Kayle, Jason and I left Tuesday night to head to Panama City to meet Merv to surf a break called Amazons (Panama City Beach). We heard we might get evacuated but our in the storm reporter, Merv said we had till noon till mandatory evacuations might force us to leave. Everyone who semi-regularly surfs this spot does it by boat to avoid the long
sometimes hairy and illegal paddle across the Panama City inlet.

We woke up to 15-20 mph side-offshore winds and a solid 6-8 swell w/10-15' faces.

Needless to say the beachbreak paddle looked tough, so
we walked down to the end of the park hoping to catch a boat ride to Amazons -- but to no avail. It didn't look that good anyhow.

So we paddled out and took our beachbreak beating catching some rather intimidating 2x+ overhead waves. After a few beatings we decided to look for something a little more offshore and in control (ie: smaller).

We headed east and ended up a Mexico Beach, a spot I've seen tons of times as a kid and never bigger than waist high.

This was one of the punchiest beach breaks I/we've ever surfed.

The wind was a bit strong so it wasn't "epic" but it was pretty darn good.

If we would have been there earlier the winds were lighter and the waves were more lined up.

I broke a leash and we saw a few broken boards and there were about 5-15 guys out at any given time -- not too shabby, considering it was probably one of the best days ever. --Mark Nelson