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 overnight.

At about noon that day the wind went north and left us with nice glassy conditions and a nice head high south west swell. The swell changed rapidly throughout the day but some bars worked good on low tide and some worked good on higher tides so you would surf one spot for a couple of hours and it would stop breaking but if you looked around you could find another spot to surf.  There has been quite a few good sandbars this summer from the pier all the way to Hatteras which is unusual but we’ll take it and enjoy it.

They have been changing constantly so you have to keep an eye out. For the following 3 weeks weeks we were in a weather pattern that every few days another front would make it either just to or just below the Carolina coast and as the front would stall small little lows would develop along the frontline creating small but fun SE swells that would last from just a few hours on the right tide to a day or two.

Generally the surf has been better at lower tides as we have had unusually high tides this summer and the sand bars on the north side have been real deep with a steep beach except for at the Lighthouse. Many days even low tide looked like high tide.  Saturday the 11th was one of the better days, started out choppy in the am with some head high sets, but cleaned up in the afternoon with the dying wind. A soft mushy day it was but hey it is July and July is usually hot and flat with a SW wind blowing at least 27 days of the month. Thursday the 23rd was the best day of the month as a small low pressure area developed to the SE of us moving rapidly up the coast.

Early that morning the wind was NW with both sides having clean conditions and both sides having the same size swell.  The north side was peakier and not as clean in the am and the waves were backing off on the high tide.  The south side had a nicer lined up swell and because it was SE and not a NE wrap swell it had some nice shape mostly lefts and there were plenty of places working so it was easy to find a spot to surf. As the tide dropped the wind backed up W and then SW so the north side cleaned up nicely and where there had been no sand bars all summer there was now plenty of places to choose from.

It’s nice when you get swells that no matter where you check there is a wave to be had. The following morning early the swell was actually stronger but a SW wind that had blown overnight put a good cross swell into it and the waves were closing out a lot more. It dropped out quick that day and a crossing SW wind messed it up but remember it’s July and there was still waves.

Let’s hope it continues in August. Surf pics on this post are taken by Daniel Pullen on the afternoon of the afternoon of the 11th.

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

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 than the north side. There wasn’t a lot of surf for the holiday crowd but there was finally some great weather and there was some small rideable waves.

On the 27th a low formed off to the south east overnight which was later called the first tropical disturbance of the season but with water temps in the 60’s it is hard to think of it as tropical. There was actually 2 small lows that formed if you looked at a radar map. This made for very unorganized conditions but at least there was some punch to the swell. One of the lows at one point was almost centered right on top of us and the other was about 200-300 miles to the SE.

That afternoon the surf and wind was all over the place but about 3 in the afternoon it went from wind chop to sheet glass in about an hour. For an hour or so there was some pretty juicy, shifty peaks in the head high to a little overhead range. As mixed up as the swell was so were the water temps. It was one of those days that during the paddle out the water temps would change along the way. Some areas were as low as 60 and you would be freezing and then 5 strokes later you would hit a patch of 68 and it would feel great. But it didn’t take long for the wind to come back up again as the low pulled off to the NE.

The next morning left us with an inconsistent small swell mostly about waist to chest high greatly enhanced by the clarity of the water. Early off the water was so Caribbean clear and as you rode the wave you could see every grain of sand shifting on the bottom as you rode along and you could look right through the wave with the back light of the sun coming up in the morning. As the wind picked up the water got a little cloudy but it was still just a nice day to be out surfing.

Daniel went out and took some shots of the jetty from under the water and the clear skies with light wind reminded me of the day last May that I had the opportunity to go flying with Dwight Burrus and get some shots of the jetties from above. As you can see buy the pics there is not a lot of jetty left and there is some pretty nasty stuff underneath the water. Be careful paddling around and between the pieces that are left standing. If you ding your board that is ok we can fix it but some people have suffered some pretty nasty gashes. unfortunately Daniel got out a little late as the water had started to cloud up but some cool shots nontheless.  (water shots courtesy of Daniel Pullen)  ( Air pics courtesy of Don Bowers)

photos taken by Robbie Johnson. To see more pics of the same day check out http://www.surfcarolinamagazine.com/photos.html

April, 2009 would be the best month of surf so far this year, but it was still up and down, surf and water temps. Started out with some South west winds blowing in warmer water which was a relief since it had been so cold this winter. On the 3rd of April it blew hard SW all day building a swell about head high. The wind went offshore hard about an hour before dark and there were a few fun waves to be had but I’m sure it got better during the night sometime.

The best thing was the water jumped from upper 40’s to upper 50’s.  The next morning the swell couldn’t hold up to the hard west wind blowing all night and early morning brought a disappearing swell. As the tide changed, there were some fun waves to be had in the waist high range for those who waited. The whole following week the waves were small but if you hit the right tide there was a few to be had and the water even warmed up some more with the west and south west winds all week. For those staying the week after Easter on their spring break they were treated to the best week of the month for surf.

Good Friday there was no surf but the increasing SW wind built a nice swell for Saturday with and offshore wind. There was some quick hollow waves to be had in the chest to head high range and the water was an enjoyable lower 60’s. There was something to ride every day and Tuesday delivered a surprise mixed swell in Frisco with offshore winds. Like many days in Frisco there wasn’t much of a lineup and everyone got trapped on the inside bar trying to get out at least once but there was some fun head high to overhead waves if you got the right one. The water was beginning to drop though and the boots had to be put back on with water around 55 degrees. As the low developed offshore the waves got really big on Thursday and Friday breaking on the outer bar and weren’t really rideable although a few tried but spent most of their time battling current and closeouts.

The swell cleaned up on Saturday the 18th with head high to overhead waves and a WSW wind grooming the waves nicely. This is the day the photos in this post were taken. Unfortunately the water temps dropped again and many put back on the gloves and hoods and all day all everyone seemed to talk about was how cold they were. The wind came more southerly as the day went on putting a cross chop on the swell but luckily not enough to fully ruin it. Definitely one of the better days of the year. You can also check out a few more photos of this day at the Matt Lusk photography website.

The following week there was almost no swell but the water slowly warmed back up again and the final day of the month we were treated to a surprise swell that picked up slowly all day from almost nothing and by afternoon on the outgoing tide there was some shoulder to head high sets with a light onshore wind and water in the mid 60’s.

- Scott

Matt Munden - photo R. Johnson

Since the last time I posted on March 16th we’ve had two pretty big lows form off the coast creating really large swells. Wednesday March  18th and Thursday March 26th the surf was really big and breaking way outside on the outer bar. The strange thing was both of them grew in size rapidly without a NE wind which is rare for around here.

These kind of swells aren’t really rideable and you have to wait for it to calm down for it to get rideable. It took a while for the first one to clean up as we were plagued with bad NE winds for several days even as the swell dropped. It finally cleaned up enough to get rideable on Sunday afternoon on the 22nd but the wind came offshore for a few hours on Monday morning  the 23rd and there was some nice cleam waves about head high. It only lasted a few hours and by 11 am the wind had come back up NE pretty hard. Those couple of hours the waves were the best I’ve seen in a while. The morning and evening of the 26th the road was closed in Rodanthe on the high tides due to ocean over-wash.

As the sea calmed down the wind would come up out of the south again creating a cross chop with a mixed up swell. A couple of souls paddled out in the mess between rain squalls on Friday the 27th in the afternoon Joey and Matt (slotted here) picked a few off as evidenced by the photo of Matt Munden, but believe me they took a beating in 49 degree water to get a few.  The southerly winds killed it and the swell dropped quickly. Since then we have gotten into this pattern of lots of SW winds so the water has warmed up quickly. Sunday the 29th, Friday the 3rd and Monday the 6th the wind has switched from the SSW to West right at dark and blew really hard all night long knocking down what little swell the SW winds had picked up.

Although each time the day after there was a small but rideable offshore day and each time the wind has blown the SW the water gets warmer. We hit 60 degrees on the north side yesterday with 65 on the south side and they are catching drum on the point. It is blowing SW again and it’s supposed to blow west again tomorrow, so the pattern continues.

- Scott

Alex Gray, Shorebreak. photo: pullen

We were supposed to be having springbreak the past few weeks but it’s been anything but, more like winter break.  I have always thought the first couple weeks of March are some of the coldest of the year. After the past snow days we had one real quick warm up but only for a couple of days.

March 6th and 7th were beautiful days, sunny, with a SW wind and a small easterly swell which having trouble finding a good sandbar to break on. The waves were pretty walled up and breaking all at once but the air was so nice everyone made it out in the 47 degree water for a surf anyway. A lot of the local boys that are away at college came home for the week, Alex Gray, Cash Barris and Morgan O’connell  were happy to find some surf.

The next few days were small but a north swell picked up quick on the afternoon of the 10th. The water temps dropped again and this week Jeff told me going out Hatteras inlet the water had dropped to 39.1 degrees. That is about as cold as you will ever see the south side. The cold water had pushed far south and there were dead turtles killed by the cold and out on the reefs Lionfish were floating on the surface all over.

Cash Barris, over x-mas holiday (no gloves)

The Lionfish is not native to this area and couldn’t handle the cold. Everyone was up early on the 11th and found a nice head high swell out of the north that was getting crossed up with a southerly wind chop. A few folks went out but the wind was really killing the surf. Friday the 13th started the first northeaster I can remember in a while.  It never got strong enough to get much size but some windchop built up.

It’s been overcast and drizzly for 5 days now and the NE wind and swell is keeping the water temps in the mid 40’s . The wind died out last sunday and so did the swell but there were a few small glassy waist high waves to be had on the incoming tide.

- Scott