My favorite wave is Monster hole…no secret wave either so no worries giving it up…lol. Long paddle and Big sharks for locals keep it less crowded. I have surfed up and down the coast…except the extreme NE ,which I may do this winter for the point breaks. Monster hole is a great wave because I am a goofy foot and it is a loooooong left. On a good NE swell it breaks top to bottom for 200 yrds plus. One of the only waves in FL that the wave is wider than tall sometimes…thick…even at head plus, so long your legs are cooked at the end. Kinda reminds me of an island/reef wave when its on. It breaks on a limestone (I believe…) shelf cut for the inlet there. Only breaks good a couple of times a year though…peace and waves…
my vote goes to Reef Road if it’s big barrels that you’re after. personally, i try to avoid it because every wave has at least 6 people taking off on it, but on the right swell it’s pretty sick. when the road is firing, ocean reef park or queens is a foot or two smaller, but just as good and NO CROWD. alternatively, for a fun longboard wave, i’d go with Fort Pierce. unfortunately, they got hit head on by Frances and i heard the beach was pretty torn up…i just hope it didn’t destroy my favorite break in FL.
Lots of great spots mentioned here but for my money I have to agree with Oceans23. I’ve surfed almost all these spots and when it’s good Monster Hole is the best spot on the coast. Hatteras is more consistent and I’d place it second but the first place I’d travel to for surf. Manasquan is a great wave as well. Shacklford is good to great. AC, NJ has many good spots. Westhampton NY as well. Newport, Narragansett, Block Island, RI has some epic places too. Indian River Inlet has a great set up. New Smyrna is ultra consistent and when the sand and tide come together… St Aug has Blow Hole and Middles. I’ve surfed Reef Road absolutely epic and South Beach in Miami can be surprisingly good. Maine and NH have some excellent quality spots. I’m surprised no one has mentioned Rye. I haven’t been to Nova Scotia but I’ve heard stories.
On the EAST Coast, the “best” waves I normally take to be the most consistant. Yep…mostly, it’s all sand, so the breaks do move and change some, however, there are a few spots which stay consistant, and have a pretty nice form.
The more famous ones, Sebastian Inlet in Flori-DUH, are usually crowded to “California” standards, but, really, the BEST ones are usually the hardest ones to get to.
It’s an endless debate for us Least Coasters, and never having been much further north than Viginia Beach (because, quite frankly…cold water sucks, guys) I’ll have to hedge my answer a bit, but my votes would be one of three places;
Cape Lookout, directy across the Bougue Sound from the Harker’s Island Visitors’ center in NC. This is probably the hardest one to get to, as it not only requires a boat to get you across the Sound, but also the knowledge of where the damned path is. You miss it, which is VERY easy to do, even under the best of circumstances, and you are slogging through 20 yards of saw grass and thigh deep pluff mud. Good luck.
Masonborough, below Wrightsville Beach, NC, which requires you to walk quite a ways, and also paddle across a very fast and wide inlet, which is almost always teeming with sharks. Inlets over here are prime feeding spots for The Landlord. This inlet moves pretty fast, and more than just a few tourists have tried to make it over to the other side, and wound up getting swept out, only to paddle back to Wrightsville for a few hours, or even have the Coast Guard come out and get them.
BUT, the best one, at least, in my humble opinion, of them all, would be in front of the Mayport Naval Station BOQ, near Jacksonville, FL. If you’re in the military, or have a CAC card, you are in, but without a pass, you’re probably not surfing here, unless you walk up from the beach wa-a-ay south of the base boundaries. It’s quite a hike.
Honorable mention would be the Frisco/Billy Mitchell Airport break on NC’s Outer banks, though somewhat small, it’s very consistant, easily accessable, but hardly ever crowded, and, surprisingly, Tybee Island, GA, on certain swell directions.
There are actually a LOT of places to surf which have similar characteristics to these spots, mostly locally known, but not advertised, all along the east and Gulf coast, such as Bon Secour Wildlife Refuge in “East LA” (…Lower Alabama), Capers Island Wildlife Refuge above Charleston, SC, but they almost all require either a boat, or the willingness to walk a long distance to and from.
And, because of the sandy bottoms, most fishing piers tend to have created sandy bars which jut out further, and swells can fold around and over these spots, to create some nice waves, as well. You’ll find a lot of people who surf at piers over here for that reason.
The New England spots Greg mentioned (thanks) don’t turn on until Jan-March. Bring your snow shovels!
There are esoteric breaks in the Northeast that can only be described as the stuff of dreams when they awaken.
RI is the best site for waves on the EC, I believe. North Carolina 2nd. Best time is winter! Bring you blubber, less surfers in the water at this time. Surfing is the big craze around here. Seems like everyone is trying it out. (as I imigine everywhere else also) Summers and early hurricane season are a nightmare.
I always wondered if there was good surf in the following places:
-
The Florida Keys.
-
Cape Canaveral
-
Bald Head Island, SC
-
The many, many uninhabited islands off the coast of Georgia (St. Katherines, Sapelo, Cumberland, etc.).
-
Bermuda
-
Banks WAAAAAAAAAAAY out there, such as Cortez (although, of course, Cortez is on the West Coast).
I heard from somebody that the Atlantic Ocean actually gets the largest open ocean waves. Is that true?
No waves in the Keys. I don’t know about the outer edges of the reef down there, but anywhere near the keys has really shallow water and is blocked pretty well from any swell. Finding a boat to check the reef sounds interesting…
-
NO
-
YES
3-6. ???
i’ve heard the same thing, but i’ve never tried to confirm it.
ahhh if only!! i wish anypart of GA had any decent waves.
Although, I’ve heard/experienced many interesting things around the “off limits” areas of GA’s barrier islands…
for example, NY City Zoo has an Island here and uses it (to breed, I believe) animals such as zebras, horses, rhinos, monkeys, and a type of tiger.
there are also a handful of tribes on isolated islands, which are decendents of slaves, speak gullah and still live like they have for centuries. I’ve never been more than maybe 40 or 50 miles from the closest inhabited island, but surf was better than what you’d get (in GA standards) on the mainland. Everybody else I’ve talked to who’ve made more extensive trips would only reaveal “be patient, bring a longboard, but the shorty’s a must” and leave it at that… could be fun just to explore i suppose…?
Bald Head Island is in NC, surf is very fickle
The barrier islands of Georgia toward the southern end of the state are good.You need a boat and the tides are tricky.I have seen waves breaking on the outer sandbars so far out you can’t see the land.There is a small group of pure south georgia redneck shrimper/surfers that have it wired.They won’t tell you anything though.There are also some sport fisherman that carry boards to the outer bars. RB
I’ve not been lucky enough to catch Block Island good, but heading up in a week. Is there any spot that is better than others that someone could put me onto?
The best wave on the east coast is in New Hampshire. Rock boulder bottom, right point break.
Only lights up on Nor Easters and the occasional hurricane in Aug/Sept.
To surf it is pure nirvana. Long, big, and perfect shape.
it can be downright lovely out there. The east side has a bunch of spots, the west side is kinda odd. Try near new harbor.
Nightspots are all over the island, were 17 bars last time i was there, though in the off season it slacks off a lot.
The best on the Right Coast?? I could tell ya, but then they’d have to kill me.
hope that’s of use
doc…
Was in a sailboat race a few years ago in the fl keys and as we went past Alligator Reef I noticed small but nicely shaped waves peelling right down from the lighthouse tower. After the race we went back to the reef and surfed nice 3 foot waves for the rest of the day, they weren’t epic, long, or perfect but it was very surfable. Don’t know if we hit it right but it broke there at least once.
I knew Bald Head Island was in North Carolina, but for some reason wrote SC. Oops. I was checking it out on the satellite pictures and noticed the very sharp triangular shape of the island. It’s odd, and shape so that if any wind came off the ocean it would have to be somewhat offshore or sideshore on one side. I don’t know. It’s probably all marsh like much of the East Coast.
Georgia is all marsh for sure. The early explorers were constantly confused because they couldn’t identify a clear separation of land and sea because of the savannah. The “islands” off the coast of Georgia aren’t really islands at all. They are huge sand dunes (deposits) left over from the melting of glaciers up north and huge rivers that occupied the south. All that sand was deposited on the coast, and when the glaciers melted, and the ocean level rose, the water kind of isolated each dune from each other. Over time grass and trees grew on the islands and, yada, yada, barrier islands. They aren’t really islands.
That being said, I once packed a canoe full of supplies, including a girlfriend and a surfboard, and paddled across the inlet between Tybee Island (northernmost island of Georgia) south to Little Tybee Island (which is actually bigger than Tybee). It is completely primitive and the camping is awesome. For three days we fished, fooled around, got crabs (from the water), and paddled through the marshes, trying not to get lost. It’s an amazing experience that I highly recommend. It’s a bit dangerous, but well worth it, and cell phones work there, so you can always call for help. Bring a gun.
On that trip, in which I wasn’t expecting surf, I grabbed my brass telescope, and like a true captain, searched the horizon. I found a wave. I paddled my canoe to it, untied me shortboard, arg, and surf three foot fun surf. It was cool. What I didn’t like were the SWARMS of sharks that kept coming in and circling me. The hair on my neck stood up. They were about three feet long and were in groups of about twelve. They swooped in just like a flock of birds, and when I kicked my foot, they split just as quickly, and then would come back about every three minutes. Needless to say, I only caught about five waves before I paddled back to Tybee to surf with everyone else. Damn sharks. I don’t think I was in danger, but I was definitely freaked out. We had a great time. It was from that trip that my wife snapped the picture of me riding a three foot wave, and the picture was stuck in Surfer Magazine. It was great.
The best part of the barrier islands is not the surf, but the primitive experience. You are a ten minute paddle from Tybee Island (which is like any other beach town), but a world away.
At one time I wanted to paddle the whole coast, but I couldn’t get anyone to do it with me, and I was too afraid to do it alone. I had all the gear, but no takers. I figured it would take about two weeks to kayak the 95 miles of coastline, going about eight to ten miles per day. Georgia state law says that you can legally camp on any beach in Georgia, so you don’t have to worry about that. I heard that on St. Catherines they had wild animals there, including exotics, but I never heard anything about tigers. I hope they are under control. I know there are wild horses on both St. Catherines and Cumberland.
The only islands (out of, I think, eleven islands) that have residents are: Tybee, St. Simon’s (which includes Sea Island), Jeckyll (which is completely owned by the state and all residents lease their land) and Cumberland (which is now a national park, and all residents have to, by law, give up their land when they die, although they are compensated). From Georgia through North Carolina is an opportunity for people to see what the land was like hundreds of years ago everywhere else. It’s the East Coast Baja, but without the good waves and Federales.
The island with the former slaves who live the same is Sapelo, and the little town is called Hog Hammock. You can visit and even stay there.
To get a good idea of what the people are like there, read The Water is Wide by Roy Conrad (I think that’s his name). He taught in the sixties or seventies on a barrier island north of there. His students were a trip. None could swim, but lived on an island. Also, they made a movie out of it staring John Voight (sp?).
I love the barrier islands. Almost got killed on them a couple times (Jet ski accident, thunderstorm and one tail end of a hurricane), but the memories are invaluable. I could spend years out there.
Only Hatteras for one reason: shortest continental shelf. The waves have more juice there than anywhere on the East Coast. Waves can get big anywhere, but they’re weaker. A good swell at Rodanthe has the energy of most world-class surf spots. Even a smaller day there is better than a bigger day somewhere else where the waves drag across miles of continental shelf.
The Georgia Barrier Islands are truly a sight too see.Nature at its finest especially in the Fall of the year.The bugs are gone,water is clear and the fish are biting.Unfortunately the shallow continental shelf pretty much breaks any swell down thus most breaks are only during the high tide.The average tide change is around 7 feet.The offshore sand bars break at low tide.They appear for a while and are gone.Some of them are 8 miles off the beach.There are a lot of sharks but I have never heard of any problems.Most of the school sharks are baby Black Tips that seem to be just curious.They are really good to eat cooked on the grill.The water offshore is a clear blue green unlike the beaches which tend to be muddy from the salt marshes.If anyone is interested you can search GPTV (Georgia Public TV) and buy a video of a “fly over documentary film” showing off the Islands.As for the best wave on the East Coast I would nominate K39 in Rhode Island.I only caught it twice but I still dream about the place.The first time I rode it was in 1969 with Jim Phillips…very foggy,glassy, and freaky until the sun came out.Hatteras is a good bet for having waves almost all the time.