SPELL BROKEN Cold, Flat January Comes To An End For Mid-Atlantic And Northeast By Nick McGregor
After a spectacular December full of
beautiful blizzards and bombing swells, the New Year debuted with frigid air
and water temperatures, mounds of snow up and down the East Coast, and even
deep freezes and ice attacks as far south as Miami, FL. Right Coast surfers
bided their time, especially in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, where December
was remembered for a barrel bonanza of epic proportions. But after two weeks of
persistent northwest winds and bone-chilling cold, seemingly everyone bolted to
Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Costa Rica, or points further afield, leaving the
late-January swell that popped up this past weekend to the hometown heroes
willing to don booties, hoods, and gloves whenever the call of duty arises. We
checked in with several valuable ESM photographic
contributors to get their take on the quickie that broke the January 2010 flat
spell:
“Wrightsville Beach, NC, on Monday,
January 25th was not as clean as everyone had hoped, with southwest and then
west winds. But everyone was stoked just to finally have something to ride.
There was a strong drift, but most people were staying up with Mercer’s Pier to
try and catch the right off of it. Michael Powell, Evan Barton, Owen Moffett, and
Cody Leutgens were a few rippers getting most of the shots. It was pretty
cloudy and hazy all morning, but then the sun finally broke through. Until
then, it was COLD.” –Keith Ketchum, Southern North Carolina-based ESM Photographer
“We had three days of fun waves last week
on the Outer Banks — about shoulder to head-high on the sets — but
this was the first overhead swell in a few weeks. Monday was well overhead and
bombing, breaking on the third and fourth sandbar with lots of rip currents;
the Diamond Shoals buoy even got to 26 feet at 11 seconds, which is not doable
with jet-skis. Noah Snyder, Joey Crum, Drew and Mike Meredith, and Raven Lundy
and his buddy each had a ski and launched Monday afternoon in Rodanthe. Raven
got a few of the biggest, heaviest ones, and Drew had a couple sick ones as
well. The wind was blowing a little too hard out of the southwest for it to
really get good Monday afternoon — it was probably all time overnight.
Then on Tuesday, it was still shoulder to head-high and really fun —
sunny skies and uncrowded everywhere. Those guys used the skis again to get
into the heavy dredgers that you couldn’t make paddling. By noon the swell got
real inconsistent and the wind came up out of the southwest again. Jesse Hines
came down to Rodanthe and surfed well; he looked really comfortable on his
newly healed leg.” –Matt Lusk, Outer Banks-based ESM Senior Photographer
“The swell in Northern New Jersey was a
bit weird at first light on Tuesday. I watched a lot of people pull up to the
spots that were working in December, only to scratch their heads and look
elsewhere. I met up with Brian Pollak from Long Island, NY, after his
three-hour drive to get to New Jersey. We found a fun wave that was worth a try
for a water shot. But the tide drained, and with it put the waves into a bit of
a funk. The afternoon session picked back up, before prior engagements left me
driving away from the beach — but not before I watched guys like Jon
Smyth, Tyler Thompson, Sam Hammer, Mike Gleason, Balaram Stack, Tommy Ihnken,
Gerard Faccone, and Brian Pollak pull into a few stand-up barrels. Most
importantly, the flat spell has been lifted after nearly a month!” –Ryan
Struck, Northern New Jersey-based ESM Photographer
“The last time we had
good waves was right after Christmas, but being a regularfooter, Northern New
Jersey is always on my radar. So Monday night when I saw that the swell
for the morning was going to be around eight feet at ten seconds out of the
south, I called into work and headed out from New York at 4:30 a.m. The
morning produced some solid overhead sets with light offshores, but the crowd
factor was pretty heavy. Throughout the day, the swell dropped a bit, crowds
died out, and the tide filled in, but there were still some insane tubes for
everyone in the water. In between three sessions, two hours each, I managed to
grab a few shots here and there. Overall, it was a sick day.” Greg
Heine, New York-based administrator of NortheastSessions.com
“The conditions were
great up here, with nice and mild weather. I shot with Balaram Stack, Mike
Gleason, and Tommy Ihnken, and we got some great surf in Northern New Jersey.
We had some fun waves last week, but this was the first real swell in about a
month.” –Mike Nelson, New York-based ESM Senior
Photographer
“January's been pretty flat and really
cold. When the front went through Monday night, it was really windy. Some of
the buoys to the south were huge, and I actually expected the surf to be a lot
better on Tuesday. It was still fun all day though, and the mid 40s air temps were
a relative treat.” –Luke Simpson, Massachusetts-based ESM Senior Photographer
“Here's
the scoop: my brother Steve and I got to our favorite spot at daybreak on
Tuesday... and it sucked. The wind was swirling and chopping it up, and it
was still raining. We sat in the truck till 8:00 a.m., when the wind
went offshore, the sun came out, and we got hours of great waves. Also,
Steve was home from the University of Hawaii for our grandfather’s funeral
on Monday. Monday night we waited out the storm drinking Irish
coffees and Tuesday morning Grandpa sent us some great waves. Also,
Steve got out of the water before me and took his very first surf shot!”
–Dan Hassett, Massachusetts-based Levitate Surf & Skate owner
“As far as this swell the past couple
days, it was a definitely a welcomed event. It must have been flat — and
I mean unrideable — since the 20th, when we had a one-day affair. Finally
the south winds started back up, and we had a day or two of intense rain, wind,
and snow. I drove to Rhode Island on Tuesday when the swell was peaking. It was 45
degrees outside, sunny, and offshore. Ruggles was ten-foot-plus and I didn’t
shoot a photo! But on the way home, I snapped a few lineups in New Hampshire
and then in Maine before the sun went down. Yesterday was still three to
four-foot-plus here in Maine, offshore and sunny again. I surfed for three
hours and that felt good.” –Nick LaVecchia, Maine-based ESM Senior Photographer
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