OBX-TRADITED
Two Weeks Of Mercuric Freesurfing On The Outer Banks Made It Seem Like I Never Left Florida By Matt Pruett
OK, I’m gonna say some things here, and some of them might be a little
painful. But please try to understand my motives. Prior to moving to Central
Florida eight and a half years ago, I had a rather skewed perspective of East
Coast surfing. A green-yet-fermented surf journalist, I was naturally more
objective than most but still saw the sport and culture through my own eyes
— which were strained and bloodshot after absorbing all available photographic
and celluloid minutia from Bunyip
Dreaming to the latest copy of Surfer
Magazine. Furthermore, I felt my own aqueous experiences were somehow
reflective of the larger global movement. But when I put my big-boy pants on in
2001 to work full-time for Eastern Surf
Magazine, which demanded immediate relocation to Brevard County, the
performance capital of the coast… well, that changed everything.
Fast-forward to Fall 2009,
and I’ve been officially extradited back to the place where my enchantment with
waveriding began almost a quarter-century ago. With 66 editions of Editordom
behind me, I now know that the Outer Banks are not, in fact, the center of the
surfing universe. But for two weeks in September — with the WRV Outer
Banks Pro, the ESA Easterns, and a Volcom VQS event all descending here under
the threat/promise of peak Hurricane Season — the Outer Banks is, to bite
one of those ‘80s ad slogans (yeah, I studied those, too), “still the best way
to go surfing.” In fact, all the hype made me feel like I never left the
Sebastian Inlet snake pit or the ESM offices.
Which is only natural. When your personal and professional lives intersect as
much as mine, it’s hard not to bring work home with you.
THE OLD IN-OUT
The 2009 WRV Outer Banks Pro Presented By Hurley Is Moving Ahead Like Clockwork
Along The Graveyard Of The Atlantic... Let's Hope Hurricane Season Doesn’t Dish
Out A Bit Of The Old Ultraviolence
BILL OF SALE Surf Expo Comes To Town Early With Lower-Than-Usual
Attendance Rumors And Category 4 Hurricane Bill Zooming In. Will You Blow Town To
Bro Down Or Sit Tight And Get Right?
