Inspired by The Weather Channel’s iconic meteorologist, John Hope, East Coast surfers’ tropical lifeline pre-Internet, Charlie Hutcherson’s surf forecasting career naturally began with tracking hurricanes. Upon receiving an MS in Oceanography from the Florida Institute of Technology, he joined Surfline in 2013. His current field of expertise is Science and Weather Editorial and Buoy Data.
“Handling the events of Hurricanes Matthew and Irma while preparing for a potential landfall, then dealing with the aftermath in my own backyard was pretty surreal,” says Charlie of the most memorable swell he’s tracked. “I evacuated for one storm and woke up on my birthday to see we’d avoided a direct hit… then got reports of large, empty surf with offshore winds from the few who didn’t evacuate. I love getting to study the weather and the surf all day and get paid for it, though. I already did it before, but now it’s actually part of the job description.”
Charlie lives in Melbourne Beach, FL.
