Ryan P. Evans

Hurricane Bill

// // Surfing

The first hurricane swell of the season hit the Eastern Seaboard this weekend delivering some of the biggest and best waves of the year! Hurricane Bill, which started as a tropical storm off the coast of Africa, traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to the Carribean islands and then shot straight north keeping a 750 mile distance from the U.S. mainland. The intensity of the storm coupled with its near perfect trajectory (close enough to the coast to deliver amazing waves but far enough away to cause no damage) gave every surfer on the East Coast an event to get excited for… and the waves delivered.

The waves generated from the storm started to reach the beaches of Cape Hatteras on Friday, August 21st. The wavs started in the chest high range and built through Saturday to the Double and even Triple Over-head range.

I paddled out Sunday afternoon with local ripper, Matt Lane, and caught a few waves in the head high to 1ft over-head range. These waves were big in size but somewhat crumbly and not well orgainzed. Matt and I decided to have a peanut butter/jelly party at my house in the mid-afternoon before we paddled back out around 6pm that evening.

When Matt and I arrived at our first spot on Sunday evening we saw lots of barrels, but none of the surfers in the water were able to really do much with them. We checked a few other spots before calling REAL Team Photographer, Bryan Elkus, and settling on the spot with the most barrels. To our amazment, when we returned to the spot the waves had cleaned up, organized themselves and became perfect Hatteras A-frame barrels!!!

Matt and I paddled out while Bryan swam through the breaking waves and dove under the thick lips of waves as they pubbled the water. Once we were all in the lineup it was “Game On” as Matt and I dropped into A-frame adrenaline barrels!! The shots Bryan took are amazing, but no photo can capture the intensity of thick pitching barrels and fast drops.

The Hurricane swell is forecasted to linger all week and I look forward to surfing as much as I can while it lasts!