HOHOHAPPYCHRSTMAS

xmas eve

longboard day at best maybe later



maybe a longboard later

             kinda cold and flat this morning at wrightsville beach with a small wave laying
                             under the tide.  i missed the sunrise by that much.

Winter Setting In



still dropping overnight

The first Winter blast has come and gone.  Now it's buddy comes roaring down and slamming the SE NC Coast.  The ocean temps, at Wrightsville Beach, fell last week from the low 60's to the upper 50's and now they continue to fall.  I got out for some unsuspected swell on Sunday.  4/3 and boots, no gloves or hood, and ducking resulted in some head freezes.  It's now 51.4 as I post this at Johnny Mercer's Pier and with overnight temps forecast to hit the upper teens it will probably be in the upper 40's before the week is out.  4/3's, boots gloves and hood's will probably be the norm for the rest of Winter.  This sucks!  I was hoping we would make it to mid-January before the water hit the forty's but I got a feeling we will be there soon.  We may be in for a long Winter.  I guess I could live in the North Atlantic somewhere.

wrightsville beach winter surfing



wrightville beach dusk

 

 It's offically winter in my book.  The christmas tree got put up yesterday, the beach water temp dipped into the upper 50's.  This morning it was 29 degrees at ILM and 30 degrees at JMPN7 (NOAA buoy for Johnny Mercer's Pier).  I was jacking my lips, a month ago, in a crowded line talking about how i couldn't wait for winter and the thinning of the line up but i had forgetten what 29 felt like.  The three great things about winter in SE NC, thinned out surf, stump sound oysters and striped bass.  More on these three great things to come.  Oh yeah there are four great things and making some new boards for the New Year.

medium wednesday surf at wrightsville beach

morning bar break

a.r. with a rooster shack wide glide

a.r. wideglide cut back



evening right

After a couple of days of N and NE wind the front rolled the wind E then SE and SSE and started howling a gale overnight Tuesday.  Wednesday morning WSW formed some nice rights and a few inner bar lefts as the tide fell through the morning.  The wind was moving offshore and as the tide began to fall in the afternoon some nice rights showed up.  I was took my son skim boarding and while taking some photos of him eating sand, I caught my boy A.R. hitting it this afternoon on one of his Rooster Shack creations.  This morning it was knee high and 37degs after the front had pushed offshore and now we wait again.