|
WEEKEND WARRIOR
Hurricane Irene brings pumping surf to the Outer Banks
Check out video of Irene on the Outer Banks here.--Ed
Tropical depression number nine started churning off the coast of Africa on August 4th, and the National Weather Service were smitten: "the system is large, with plenty of convective bands," they gushed in their tropical discussion. "It has excellent outflow and a burst of convection near the alleged center. "
Gulp. East Coast surfers started waxing up in anticipation.
"Irene started out as a huge tropical wave," explains Surfline's East Coast forecaster Mike Watson. "And as it traveled westwards, a bunch of mid-latitude low pressure systems tried to shear it off, but it was pretty strong -- not to mention really big -- and pushed ahead."
Seems that there are all these pesky little lows lurking about in the Atlantic trying to shear apart helpless tropical depressions trying to grow into hurricanes. According to Watson, a hurricane's strength is vertical, in the eye, and if a low pressure trough "shears" away the top of the hurricane, it loses power and can dissipate.
Fortunately for East Coast surfers, this was not the case with Irene. And most everyone knew it, too.
Matt Walker, Surfline's east coast Local Knowledge guru -- and Surfing mag senior editor -- filed his Local Knowledge a bit late this week, all for good reason:
The whole free world descended on the Outer Banks to get the most out of Irene over the weekend. In fact, the DMV estimates that at 3 pm Saturday, there were actually more Virginia license plates in North Carolina then there were in Virginia. Among the list were your usual suspects like Raven Lundy and Wes Laine. Then there was the NJ assault by Dave Breisacher and Zach Humphreys, who caught up with the Heverly brothers and Brendan Petticrew. New Hampshire's Brian Nevins did a stint with Noah Snyder, Jesse Hines, Carl Wallin and Aamion Goodwin.
And by Monday morning, Florida photogs Chad Oakley and Kevin Welsh had showed up with Florida rippers like Dave Awbrey, Adam Wickwire, Kyle Garson and Alek Parker. But the local boys still got their share, including legendary photog Mickey McCarthy who captured young buck Buxtoners Jason Andre and Brett Barley all day Sunday, and -- best of all -- shot Saturday with CJ and Damien Hobgood at Rodanthe Pier.
"We've had swell all week," Walker goes on to say after we finally got him out of the water and onto the phone. "But it was really fickle. You’d be sitting on your board thinking it was all a hoax when a solid set would come it; it really pulsed and waned. It was really, really crowded, too. There were Taj Burrow rumors and people were claiming they saw the Lopezes -- hell, by Sunday night, there were even Duke Kahanamoku sightings."
Also, John Wright of wrightcoastsurf.com made the drive south from VB and had this little weekend story to share:
After watching the reports all week, I had already planned on heading to Hatteras for at least the weekend -- longer if I started to feel sick. I had already spoken with Raven Lundy about meeting up for some photos, and informed John Barnes I was coming down so clear the sofa.
Since I hadn't really seen any good surf yet this year, I was pumped when Drew at HIBoardsports gave me a call on thursday saying ''I think you should call in sick tomorrow'', that wasn't really an option that late in the day, so I planned on heading straight down after work on friday, I left VB without even looking at the water, and about 7:30 I pulled up to 1st st in KDH to see a small swell rolling in. I thought I'd missed it again.
After driving around and checking out a bunch of spots, I finally arrived at Spot X and saw how big the surf was. I immediately called Raven and told him to not even bother stopping up north, just head here and we'll get some shots. I then went to Hatteras Island Boardsports and met up with Drew Scalia and Mark Newton and a few guys who came up from South Carolina for the swell. After everyo
ne had some food in them, we headed back to the beach and I started shooting, until it was too dark to shoot anymore.
I returned on Sunday morning to find what seemed like the entire east coast had found the same spot was breaking. I talked to people from as far north as New Jersey and as far south as Florida (the Florida guys were actually purchasing springsuits when I met them) who all made the trip just for the swell. For the first time this year, I haven't had anybody say, "you should have been here..."
Meanwhile, Irene is continuing northwards, sending some shoulder- to head-high surf to the northeast on Tuesday, dropping through the rest of the day. Stay tuned as hurricane season kicks into gear.
***
Special thanks to Mickey "2M" McCarthy and John Wright for the great shots.
--
Marcus Sanders
MORE SURFNEWS
|
