Words by John Streit. Photos by Mickey McCarthy, Eddie Compo, Billy Ficke, Jessiah Rudolph, David Drewry, Brian Bassett, John Coulson & Jordan Bartholomew.
Lack of sunshine and cold temperatures aside, December is one of my favorite months of the year in surfing. The atmosphere of the northern hemisphere gets churned up, sending pulses of low pressure down from the upper lattitudes that bring winter’s chill and a steady diet of swell should the winds be in our favor. At the same time, December is the time for the dedicated, year-round surfers to enjoy the fruits of their coldwater sacrifices. Break out your step-up surfboards and wetsuits and hunker down for the colder months ahead. Historically, the frequency of swell-producing storms begins to increase during this closing month of the year and remains consistent through the winter.
This swell event lit up nearly the entire East Coast, as a massive fetch of east-northeasterly wind filled in the western edge of the North Atlantic for more than a thousand miles out to sea. The result was a steady march of powerful swell that resulted in heavy beach erosion for the Outer Banks, with Highway 12 experiencing wash-overs at S-Turns in Rodanthe and the Hotels area of Buxton. As the swell began to ease, the winds turned more favorable for southeast-facing beaches like Ocean City, Md. and Buxton on Wednesday, Dec. 10. Join us as we take a day trip from the Delmarva Peninsula, into the Chesapeake Bay and down the Outer Banks to Cape Hatteras.
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