The summer of 2017 has had plenty of small, yet fun waves for the East Coast. However, thoughts of pumping waves, warm water tubes and tropical juice is on every surfer’s mind when August rolls around. We’re inching our way to hurricane seasons and sure enough, the Atlantic came alive with Hurricane Gert, sending a pulse into New Jersey.
The evening before Gert arrived, swell models and reports were looking good. Plans were being made and I tried to get some sleep. No such luck, though, as I found myself up at 4 am, staring at the ceiling and thinking far too much. When I finally got up to get my day started, it felt tropical outside. Humidity was high, it was foggy, and still pretty cloudy to top it off. At pre-dawn, I could see the lines but more importantly, I could hear the sound of grinding tubes from the boardwalk.
The swell hung around that entire day with mostly tubes in the morning. At one point in the day, the lifeguards closed the beaches to swimming due to strong rip currents, which gave everyone the freedom to surf while forcing beach goers to watch the action. It was a fun day to get back into the hunt and hopefully, this is the kick off to a good season here in the Mid Atlantic and Northeast regions.
