Well, now that Hanna has made landfall in NC, I’ll post my photos from yesterday.
I have to say, one of the best things about these tropical systems that come raging through is the yummy surfer boys! (even better than the “boys of summer”) These systems bring every surfer within a 100-mile radius out. In force.
Why are surfers so good looking? I mean, even the old timers are good looking! Surely an ugly boy wants to surf.
Maybe that’s a question for another day. At any rate, I was awaken around 8 yesterday morning to howling winds. Hanna was 200 miles off our coast. Yet the winds here were raging, about 35 mph. I jumped up, hit Surf Guru first thing to check out the surf report (yeah, I don’t surf, but for some reason, I’m fascinated.) Big Wave Dave says that surfing is dangerous at this point. The swells are about 25 feet high, and the wind was causing major problems. The surf guru host suggested maybe heading to Jetty Park because the Cape affords some sort of protection from the wind.
Apparently the surfers were not listening.
I threw on some clothes and headed for the beach. Already there were 20+ vehicles in the Cherie Down Park parking lot. As I got out of the car, camera in tow, two surfers were asking one surfer how it was.
The one surfer dude confirmed, “Yeah, the waves are huge!”
To which the two surfer dudes started getting excited.
One surfer dude continues, “Yeah I was the first one here” (insert chest beating)
Two surfer dudes didn’t stick around to listen to the rest. They jumped up and down with excitement, grabbed their surfboards and yes, ran to the beach.
I made my way onto the beach to see quite a few people standing on our already eroded shores.
There were probably fifteen surfers in the ocean. I watched for a good ten minutes as they futilely fought the winds and waves and tried to paddle out far enough to get up on their boards. To no avail. The winds were just too strong. And the ocean was ANGRY!
I know, I said it before with Fay, but these waves were unbelievable! The biggest I’ve ever seen. I can only attribute it to the fact that we’ve had Fay, Gustav and Hanna all in a row. They may not have been direct hits, but they all affect our weather and conditions.
So I took my shots, watched the beach disappear beneath me (and a few other people.) The wind was so strong that a few of my photos came out blurry.
When I headed back to my car, two guys were standing on the walkway. As I passed I made the comment “I think it’s a little too rough for these surfers.”
To which one guy commented, “Yeah, it’s a real black diamond.”
What? Excuse me? What does that mean? (please, surfer people, I want to know.)
Later in the day, I headed to the grocery store. I bet I passed at least 60 surfers along the way. All heading to the beach through the various accesses on the four-mile trek to the store.
Cocoa Beach is the east coast, surfer headquarters. These systems confirm to me that this is a surfers paradise.
So here you go…the photos.
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