Photo: Christa Doyle // @c3picsandphotos
Editor’s Note: The All-Time series showcases images that stop us in our tracks. Only on rare occasions do nature’s infinite variables align. It’s even more unusual that photos capture the essence of that moment. If you’re sitting on an image (or two) from surf or snow that you think fits the description above and you’d like to be featured, send us your photo with a few sentences about the day to contribute@theinertia.com
Last week, Tropical Storm Idalia battered the southeastern United States. After making landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida, the storm caused flooding, heavy winds, and a quarter-million power outages over a roughly 700-mile stretch of land.
During all that, photographer Christa Doyle managed to capture a brief moment where all the chaos aligned to create the kind of perfect wave that one rarely associates with the state of Alabama. “This photo was taken at the Orange Beach Pier near Cotton Bayou Beach Park,” she wrote in an email. “I took the photo from a second story floor of a parking garage at a hotel that I was staying at. I was in town for business and my husband was out bodyboarding with some of his surfer friends from Ft. Pierce.” Those riders were Sean Erwin from New Smyrna and local Alabama surfers Spencer Simpson and the people at Red Flag Surf Dive Shop.
Though the stars and swells did align for that shot, the moment just as quickly slipped away with the passing storm. “At 6:30 a.m. the waves were five to eight feet, by 9:00 a.m. it was four to five feet, and by 1:00 p.m. it was almost flat,” wrote Doyle. Just like that, the rarely seen Alabama bomb faded back away into the depths.
