SO LONG, BILL
Thanks For All The Hype By Nick McGregor
Now that Hurricane Bill has kickstarted our 2009
Atlantic Tropical Season, sending solid, long-period groundswell to all corners
of the East Coast, our minds can focus on other matters, our arms can finally
take a break, and our seriously depleted wave banks can once again overflow
their coffers. But looking back to last week’s frenzy, when cockeyed
predictions were thrown around with gusto and travel plans changed with each
three-hour Tropical Update, we can ask the million-dollar question: Did Bill
live up to the hype? Yes, he rousted us from a sleepy summer of lackluster windswell,
and yes, his arrival did coincide with favorable winds from Miami to Maine, but
did Bill produce the epic conditions everyone expected? We checked in with a
wide swath of the EasternSurf.com family
to find out; today we’ll cover everything from the Caribbean to South Carolina.
Check back tomorrow for coverage from the Mid-Atlantic and, on Wednesday, the Northeast,
which as of press time was still reveling in six to eight-foot “leftovers.”
Down Barbados way, hush-hush reports claimed that
Soupbowl enjoyed a rare glass-off in the middle of Bill’s pulsing swell, while
further north in Puerto Rico, early details revealed that the magical northwest
corner of the island delivered plenty of opportunities for chargers like Alejo
Marin, Nico and Ale Moreda, Tommy and Leslie Bursian, and Josie Graves to brush
up on their barrel-riding skills normally reserved for wintertime. “This little
one-day swell was really hyped up a lot,” said ESM Senior Photographer Rachel Tanner. “We woke up to ten,
occasionally 12-foot sets, but I wouldn’t call it epic. It was a little
sideshore, not quite oil glass, but pretty darn clean. You definitely had to
choose your waves carefully, because there were a lot of barrels to be had. I
think Hurricane Bill sucked up all the cool air, as it was Sahara-hot on the
beach, without even a sliver of shade. And it was sponge-o-rama out there
— overall, I’d call it semi-epic.”
In Central Florida, where oodles of hype have killed
many a swell over the years, the Spanish House/Sebastian Inlet pressure cooker attracted
every wayward waverider within the triangle of Miami to Naples to Orlando, with
hundreds of frothing shortboarders descending on the area’s head-high energy early
Friday. Joining the hordes of ampers were two legendary Australian world
champions, Mark Occhilupo and Tom Carroll. The Down Under duo turned up at
Orlando’s Surf Expo on Thursday and happily drove east with their respective
team managers at the first mention of clean hurricane surf. Intelligence even
indicated that the ever-elusive First Peak made a brief reappearance on the
ideal outgoing tide, but by Saturday, when the swell (and the hype) climaxed,
closeouts were the call from Sebastian all the way north to Cocoa Beach.
“Friday was head-high to a foot overhead on sets, and none of us wanted to
leave because First Peak was showing signs of life,” said ESM Photo Editor Ryan Gamma. “We thought we were in the right spot
at first light Saturday morning, but it wasn’t any bigger, and as soon as the
NSSA contest started setting up, we knew it was over — only the wedge was
working, and everything down the beach was closing out. We also had bad lunar
tides that were the highest of the year; Sebastian Inlet doesn’t break on a
regular high tide, much less a four-foot high tide.”
Spots north of Cape Canaveral did break up the energy and deliver heaps of makeable shoulders and rippable peaks, along with bombing outside conditions and tough paddle-outs. “Sure, a bunch of places suffered some closeouts, but if you were north of Sebastian Inlet, chances are you got to surf abnormally good waves,” said Surfing Magazine Associate Photo Editor and ESM Senior Photographer Jimmy “Jimmicane” Wilson. “People say the sandbars in Florida aren’t set up to hold long-period swell that big, and that the continental shelf chops them down. But there were places that did their thing.” Your trusty correspondent surfed New Smyrna Beach’s southern fringes, where I enjoyed reeling rights, whiplash currents, and hordes of nudists getting their bronze on at one of the most sizeable spots in the state, while the outer shoals of New Smyrna Inlet saw local pros like Aaron Cormican and Evan Geiselman utilizing PWC assist to snag a few well-overhead bombs. A certain secret spot inside a certain secret inlet didn’t live up to its advertised potential, but a few shallow drainers awaited those in the know. And Ponce Inlet’s north jetty was overtopped by macking sets stacked to the horizon, spreading the usually zoo-like lineup out among five breaks stretching nearly a half-mile out to sea.
St. Augustine Pier sliced the ESE swell up into tantalizing sections, producing almond barrels and rippable faces while other parts of St. Johns County beaches coughed up nothing but closeouts. Word is more mysto shoals outside of St. Augustine Inlet were picture perfect; Jimmicane said Oldest City locals Ross Howatt and Ryan Riopko “towed into waves on those shoals that were some of the biggest, cleanest waves you might ever see in the Sunshine State.” Although Jacksonville Beach was predictably overrun with crowds, unnamed spots further north in Duval County translated the six to eight-foot juice into pristine A-frame peaks. Jimmicane again: “Asher Nolan surfed a sandbar north of Jacksonville he compared to ‘the Outer Banks, but more peaky.’ Was Bill overhyped? Probably. Was it still awesome? Definitely.”
Savannah, GA, photographer Joey Wilson captured clean
and green head-high surf at Tybee Island on Saturday, just days after the Spectacular Adventures! Disaster Tour
stormed into town and stumbled upon surprisingly fun waves at Tybee Island Pier
on Thursday. Floridian Alek Parker and Tarheel Ben Bourgeois put on a freakish
display of radical performance for the Georgia boys, before the entire
entourage piled into Dustin Howard’s O’Neill RV for Friday’s Charleston, SC,
stop. The crew arrived just in time to witness prime overhead Folly Beach, and even
linked up with ESM Senior
Photographers Jim and Meghan Whitney. “On Friday, I met Benny B, Alek, and Seth
Stafford in Folly, and it was chest to head-high with bigger sets,” said Jim. “But
it was kind of wonky, because we still had Ana swell in the water, and side-offshore
wind out of the southwest. Did Bill live up to the expectations? No, it was a
little disappointing, but the south end of Pawleys Island was firing on
Saturday morning — head-high, reeling rights. Unfortunately I checked Pawleys
Pier and the wind was side-onshore, so I drove straight to Carolina Beach, NC.”
Did Jim and Meghan and their gaggle of groms score in
North Carolina? Were the Outer Banks really too big to surf? And what about New
Jersey’s hallowed beachbreaks? Did Bill deliver a knockout punch, or were his
kisses of the soft and wet variety? Find out tomorrow at EasternSurf.com.
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?
