THE EARL OF STOKE, PART III With Cat-4 Igor Aiming For Our Swell Window, One Last Look Back At The Next Biggest Storm Of
The 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season By Nick McGregor
You’ve seen everything
Hurricane Earl had to offer by now, huh? All-time North Florida and pristine
South Carolina and kegging Outer Banks and rippable New Jersey and heaving New
England and all points in between, right? Well, the visual smorgasbord was just
too tasty to let The Earl of Stoke off with only two samplings, so we’re back
with our third and final installment of titillating temptations from the biggest
storm of the 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season…
…Scratch that actually,
because Hurricane Igor just broke Earl’s threshold, with 150 mph sustained
winds barely topping Earl’s peak speed of 145. But what better way to
prepare for another monster skirting the coast and producing epic sessions for
this weekend than looking back at the last storm to blow East Coasters’ hair
back? Who knows, you might just find the sandbar of your dreams after checking
out what The Earl of Stoke has to offer. See below the feature for firsthand
accounts of Earl from South Florida, Southern North Carolina, the Outer Banks,
New Jersey, and New Hampshire.
“New Hampshire was perfect
for Earl, offshore winds with overhead waves…” –Burgeoning Granite State
photographer Bryan Nicholson
“The surf in Ocean and Monmouth counties
was really tough during both Danielle and Earl. Sandbars were completely
screwed upon the arrival of Danielle, and that, combined with the very
long-period ESE swell, made for nothing but closeouts from LBI to Sandy Hook.
Thankfully, Danielle helped move some of the sand around, and some better bars
and better swell direction helped make Earl a pretty fun swell. It never got
the size everyone expected, and surprisingly in our area Saturday, September
4th in the afternoon was the best. Strong offshore winds made conditions a
little tough at times, but Saturday afternoon saw more makeable barrels going
unridden than I think I've ever seen before... solely due to the wonderful
summer restrictions in NJ. Lots of breaks were crowded as everyone was forced
to surf in the surfing-only locations for the most part. Still, lots of shallow
sandbars in many locations made conditions a bit dicey. If you caught it at the
right tide with the right wind, you were a very happy camper. By no means would
I consider Earl all-time or epic... although I hear I missed one of the better
sessions Thursday morning before the strong southeast winds came up due to me
having to be at work. –ESM Chief Photographer/ Manasquan-area staple
Donald “Crusty” Cresitello
“I
got a phone call from Tom Petriken the night of Friday, September 3rd and we
decided that the best bet was for him to come up and stay at my house in
Oceanport, NJ. After amping all night with Tom and my roommate Sal Martelli, we
finally unglued our eyes from The Weather Channel and got to sleep around 12:30
a.m. Stoked to wake up early, we got up at 5:00 a.m. and started packing the
truck with everything from a 5’4” Dumpster Diver and a 5’6” twin-fin to a 6'2”
rounded pin. After packing eight boards, we got our coffee and went on our way.
It was the longest 15-minute drive to the beach I've ever had, only to find
knee-high waves in Long Branch. So we put our tail between our legs and headed
south. We got down to Bradley Beach and surfed a little wave off this pipe with
a few lefts and crossed-up rights. While trading off waves with the sun coming
up, we started to get a few barrels with this unreal orange color, which then
turned bright green. So I had to get out and shoot. But after changing and
setting up it was already too low so we went to Belmar to grab some breakfast,
and couldn't help but to hang out and hit on a few hotties at the beach.
Finally, with the ocean showing signs of life, we cruised up to Deal and found
a hidden right that looked fun. With the incoming tide on our side it showed a
lot of potential, and after about an hour with only Keith Noonan and us in the
water, things paid off. I surfed for about two hours, and after watching the
three of them tear the top off a few I had to get out and shoot. We shot for
the rest of the day and ended it the way all good sessions should — by
grabbing a few beers and a few girls and having a party at the house. Although
Earl didn't live up to the hype, we still made the best of it and had a nuts
party with the exception of a few surfboard rides down the stairs.” –Fun-loving ESM Photographer Carter McCoy
“Shon
Lassiter and Damien Fahrenfort from Rusty stayed with my girlfriend Kristina
and I through the storm. It was Damien's first hurricane and Kristina was
shooting photos while Shon was filming. She got some good ones that showed up
on the Rusty USA homepage… not bad for her first time
with no tripod! –Outer Banks, NC, loc’dog Dallas Tolson, who
stayed on-island for Earl and reaped the benefits
“Instead of staying in town around Wilmington, Jason Andre and
I decided to take that extra step and break out at 4:00 a.m. on Wednesday,
September 1st, heading straight to Morehead City. We hooked up with a friend
and jetted over to a secret spot to get the beginnings of the swell as Earl
came up the coast. We ended up with the most beautiful blue water and occasional
head-high sets rolling in. Mike Powell and others were charging some bombs on the
spot’s most western peak, but after a while it started closing out. We left
with a park ranger on our heels telling us to be out by 5:00 p.m. for a mandatory
evacuation, so we slept in a trailer, woke up the next day at 6:00 a.m., and
hit the spot again at first light. The waves were breaking in the channel and
overcast skies helped to give it that really nice hurricane feel. The sets
rolled in double-overhead with hardly anyone out there. We only stuck around
for a few hours because the sandbar became really inconsistent, and right off
the dock we headed straight back home. All the reports from the south-facing
beaches said double-overhead there with nobody out and glassy. It still wasn’t
an easy decision, but we settled on Ocean Isle Beach, taking it one step
further than Holden Beach, where most people decided to stop. The waves were
pumping, offshore, and almost empty, except for Nick Rupp surfing all alone for
some tourists and locals on the pier. Nick pulled into two righthand tubes
on massive set waves and made them both, and on a few others he worked the face
slashing up on the lip while tourists on the pier frantically snapped photos.
None of them seemed to care that the waves were crashing into the front
supports of the pier. After a while, I decided to swim out to take a few photos,
and I immediately got pounded and pushed back to the beach on my first try but
made it out on my second to bob like a buoy for a while. All told, Jason surfed
for over seven hours that day and we spent the rest travelling. We chased waves
all over Southern North Carolina, and were greatly rewarded each time we went
that extra step.” –Southern North Carolina up-and-comer Julian
Kehaya
“We
all thought Thursday, September 2nd was the day — every surfer in South
Florida did. I even got somebody to cover me at work, which is hard when you
work at a surf shop. We dawned it, but it was so small near us, so we did the
drive up to Jupiter, surfed the pier with a million people, and then surfed
huge Hobe Sound with a few guys in the evening. It was fun, but not what I was
hoping for, considering a Cat-4 was 400 miles off our cost. So Friday of course
I had to work, and my friend Andrew Fletcher called me at 6:30 a.m. claiming
way overhead Reef Road. I picked up Ben Hicks, we drove up and scored this spot
just south of the Road, where we surfed for two hours with just a few other
guys out. It was nice, especially considering I thought the swell was over when
I went to bed on Thursday!” –South Florida charger/ Island Water Sports
owner Cheyne Cottrell
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?
