Ocean Size
When I moved to Tampa, Florida someone told me there were occasionally waves big enough to surf in the Gulf. I figured I’d believe them when I saw proof. Moving from California and the Left Coast, one gets a slightly different idea of what constitutes a ride-able wave. But lo and behold, one day it puffed and puffed and blew in some slop I squinted real hard at until I convinced myself to paddle out.
Finally, in September of last year Hurricane Ike came through, and I really did get to experience good waves on the Gulf Coast (GC). But other than that, and some more squinting, it has been a lot of trips back and forth to Cocoa Beach and further south to Sebastian Inlet.
The angst builds in GC surfers in the Fall. The promise of hurricanes has every one on edge, hoping for some deviation in the otherwise flat landscape. When Hurricane Ida began to blossom, so did our hopes for good surfing. Unfortunately, it turned out to be overhyped and undersized. But seeing as how I am a GC surfer now, well, it was swell worth riding nonetheless.
While I was waiting for the tide to turn and come back in, I walked out on the beach and captured some footage. I am not endowed with a big video camera, so I no doubt looked rather silly mounting my little Canon DV on a tripod. At one point an older snowbird walked by and stopped, stared, and then pointed and remarked, “look at that little camera.” Hey buddy, I said, it’s not the size of the swell, but the motion of the ocean. He just laughed, stared, and pointed some more at my little camera shooting little waves.
Either way, you’ve got to give it up to these scrappy GC boys making the most of it.
Angst-like music is courtesy of Zeptepi.
