photograhy, frisco, July surf, lighthouse jetties, Preston Barley, South Side

Joey’s New Red Fish

July 4, 2009 by busbey · 1 Comment

Hey this board is not red, it’s green. It’s a surf shot of Joey Crum on his old green fish. We built this one for Joey about 5 years ago and last year he finally retired it “last” summer. Many hours were logged on the green fish and it has seen all sizes of waves and all conditions. Some days it was well overhead and closing out, not a fish type wave at all but Joey would take it out and still surf it well.

If you have been to Hatteras any time in the past 5 years and there was a swell of some kind you probably saw Joey out on his green fish. Joey rides short boards also but likes his fish designs done old school. The green one was glassed with all 6 0z glass , Green resin tint, cut laps, glass on twins, gloss and polish – the works. I think he rode it so much that it had been delaminated twice and repaired twice gaining weight each time and it was never a “Super Light” to begin with. Last summer he ordered a new fish and this one was to be a little different than the old green one. This one had the old school nose but a modern tail with a tri fin, not a twin like fish usually are done. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Shaping Bay · Tagged With: buxton, cape hatteras, cape hatteras lighthouse, classic surfboards, custom surfboard, handmade fins, Joey Crum, lighthouse jetties, old school fish, Surfboard pinlines

Crystal Clear Outerbanks

June 21, 2009 by busbey · 2 Comments

Yeah, I know this is supposed to be about surfing but there hasn’t been much this month and the water has been crystal clear. This is a very rare occurrence on the Outer Banks and I wanted to share these pics with everyone.

After the last post, the water has stayed clear for almost 2 weeks. There has been a couple of small SE swells pop up , bringing in the gulf-stream with few fun waves to go with them. On Saturday the 6th a front passed through early in the morning and there was some swell to be had on the south side. All the surf reports predicted waves this day so there were quite a few people down. There were some shoulder high sets but the wind came up with a lot of east and killed it but then backed off in the early afternoon for a bit before picking up again.

The next day there were no predicted waves and the waves were about chest to shoulder, fairly clean with decent winds. The swell increased during the day peaking early afternoon. The water was crystal clear and looking at the waves in the morning the color looked like I was in the tropics. No swell was predicted so there was no one around. I surfed early with one other person and did a second go out by myself. Even the bath house ( one of the more popular spots and has a decent sandbar now) only had about 3 people out.

The following week had little waves and you could get a surf in for an hour or 2 if you played the tides right but the real story is how many days the water stayed clear. Everyone forgot about surfing and was snorkeling, diving and spearfishing. Frisco was clear, all the north side was clear, I heard all the way up into Pea Island was clear. Enjoy the pics, taken at the first jetty.

All pics courtesy of Daniel Pullen

Filed Under: Surf Log · Tagged With: buxton, cape hatteras, cape hatteras lighthouse, Daniel Pullen photograhy, lighthouse jetties, lighthouse jetty pics, outer banks, outer banks surf report, underwater pics, underwater surf photography

May : Surf From Above and Below

June 1, 2009 by busbey · 1 Comment

May which is usually a good month for surf let us down this year. If you were into windsurfing or kiteboarding it was the month to be here. Warming temps and sideshore winds. The first 9 days of the month the wind blew SW at least 15-25 if not more. There was some rideable days of surf when it would get just enough west to clean up some of the sideshore mess but they were mosty desperation go outs. Then there was a few days of NE wind chop, then a couple of days of SE wind chop and then 2 more days of SW winds followed by 3 days of NE wind 25-35 finally calming down some on the 21st.

The thursday and friday before Memorial day there was some fun waist to shoulder high days in Frisco. The strange thing was all of a sudden the water went back down to the low 60′s after flirting with 70 degrees all month. All the sideshore winds all month have worked to dig a pretty good trench down the beach on the north side destroying most of the sand bars but for some reason there is a plethora of sand bars on the south side. It is very rare that that the south side has better sand bars [Read more...]

Filed Under: Surf Log · Tagged With: buxton, cape hatteras, cape hatteras lighthouse, lighthouse jetties, outer banks, ship wrecks, surf log, underwater surf photography