Surf, Surf, and more Surf

The past week or so on Hatteras Island has been a great time for playing on the water. With Hurricaine Bill passing by and sending some beautiful waves our way, and the nice dose of winds that have blown through on an almost daily basis, I have been surfing and kiting just about as much as I can stand.

Today, I surfed at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. The swell was anywhere from chest high to 1-2 feet overhead. A very fun wave. Here I am dropping into a baby wave - last ride of the day.

As I write this, I have a head full of salt water and bloodshot eyes... Souveniers from another awesome day of surfing. Today has rounded out my run of surfing 6 of the past 8 days. A few of those days I surfed twice a day. Others, I was surfing and kiting in the same day. It is a tough job, but someone gets to do it.

Now, about the business of the storm swell Bill sent our way. Last week, the surf starting building to a crescendo of waves hitting the shores this weekend at somewhere around 20 feet or so. All week leading up to the weekend you could feel the energy in the air and people were buzzing with anticipation. The roads were jammed with people entering and leaving the narrow island.

We only had one day of surf that was crazy-high. Thankfully, the other days were more normal. The waves were anywhere from knee high early in the week to well overhead towards the end of the week, but not quite what we call double-overhead - or, even triple-overhead.

Until this weekend. Saturday.

When waves get as big as they were this past Saturday it starts to become very tricky to paddle into the wave and catch it for a ride. This is where motorized assistance comes in. A technique called tow-in surfing is when a JetSki pulls the surfer along until the surfer can use the speed generated by the JetSki to 'drop in' to the wave and successfully ride.

I am quite thankful the waves were 'ginormous' for only one day. For that one day, I happily sat on the shore and deployed my photography equipment to capture some of the phenomenal action directly offshore. My surf photography is not something I get to practice very often, so I was thrilled when Kim and I spotted two skis towing surfers into waves yesterday.

Back when I started surfing (too many years ago to mention) I found myself paddling into quite a few storm swells here in the Outer Banks, so I have enormous respect for the kind of heavy water these guys were playing with. Never did I attempt to paddle into triple-overhead though. Of notable mention, there were paddle surfers out in the waves catching rides on Saturday.

Aloha.