Blizzard Surfing

Its snowing like crazy here right now in New Jersey.  They are calling for a blizzard and white-out conditions for tonight and tomorrow.  They are calling for 24" of snow here by this time tomorrow.  The good news is Sunday morning the wind is supposed to be strait off shore.  I'm amped already.

Mako,

No snow here yet in Wall NJ  Sunday morning I will be on it

Tom

Been damn cold last week or so…63 this morning at the Honolulu Airport…you should hear the conversations in the water bout the brutal chill. Below is this morning at the Kawaikui Beach Park…looking east toward Koko Head. I don’t know…but maybe you can get a sense of the bitter cold along with the  threatening clouds…

Oh yea…no shortage of waves for those willing to brave the weather!

http://www.surfnewsnetwork.com/

Aloha, 

Rogelio

Dam Mako, how many of you surf in the snow?

My brother recently moved to RI and froze his balls off in a 3/2 for his 1st surf.  He’s saving up for the full winter gear but growing up a South Florida surfer, I don’t know if he will be able to adapt.  How long does it take to adjust to surfing in those conditions?

windyfriday.jpg picture by tjrm63Proneman, that looks to cold for me, I like the balmy 20 degrees with 35 mph winds like in this photo of my home break here in Jersey

Tom

Rock on, man. It ain't really cold until you see snow coming down and it stays ice crystals when it hits the water.

doc...

it takes 1 barrel to adjust then you realize that 8ft at 10 seconds peeling off jetties with 20mph offshores is totally worth it.

Wish i was up in NJ right now.

    Howzit Mr. Proneman, We are just so spoiled here in Hi,but last night was a bit nippy and I actually closed all the doors and windows and turned on my little heater till my room was over 70 degrees. Starting in the middle of April I start caretaking a beachfront property at backdoor Tunnels  rent/utilitiy free. After all I went through last year thei year is looking great. Aloha,Kokua

This is a shot from our last winter storm here in NJ.  I'd put the challenge level of surfing this stuff in 38* water with air temps in to 20s up against anything in the world.  This is our Backdoor Pipeline.  Full seqience of this barrel and a bunch of other great shots from 1/17 located here http://edmondfilms.webs.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=8033058

Blizzards in the Northeast US can produce some really great waves. A memorable one was the “Blizzard of '78”. It shut down virtually all of Southern New England and New York, dumping up to 4’ of snow in places. Satellite pics of the system looked like a hurricane, with an eye and outer banding. The day after it cleared I knew a certain spot would be working. Unfortunately, the road in was buried in snow and impassible. So I suited up at a beach roughly a mile down coast. I put on thermal coveralls and rubber boots over my suit and walked the beach to get to the break in question. Surfed it for 2 hrs, all alone. Tried to shoot a couple of pics after my go-out, but I was shivering so bad the shots were all blurry. Still, it was great to surf perfect waves, all the while knowing that people inland were stuck indoors.

For clarity’s sake, I want to point out that nobody actually surfs “in” a blizzard. No one with a brain, anyway. A blizzard is defined as conditions accompanied by 35+ winds.

 

Nobody surfs “in the snow” up here. We surf in the water. Also, it’s rare to surf while it is snowing because snowfall is typically combined with onshore winds.  Any storm that produces waves typically means strong onshore winds. Smart people wait for the wind to switch.

A 3/2 in RI is good until about October. Depends on the person’s tolerance for cold, and how good the suit is.

ARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

The wet snow has solidified like rock and I can't even get my 4wd truck out.  The surf is good right now.  Its 16 degrees and too cold to just suit up and walk to the beach.  I'm a hostage till the plow comes up my street.

I remember that particular blizzard of 78. All our trees had a fat coating of ice (just under 1/2") all around them from root to top. Trees, telephone poles and wires down everywhere. Roads so chock full I took the arctic cat to work. Had a blast going wide open all the way and roads to myself for a couple days.

We lost alot of good trees though. Our willow was the grandaddy of the neighborhood, split 1/4 of him right off.

Enjoy it as much as you can and thanks for reminding me.

 

Where were you? Coincidentally, today marks the 32nd anniversary of that monster.

Anyone curious about this particular storm should Google it. “Blizzard of '78”. It is an historical event. The main stretch of route 195 through Providence, RI looked like a parking lot for about a week. Hundreds of cars stuck in snow up to the windows.

Here’s a live cam at my local…

http://njsurfer.com/

pretty ugly… it’s white because it’s 27 degrees, 35mph side-onshore, and snowing like hell…

1978 photo taken near Boston.

 

Sammy, not to try to get you to disclose your secret spot, but which state was it in? Was the Blizzard of 78 also called the winter hurricane?

motown burbs, eatin mickey lolich pepperoni pizzas from ceasars and cheering for the wings. That morning was strange, everything was grey, everything. No color just grey everywhere.

blizzard78

 

this is close to the grey we had.

 

 

 

I used to surf RI in the 70's when I lived in NE, the best surf was always those winter days, no crowds and big waves, but cold as hell.  Always fun walking through snow into the water!, especially in the mish mash of wetsuit parts I had back then.  I went surfing here in WA the other day, water was 47 air was about 47, not bad at all, waves head high.  Mild compared to the northeast. 

 

Detroit? That would have been a different storm. There were two major blizzrds that year in the US. One in the midwest, the other in the Northeast. The one I spoke of blanketed the area from NYC to Southern Maine.