LOW
PROFILE During The Peak Of Hurricane Season, A Monster Low Pressure System Steals The
Tropic Thunder By Matt Pruett
Coastal lows are like the HPV of wave-making disturbances. While big-spender pros
and their associated entourages fixate on the reddish-purple blisters forming
down below the belt in the Atlantic’s nether regions, these somewhat
less-menacing inflammations pop up out of nowhere, producing an imperfect
cluster of saltwater polyps that morph into monstrous white-capped bumps that
at some point burst open, producing a thick, wet scourge before disappearing
altogether... gone until the next outbreak.
In other words, you
won’t see these kinds of swell events on Alek Parker’s “The Hunt” webisodes.
But local sentinels in the Mid-Atlantic are always wary of these comparatively
elusive low-pressure systems, even when Hurricane Season has everyone else chirping
through the alphabetic roll call. “Hurricanes carry all the magic and all the
hype, but frontal low pressures are usually better,” says Long Beach Island,
NJ-based ESM Assignment Writer Jon
Coen, who — along with the rest of those staffing the Foster’s Belmar Pro
presented by Eastern Lines — sat tight with the comp on hold as last week’s hybrid frontal
system rocked the New Jersey coast with torrential rains, gusty winds, and
heavy surf. “Hurricane swells usually
bring more long-period surf that closes out more often than not, but the media
picks up on it easier. All the clowns who surf three times a year start
thinking, ‘Wow, there’s a hurricane, so I have to go surfing today!’ The lows
are usually a locals-only affair.”
Last Thursday, the storm dumped up to five inches of rain, with isolated
amounts of up to 10 inches, across New Jersey and the Delmarva Peninsula,
resulting in coastal flooding, tropical storm force
winds (Atlantic City reported 51 mph gusts, Buoy ACMN4 reported 57 mph gusts) that downed
power lines and trees and caused power outages, and tornado watches and flash
flood warnings being issued. Discarded remnants of Tropical Storm Erika helped give the low a tropical
face (very small and well-defined center of circulation, surface circulation visible on radar, organized
convection isolated near the center). Though not necessarily an actual cold-core extra-tropical
storm — temperatures actually rose at several locations along the coast
after remaining normal, without any previous cold fronts — evidence
suggests this system had a warm core in the lower levels. Plus, the amount of
rainfall was rather unusual for a cold-core low since one of the factors
determining rainfall in any cyclone is the upper level support; indicating
there was a good amount of tropical air present in this system. But it was not
tropical or extra-tropical in the traditional sense, more likely a weak warm
seclusion, or the mature phase of a cyclone with warm air wrapped all the way around
the center as it matured. “It did have
some tropical characteristics,” adds Coen. “There was so much energy, but
nowhere to go. It was just nasty.”
Indeed. Nasty effin’ surf from New Jersey to North Carolina (with fun pulses
all the way down to Florida). Of course, in the Mid-Atlantic, once the bad weather
was gone, the surf lasted a little over a day and was all but in remission by
Sunday afternoon. “It wasn’t really
rideable in Belmar on Friday,” continues Coen. “[Eastern Lines owner] Don
Tarrant was skipping around the site suggesting they go ahead and run it. But
with all the wind and rain and electronics involved, there was just no way.
Kyle Garson rode a triple-overhead wave and we watched Jeremy Johnston and Nils
Schweizer get some double-overhead bombs. So we started on Saturday, when the
low went kind of inland up the Delaware Bay instead of out over the ocean. It
was pretty amazing that we still had chest-high waves for the finals.”
But while the decorated heat seekers were merely surviving all the detonating
Belmar bombs on Friday, Southern-cultured tunnel rats like Mark Yonkers were
blowing up mine shafts in Hatteras, with thick, dredging lefts on Friday giving
way to sunny skies and more manageable A-frames on Saturday. “With the contest
going on up in New Jersey, I heard a lot of guys [like Buxton local Brett
Barley] were kicking themselves,” said Yonkers, who charged up to the Banks for
both the Bill and Danny swells with Wrightsville Beach, NC, partner-in-crime
Rob Brown. “This was just as good as those named storms, because there was
nobody here but the locals and me and Rob. It seems like nobody thinks about
the Outer Banks until they see a tropical storm coming. But with windswells and
low-pressure groundswells like this, you wake up to perfect, empty waves. Rob
and I had already surfed twice before 10:00 am on Saturday. It was just magical,
the funnest two days of waves I’ve had all year.”
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?
