The 2007 Thanksgiving Day Swell

Today was the second day of the second consecutive year of the timely arrival of a Thanksgiving ground swell. Yesterday I surfed with only two other locals, both goofy-footers like myself: Phillip Stafford and Jerry Slayton. We were on a break in Nags Head. The sandbars there have been rearranged by the current and swell caused by the passing of Hurricane Noel. We adapted. The waves were shoulder high to about 1-2' overhead. The lefts were fine and why you would find 3 goofy-footers converging on the same end of this singular sandbar. Water temperature was around 58 degrees. I wore a 3-2 full suit with boots and was completely comfortable for the 2+ hours I was out.

Today I chose the social cauldron at one of my favorite Nags Head breaks and surfed with many friends, their sons, acquaintances, and assorted iconic local surf figures. Even Delbert was there, apparently abandoning his beloved First Street, evidence that the sandbar there may be less than satisfactory now since the passing of Noel.

Everybody was in a great mood. The surf was a rare 1-3' overhead with offshore SW breeze around 10 mph. The air temperature even pushed the mid seventies.

The lines just kept coming to the beach. The lefts were insane. At mid-tide coming in, there was a huge peak busting pretty far outside, fairly mellow though, not breaking top-to-bottom, but a very long right.

Two straight days of overhead swell with offshore wind is rare on this coast. Everybody was surfing till they needed to be dragged out face down on the sand. I savored every wave as if it was life itself ebbing away. You just don't know when you'll see these conditions again.

I look forward to Thanksgiving Day, tomorrow. The same conditions are forecast. A cold front, one of many to come, is forecast to blow in late tomorrow sometime. The wind will clock around to north and this beautiful, beautiful swell will melt like so many before it, into a raggy, side-shore chop. The ocean will transform itself once again as it will our focus.