Never would have thought it, but it was thigh to waist in Annapolis, MD (Annapolis is on the Chesapeke Bay) this afternoon, of all places. I will admit they weren’t the best waves I’ve ever surfed… Its better than nothing when I don’t have time for the 2 hour drive to the atlantic. Anyone else got any ulikely wave stories, I’mt hinking I’ll check out tampa bay and surf by the skyway if there is a hurricane next time I’m down there.
Just takes a combo of strong local winds…
Lake Tahoe has been surfed head high and sideoff winds, just after a storm passed, winds switching about 130 degrees…
Great Lakes is regularly surfed when the winds howl on one side, then weather front passes…
Lots of semi inland sandbars break when the outter bar swells are big, like in SPID Texas during the hurricane.
Ever see Ft.Point in SF? It’s about 1.5 miles inside the two outer points that guard the bay, but swells can wrap in as big as 15’. Those days, Ashby Shoals can be chest high at mid tides…11 miles E of the Point.
Jump into Google Earth and have a look at Gulf St Vincent, South Australia. Where I live. You’ll notice that we don’t get groundswell here unless it’s almost exactly SW.
But very strong NW-WNW winds blowing over a number of hours will bring up “stormies”. Strong windswell… 6’ to 8’ easily if the wind is strong enough for long enough.
-doug
thats pretty sweet…ive got a house on the bay in Virginia (windmill point if youve heard of it) and the only time ive seen surfable waves was during isabelle, but i didnt really think of bringing my board with me
-tommy
Quote:
I’mt hinking I’ll check out tampa bay and surf by the skyway if there is a hurricane next time I’m down there.
Done that one myself while journeying from St. Pete to Anna Marie Island. Rediculous East winds (offshore Gulfside), and saw it breaking on an East-facing shore by a little pull-off picnic area. All jumped out, grabbed a few thigh-to-stomach-high waves for the hell of it, then jumped back in and and continued to our intended destination. We surfed some of the best waves I saw on the gulf in my 4-year residency there (well overhead, offshore, and barreling hard… one of those swells where you swear it is not the gulf, but rather some secret surf paradise).
I lived in the St.Pete/ Indian Rocks Beach / Clearwater Beach area for my first 20 years. I have surfed Tampa Bay and some of the most unlikely spots in that area. Nothing really to brag about, but it has been done. Next big storm go check the beaches around the south side of the Courtney Campbell Causeway.
Around there you have to take what you can get.
P.S. After leaving Florida I moved to Michigan where I would surf the great lakes pretty regularly.
kik
THere is a shoulder high wave in Montreal, Quebec that breaks all summer and fall until the river freezes over. really.