Quickly access the spots you care about most.
Over here on the East Coast, the average ride on a surfboard lasts about five seconds. Maybe six. The average swell lasts a day. Maybe two. That’s not a lot of time to grab an average thrill.
But Earl was no average storm. More than a week after its first tropical tandem with Danielle, then eventually ditching its alphabetic predecessor, this hurricane-turned-extratropical storm is finally leaving the party. But not before becoming everybody’s best friend.
Practically the entire Eastern Seaboard from Northeastern Canada to Southeastern Florida enjoyed its company (even Georgia got waves). And Earl never left behind any mess whatsoever, spending its whole gregarious existence away from land. And once it went extratropical, Earl saved its best for last.
The U.S. mainland wasn’t the only recipient of Earl’s kindness. Various Western Atlantic/Caribbean islands lit up last week, as well. Clockwise from top right: Sebastian Soto. Photo: Jorgito Rivera; Peter Mendia. Photo: Nic Lugo; Tommy Bursian. Photo: Jorgito Rivera; Sebastian Soto. Photo: gOnzo
“The strongest winds and largest seas produced by Hurricane Earl is not what produced the surf that graced our coastline over the past several days,” VP of Forecasting, Kurt Korte explains. “That energy was focused towards Newfoundland and up into the far North Atlantic. But if those post-tropical remnants of Earl hadn’t slowed down and drifted south of Newfoundland over the weekend, this final, bigger pulse of long-period swell wouldn’t have happened for the East Coast or the Caribbean. Thankfully, it did. And the hurricane-force winds from what was once Earl produced long-period energy that lit up places that’ve been dormant for months.”
Relive the Rest of the Swell
Round 1: Tropical Tandem of Danielle and Earl | Round 2: My Name Was Earl
With so many options on the table from the Caribbean to Florida to Newfoundland, perpetually walkabout pro Balaram Stack didn’t overthink it: Stay home or go north. In the end, he did a little of both. Hang time in New York. Photo: Mike Nelson
Legendary California surf photographer/photo editor Rob Gilley just happened to be in the Canadian Maritimes when Earl blew its first kiss. “It was pretty solid first thing Saturday morning,” Gilley reported, “about double-overhead, 4-6-foot backs, hitting at full force at the best spots. Although there’s no shortage of breaks up here, like anywhere else they are subject to the vagaries of tide, swell direction and especially wind direction, so half the spots were blown out with devil wind. And the other half were perfectly offshore.”
Not every crazy American who jokes about fleeing to Canada is joking. Or crazy. Photos, clockwise from top right: Rob Gilley; Rob Gilley; Rob Gilley; Trevor Murphy
“One of the better aspects of Earl was meeting Indian Summer conditions, 80 degrees on Saturday, 86 degrees on Sunday,” Gilley continued. “Also, Earl came after a long drought of one of the colder and flatter Augusts in awhile. As such, everybody up here surfed their brains out, including me and my friend Jon. We put in four sessions for 11 hours of waveriding.”
“The first two hours of dawn patrol on Sunday were shockingly unattended at a couple of the more popular spots,” Gilley finished. “Possibly because everybody had surfed so much on Saturday (which might help explain my images of lineups with only one or two guys out. Even though people expected that secondary pulse, I guess it was hard to get out of bed on Sunday after Saturday’s surf orgy!”
“From a meteorological perspective, Earl was a disappointment,” Korte explains, “struggling to reach those lofty forecast model goals that predicted the hurricane would reach Category 4 strength. In contrast, I think surfers would agree that the surf from Earl met or even exceeded expectations. So why the disconnect?”
Top: For some, winter can’t come soon enough. Seth Conboy, rubbering up at a New England slab. Photo: Mike Nelson; Bottom: Tyler Clazey, putting the tourist traps and everyone in ‘em in his rearview. Ocean City, MD. Photo: Nick Denny
“The idea that a stronger or bigger storm is better is patently false for the vast majority of breaks and surfers along the East Coast,” Korte continues. “A modest tropical storm, like Earl was initially when it passed north of the Caribbean Islands, is right in the wheelhouse to provide fun, mid-period E to SE swell for our coast. That means fewer closeouts, less current and generally just a good time. If your winds cooperate.”
And at dawn on Monday morning, cooperate they did. The hard onshore winds that’d plagued the Outer Banks for nearly a week finally shifted offshore. But given those 14-16-second intervals, finding a cooperative bank was a challenge.
Clockwise from top right: One of Avon’s finest surfers and most dedicated locals, Cyrus Lewis, would be doing this even if his sandbar sucked and it was freezing out. But he’ll settle for warm and perfect. Photo: Cody Hammer; Brett Barley, surrounded by his favorite colors — the colors of fall. Cape Hatteras, NC. Photo: Cody Hammer; Mikey Mausteller, tight as a drum, a red drum. OBX. Photo: Mike Leech; Rule #316: Never catch a wave until you’re certain you’re in the lineup. Nags Head, NC. Photo: Mike Leech
“Hurricane Earl brought some power and size to Hatteras,” said Buxton pro Brett Barley. “On Monday the buoy readings hit 5.6-6.6 feet at 15seconds, with some 17-second readings, so finding the spot that would handle that period, and still barrel hard, is always a task. But it’s a task that I love.”
“We opted out of the cleaner, more friendly zone that most everyone surfed and found a spot going top to bottom,” Barley continued. “It was diamonds in the rough, but I love that, because when the buoys are up, all I need is one wave to make the swell. And this wave on Monday morning did just that [click here for his Wave of the Day. I was trying out a quad-fin setup for the first time in ten years and had the wrong type of fins, so I nearly ate it when I went to pump, because it wasn’t what I was used to. But then, once I got in the barrel I thought to myself, ‘I might only make this because I’m on a quad,’ because I was so deep. And sure enough, it locked in with the foamball and shot me through.”
Six Rides @ 60 Seconds: from Barbados to New England to Florida to North Carolina. Vids: Mark Harris, Mike Nelson, Asher Nolan, Mez/ESM and Cody Hammer
Barley went on to log many more hours at many more beachbreaks along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. And Town wasn’t exactly lame, either. A little less dumpy and a little… okay, a lot slower, but still utterly kegging at the right patch of sand.
“It was some of the biggest surf that I’ve ever swam in here on the Outer Banks, and I’m still amped!” said Nags Head photographer/videographer Mike Leech, who will be premiering his short documentary film about local icon Jesse Hines, Hines, at this weekend’s Surfalorus Film Festival. “I was expecting some size, but this was way more than I was thinking. There were easily some double-overhead sets. With the wind being more SW than W, I knew that anywhere south of the bridge was going to be a little weird and anywhere north of the bridge was going to be glassy. I was happily surprised that the Nags Head sandbars were even able to hold it.”
Surfin’ Spoon bossman Jesse Hines was late for work this day. Then he allowed all his employees to be late for work, too. What a guy. Nags Head, NC. Photo: Mike Leech
“I was the first one at this one spot,” Leech continued, “and I’m not exaggerating, within 20 minutes the whole parking lot was filled with people ready to surf. It’s crazy how fast word travels [laughs]. But Shane Moore and I were the only ones swimming out there. No one else was photographing from the water. It almost seemed to go flat in between the sets, but when those waves came in, man, it was like buildings coming towards you. It almost didn’t seem real… So yes, this swell was one to remember.”
“It was mind-blowing to me that Jesse Hines was out there on his twin-fin,” Leech finished. “In overhead to double-overhead surf, and ripping so hard. That board just seemed to work in harmony with his surfing.”
“Monday was magical!” Hines agreed. “It’s a rare occasion when it all comes together, and for a few hours Monday morning, it did just that. There was a tinge of fall in the air, the wind was light offshore, the water was blueish-green, the swell was bigger than expected, and Nags Head was littered with opportunities for some pits.”
“It was such an epic day, in fact,” Hines continued, “my wife Whitney got the idea of letting our staff at Surfin’ Spoon stall on their opening duties and come down to the beach instead to hang, shoot photos and enjoy the magic. Tuesday had some really fun leftovers, as well, so I no longer have any surf anxiety after a really long, flat summer.”
Clockwise from top right: Chris McDonald, hunting and gathering in Nags Head. Photo: Mike Leech; Rob Brown and Jeffrey O’Neil, bonded by talk story in Hatteras. Photo: Daniel Pullen; Outer Banks Boarding Co. owner and shaper Lynn Shell is a testament to clean living. He’s 67 years old, still rides a 5’-something surfboard, and still packs ‘em thick. Photo: Jon Carter; There’s air wind, then there’s air-drop wind. Guess which kind Avon Pier got this swell. Photo: Daniel Pullen
“The biggest swell generated by Earl technically wasn’t from Earl,” Korte explains. “The system was a post-tropical cyclone when the wind field expanded, and most of the long-period swell was generated south of Newfoundland. All long-period swells aren’t the same — the direction plays a crucial role, as does the bathymetry off your stretch of coast. Remember that 15-second swell begins to feel the bottom and refract in nearly 600 feet of water. That’s pretty far offshore for the East Coast, so some magic can happen between when that swell begins to tickle the bottom and when it detonates at your spot. That is also why the same spots tend to turn on time after time on long-period swells like these, even if dormant for months or years.”
Rewinding the surf from Earl in its latest, extratropical phase.
Arguably, no one benefited more from Earl and its remnants than surfers in the Sunshine State. At press time, it was still cooking. And some Floridian frothers have been seshing every single day since the storm’s inception, equalling nine straight days of surfing in 90-degree-plus weather.
Eventually something was gonna happen in South Florida. And happen it did. Matt Oberman. Photo: Ben Hicks
Who’s to say which spot was best: Jax or St. Augustine, New Smyrna Beach or Satellite Beach, Melbourne Beach or Sebastian Inlet State Park? Iconic East Coast photographer and Surfline workhorse Dick Meseroll couldn’t decide, so he did what any of us would do when faced with a similar situation. He set up right down the street from his house.
The legendary RC’s in Satellite Beach, one of the few waves in Florida that can hold double-overhead surf. Photo: Mez/ESM
“The Earl-y bird caught the worm this morning,” Mez beamed on Tuesday. Chauncey Robinson drew first blood at legendary Ocean Avenue: easily 6-8-foot faces on the sets. Spot on call, Surfline! But if OA was this good, then the bomb sets at RC’s must’ve been spectacular. My partner Tom Dugan said it was pumping with a lot of size, possibly the biggest sets in all of Florida this swell… Although, Orchid Island must’ve been unbelievably good on low to incoming tide. Matt Kechele said it was the best he’d ever seen it. And Kech ain’t much of a claimer.”
Impeccable symmetry at RC’s. Photo: Tom Dugan/ESM
But before everyone starts GPSing Orchid Island or Mez’s favorite surf spot, sources say Kech’s close friend Paul Reinecke had come “eye to eye with a tiger shark” the day before. So there’s that.
Daya McCart, throwing fins and water and whatever organisms happen to be between said fins and water at Sebastian Inlet. Photo: Laserwolf
If that weren’t enough to freak us out, Jax pro-turned-coach/shooter Asher Nolan interrupted our regularly scheduled research at noon on Tuesday to plead his case. With evidence to boot.
“I’m at Ponce Inlet right now, and it is going off!” Asher yelled to be heard over the oohs and ahhs and whatthefuuus of the peanut gallery. “There are six-foot, glassy rights breaking out the back and running all the way through, then there’s these crazy wedges on the inside. All kinds of rippers are out there getting tubed, doing banger turns, big airs… all of it! Some nuts wipeouts, too. Cory Lopez is out there with his kids, Luke and Alana, and Shea is claiming this is the best he’s seen this place since Hurricane Bill (2009).”
Clockwise from top right: Chauncey Robinson, all rail, no flail at Ocean Avenue, Melbourne Beach, FL. Photo: Mez/ESM; Cory Lopez, floating through fatherhood at Ponce Inlet. Photo: Asher Nolan; Tommy Coleman, mixing it up in St. Augustine’s dredgiest shorebreak. Photo: Mo Lelii; Something tells us Mason Ho will consider booking a flight to Florida after seeing this. Michael Dunphy. Photo: Asher Nolan
“This was what we all hope for on the East Coast and Caribbean this time of year,” Korte finishes. “Prolonged surf, no landfall. And that is exactly what Earl and its remnants gave us.”
Two degrees of hypnosis: Nova Scotia and Florida. You are getting very, very sleepy… Now wake up, it’s hurricane season! Vids: Trevor Murphy and Mez/ESM
Consider it a latte for your soul. Maine. Photo: Gabe Reuben
STORM LOCATION/MOVEMENT: Earl slammed on the brakes just off Newfoundland and meandered in place September 10th-11th
PEAK STORM INTENSITY: 966mb post-tropical cyclone south of Newfoundland
STRONGEST STORM WIND/SEAS: Hurricane-force winds and 35’+ seas directed towards the US East Coast and Caribbean
SWELL TRAVEL TIME: 1.5-3 days depending on location – shortest for the Northeast and longest for Florida and the Caribbean
Tropical Storm Fiona (and the Rest of the 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season) Is On the Way:
The Caribbean’s Up First:
Maria’s | Puntas | Jobos | La Ocho | Soup Bowl
Caribbean: Rincon | North Coast PR | Northeast PR | Barbados
Southeast: Central Florida | New Smyrna | Jax | Folly | Wrightsville | Cape Hatteras | Nags Head
Northeast: South Jersey | Queens | Suffolk County | Rhode Island | New Hampshire | Maine
Watch It Live When It Hits the East Coast:
Long Sands | The Wall | Matunuck | Terrace | Manasquan | Jennette’s | Avon | Crystal Pier | Washout | Jax Pier |New Smyrna | Satellite | Ft. Pierce
East Coast surfers dust off the cobwebs in fun-enough hurricane surf — with more to come.
‘Community storm’ undergoes extratropical transition, still delivers the goods from Canada to Florida
Home-wrecking coastal storm gives the East Coast a week of wind and waves — but mostly wind.
A big swell, the first snowfall of the season and the muffled sound of two mittens clapping
Another toast to the low-pressure buffet that overfed surfers from Florida to Jersey to Puerto Rico to… wait, Europe?
A picture-perfect ending to a month that gave East Coast surfers a little bit of everything