The world keeps turning and time keeps carrying us all along whether we want to go or not. Time is the bus we all ride together. We're about to push into November. We've had a very good Fall surf season so far, marked by two huge northeast swells. Each was driven to our beaches by pressure gradients---high pressure systems tracking offshore north of us and low pressure systems rolling along their usual route right over us and into the ocean where both rub against each other, while spinning toward each other and working together to fire off a blistering northeast wind and huge swells.
The first of these swells we covered on the September 25th blog entry. The second occurred last weekend. The surfed was carved into clean lines by a soft westerly wind by last Tuesday morning. It offered hulking, A-frame peaks, double overhead with lots of lefts. There was happiness throughout the land as all Dare County's surf subjects played joyfully together on her coast.
By this morning the water temperature at many of the piers, the Duck Research Pier, Avalon Pier, Nags Head Pier and the Hatteras Island Pier all reported water in the low to mid sixties. That wouldn't be significant if this were late Summer or early Fall, but at this point it portends an unstoppable trend toward the painfully cold water of Winter. So we cling to every moment we get in a lesser wetsuit. We savor the flexibility and lightness of what we wear now in contrast to what we soon must wear to ride waves in the coming months.
Such is the changing of the seasons here. It's not in the leaves or even so much in the air. It's felt mostly by what you must wear in the water, and what a hot shower means to blood circulation and the euphoria we feel after a session, especially in an outside shower at home. There's nothing like it. It's our Outer Banks spa.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
A Classic Fall Uncelebrated Swell
Chest to shoulder high, glassy bowls wrapped around the head of a riptide offering lefts and rights to good friends who don't know each other's names. This evening I savored these conditions between 5 and 6:30 p.m. mostly with other surfers I didn't even know.
The sun slowly descended behind some wood framed, multi-story, time share type buildings thankfully in silhouette. It was an eternity between sets, maybe even 15+ minutes. This time given let me notice the many colors on the ocean's surface---of course shades of gray, but yellows and greens with a boiling riptide perking wavelets through a wavy, mirrored surface.
I felt cradled in this atmosphere highlighted by the smiles of happy strangers now showing up in wetsuits. How truly wealthy can one soul be to have all this---clean, rideable waves in clean water with others under the same spell of wonder?
The sun slowly descended behind some wood framed, multi-story, time share type buildings thankfully in silhouette. It was an eternity between sets, maybe even 15+ minutes. This time given let me notice the many colors on the ocean's surface---of course shades of gray, but yellows and greens with a boiling riptide perking wavelets through a wavy, mirrored surface.
I felt cradled in this atmosphere highlighted by the smiles of happy strangers now showing up in wetsuits. How truly wealthy can one soul be to have all this---clean, rideable waves in clean water with others under the same spell of wonder?
Sunday, September 28, 2008
The Hurricane Kyle Followup
The surf was pretty big here this morning---up to 4 feet overhead on the morning sets, smaller as the tide went out and the day wore on. High tide was 7-something, the wind light offshore (west-northwest). We looked at it in Kill Devil Hills, then went up the Beach Road to Kitty Hawk. We entered through a huge shorebreak around 10:45 a.m.
Some of you may have read a previous post featuring my whining about the poor condition of our local sandbars. Swells have shown over them this Summer and early Fall, but nowhere seems to break like it used to.
Richard and I stood in a group of long time local elders at 9:15 a.m. as we all came to unanimous agreement on this subject. We also concluded that today's surf was too big to make a swift judgment on the present condition of our sandbars since last week's northeaster---too soon for that. We laughed at two other of our kind hesitating to make the sprint through the shorebreak south of us down the beach. Today it was breaking 3 bars outside. We would need evidence of waves breaking on say, the first or second bar to really know if our sandbars were back again. This is where we usually surf our typical head to 2 feet overhead Fall waves. We'll get to that sometime soon I'm sure. You see, this is the local marine geology learning cauldron. This is where real learning takes place.
However being an East Coast surfer, you learned, like no other surfers on the planet how to be wrong in your predictions and projections about what It will be like tomorrow or the next day after. Shifting sandbars and unpredictable storm tracks, speeds, and intensities help us here too. So....
Today, contrary to my predictions in yesterday's post, we surfed a very large, deep sucking out ground swell with an acute north angle. We paddled out, just the two of us, and surfed glassy conditions on a pitching, huge bowl beside a developing riptide, alone for about an hour. So much for my prediction that the Kyle swell wouldn't reach us till tomorrow or tomorrow night. What do Right Coast surfers know anyhow, huh?
Some of you may have read a previous post featuring my whining about the poor condition of our local sandbars. Swells have shown over them this Summer and early Fall, but nowhere seems to break like it used to.
Richard and I stood in a group of long time local elders at 9:15 a.m. as we all came to unanimous agreement on this subject. We also concluded that today's surf was too big to make a swift judgment on the present condition of our sandbars since last week's northeaster---too soon for that. We laughed at two other of our kind hesitating to make the sprint through the shorebreak south of us down the beach. Today it was breaking 3 bars outside. We would need evidence of waves breaking on say, the first or second bar to really know if our sandbars were back again. This is where we usually surf our typical head to 2 feet overhead Fall waves. We'll get to that sometime soon I'm sure. You see, this is the local marine geology learning cauldron. This is where real learning takes place.
However being an East Coast surfer, you learned, like no other surfers on the planet how to be wrong in your predictions and projections about what It will be like tomorrow or the next day after. Shifting sandbars and unpredictable storm tracks, speeds, and intensities help us here too. So....
Today, contrary to my predictions in yesterday's post, we surfed a very large, deep sucking out ground swell with an acute north angle. We paddled out, just the two of us, and surfed glassy conditions on a pitching, huge bowl beside a developing riptide, alone for about an hour. So much for my prediction that the Kyle swell wouldn't reach us till tomorrow or tomorrow night. What do Right Coast surfers know anyhow, huh?
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Hurricane Kyle: How a Hurricane Can Pass You with No Wake (Swell)
Just back from visiting my son at the Barton College Parents' Weekend. Had a good visit, but we all were worried the wind would switch west to line up a meaty northeast windswell created by a 4-day northeaster last week. It's not a good thing to be landlocked 3 hours inland when great surf is born. However early morning calls to local allies told us the wind was still onshore and the waves were "humpy, bumpy, and lumpy". So we could relax and enjoy our day. We may get our offshore conditions tomorrow.
But the real reason I felt compelled to post tonight is the astounding speed Hurricane (almost tropical storm) Kyle is passing our coast apparently with Maine in it's crosshairs. Watching these storms for a lifetime has taught me when they move fast like this one---24 miles per hour---they leave virtually no swell on the adjacent coasts. Hurricane Bell did this in 1976 coming up under the hook of Cape Hatteras and then abruptly pinging to the northeast and then almost straight north at about 16 miles per hour. It was a fairly powerful storm with 110 mph winds wrapped around it's eye. It left behind a strong, double overhead swell crashing our sandbars for a mere few hours. Then just as suddenly, no swell at all.
But Kyle at 24 mph and even on our side of Bermuda? At this time it is a low- rent storm with winds a measly 75+ mph. When a Hurricane moves this swiftly as well, it tows its resulting swell like a fast moving boat wake, not spreading out until the storm is long past. We might not see any surf here from Kyle until late Monday or later when it crashes into New England or Maine. I'll be watching this closely and let you know what happens here at the home breaks.
In the meantime, we should have some fun waves here tomorrow when the wind switches. I'll let you know.
But the real reason I felt compelled to post tonight is the astounding speed Hurricane (almost tropical storm) Kyle is passing our coast apparently with Maine in it's crosshairs. Watching these storms for a lifetime has taught me when they move fast like this one---24 miles per hour---they leave virtually no swell on the adjacent coasts. Hurricane Bell did this in 1976 coming up under the hook of Cape Hatteras and then abruptly pinging to the northeast and then almost straight north at about 16 miles per hour. It was a fairly powerful storm with 110 mph winds wrapped around it's eye. It left behind a strong, double overhead swell crashing our sandbars for a mere few hours. Then just as suddenly, no swell at all.
But Kyle at 24 mph and even on our side of Bermuda? At this time it is a low- rent storm with winds a measly 75+ mph. When a Hurricane moves this swiftly as well, it tows its resulting swell like a fast moving boat wake, not spreading out until the storm is long past. We might not see any surf here from Kyle until late Monday or later when it crashes into New England or Maine. I'll be watching this closely and let you know what happens here at the home breaks.
In the meantime, we should have some fun waves here tomorrow when the wind switches. I'll let you know.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Just What Our Sandbars Need
Today it blew 30 to 40 knots and is still blowing very hard with gusts up to 50 knots here on the coast. We're caught between two pressure gradients---a classic setup---a high pressure system bringing in cooler air (low 70's day, mid to high 60's night)from the northwest and a low to the southeast both spinning against one another and firing up the present northeaster. Rain should develop into the recipe tomorrow sometime.
There's a considerable size overhead northeast swell that should have no problem whatsoever re-shuffling and re-shaping our town sandbars. They were in such dire need of re-work as none of the classic local bars have been working lately.
The towns, knowing this was about to happen, scrambled to dump and push sand up into the east ends of the beach access parking areas. Many of these are no more than a strip of blacktop extending perpendicular from the Beach Road to the dune line, usually around 100 yards long, and providing parallel parking along both their edges and a way in and out in the center.
I drove my loaded and then empty cargo van across the sound on the Currituck Orville Wright Bridge today and was radically rocked by this northeaster, the van shuddering and bucking the big gusts all the way back to the island.
Will keep you posted on the quality of our sandbars following this latest wind event. Here's to the ever changing Outer Banks land and marine-scapes.
There's a considerable size overhead northeast swell that should have no problem whatsoever re-shuffling and re-shaping our town sandbars. They were in such dire need of re-work as none of the classic local bars have been working lately.
The towns, knowing this was about to happen, scrambled to dump and push sand up into the east ends of the beach access parking areas. Many of these are no more than a strip of blacktop extending perpendicular from the Beach Road to the dune line, usually around 100 yards long, and providing parallel parking along both their edges and a way in and out in the center.
I drove my loaded and then empty cargo van across the sound on the Currituck Orville Wright Bridge today and was radically rocked by this northeaster, the van shuddering and bucking the big gusts all the way back to the island.
Will keep you posted on the quality of our sandbars following this latest wind event. Here's to the ever changing Outer Banks land and marine-scapes.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Surf Update and Lance Conjecture
There were good waves in Rodanthe yesterday. Richard called early in the morning to say he was headed down to Hatteras Island. I chose work for the day. He called around 4 p.m. as I was coming home on the Beach Road. He said it was worth the trip down there as he'd had a good 3-hour session. Said it was ledgie and head high with a lot of barrels to be had. Did I already say I chose work?
On Lance coming back I guess first of all, everybody thinks it's a natural that He would rejoin Johan Bruyneel and the Astana team. I thought the same until pondering the whole thing once again driving home from work today. I see Armstrong as extremely calculating about every move he makes. I've read about his scales and the weighing of all food portions he ate in the off-seasons while he was still harvesting Tours. I can't imagine him announcing his return to the world cycling stage without having already clenched a place to compete.
One of the team bosses who are quoted in Velo News today on Armstrong's return to pro road racing, is playing possum, and I believe already knows Armstrong will be joining his team.
I believe Bob Stapleton's Team Columbia is just as likely a place for Lance to land, maybe even more so, than Team Astana. There he could race once again with his long- time accomplice, George Hincapie. With Bruyneel's new book out this summer recounting how he had a very large part in Armstrong's Tour successes, I don't think anything could be more satisfying to Armstrong than to win a comeback tour "on his own" at 37 years-old without Bruyneel, but with Hincapie on an American team, with transparent proof of his having raced "clean". With these odds, Lance has found a new L'Alpe d'Huez summit finish, a new mountain to climb.
I see Armstrong creating turmoil inside an Astana team boasting two G.C. men in Contador and Liepheimer, whereas Team Columbia's Kim Kirchen, although a strong classics rider, is not the stellar G.C. contender that this team could put on the podium in Paris. Lance would more than fit the bill.
Maybe Bob Stapleton knows more than he would have us think.
On Lance coming back I guess first of all, everybody thinks it's a natural that He would rejoin Johan Bruyneel and the Astana team. I thought the same until pondering the whole thing once again driving home from work today. I see Armstrong as extremely calculating about every move he makes. I've read about his scales and the weighing of all food portions he ate in the off-seasons while he was still harvesting Tours. I can't imagine him announcing his return to the world cycling stage without having already clenched a place to compete.
One of the team bosses who are quoted in Velo News today on Armstrong's return to pro road racing, is playing possum, and I believe already knows Armstrong will be joining his team.
I believe Bob Stapleton's Team Columbia is just as likely a place for Lance to land, maybe even more so, than Team Astana. There he could race once again with his long- time accomplice, George Hincapie. With Bruyneel's new book out this summer recounting how he had a very large part in Armstrong's Tour successes, I don't think anything could be more satisfying to Armstrong than to win a comeback tour "on his own" at 37 years-old without Bruyneel, but with Hincapie on an American team, with transparent proof of his having raced "clean". With these odds, Lance has found a new L'Alpe d'Huez summit finish, a new mountain to climb.
I see Armstrong creating turmoil inside an Astana team boasting two G.C. men in Contador and Liepheimer, whereas Team Columbia's Kim Kirchen, although a strong classics rider, is not the stellar G.C. contender that this team could put on the podium in Paris. Lance would more than fit the bill.
Maybe Bob Stapleton knows more than he would have us think.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Lance Armstrong Planning a Comeback
Lance Armstrong, now 37 years old, is planning to make a professional road racing comeback according to sources quoted by Velo News and Cycling News. They're talking about Lance signing with Team Astana to reunite with team director Johan Bruyneel and former Team Discovery director Dirk Demol, who has just signed on with Astana for the 2009 road season. Lance reportedly will race for no salary or bonuses.
Apparently rumors were flying wildly at the Eurobike trade show this summer. Neal Rogers of Velo News reports that Vanity Fair will feature an exclusive article in its next issue laying out the details of the coming road racing season and Lance's comeback.
Races Armstrong is said to be participating in are, Paris-Nice, the Dauphine Libere, the Amgen Tour of California, the Tour of Georgia, and the Tour De France.
If this turns out to be true, what a year it will be in professional cycling. I believe the domestic cycling ranks will be transfixed by this all season. I also see this as good for amateur cycling in the U.S. True champions, like Armstrong, are too often never able to see that they might not be champions still. The thought of his attempted comeback may inspire nonetheless. The cauldron he is about to enter, I think, will surely be more competitive now, maybe none more than the Astana team he is reportedly about to join featuring Levi Liepheimer and Alberto Contador both holding the one and two positions in the Vuelta a Espana respectively as of yesterday.
George Hincapie (Team Columbia) says he knows nothing about the Lance comeback. If he doesn't know now, he will know soon for sure. Keep your eyes and ears on him. He is one of Lance's closest friends and former teammates. Should be interesting if true in the 2009 road season.
Apparently rumors were flying wildly at the Eurobike trade show this summer. Neal Rogers of Velo News reports that Vanity Fair will feature an exclusive article in its next issue laying out the details of the coming road racing season and Lance's comeback.
Races Armstrong is said to be participating in are, Paris-Nice, the Dauphine Libere, the Amgen Tour of California, the Tour of Georgia, and the Tour De France.
If this turns out to be true, what a year it will be in professional cycling. I believe the domestic cycling ranks will be transfixed by this all season. I also see this as good for amateur cycling in the U.S. True champions, like Armstrong, are too often never able to see that they might not be champions still. The thought of his attempted comeback may inspire nonetheless. The cauldron he is about to enter, I think, will surely be more competitive now, maybe none more than the Astana team he is reportedly about to join featuring Levi Liepheimer and Alberto Contador both holding the one and two positions in the Vuelta a Espana respectively as of yesterday.
George Hincapie (Team Columbia) says he knows nothing about the Lance comeback. If he doesn't know now, he will know soon for sure. Keep your eyes and ears on him. He is one of Lance's closest friends and former teammates. Should be interesting if true in the 2009 road season.
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