Surfing Hurricane Irene!! Part I

Surf trip to Long Beach, New York

We had been talking about making a surf trip down to the East Coast for months…but life here in Toronto is always busy. Running from one thing to the next one, does it sound familiar? We sometimes forget there is much more out there for us to do and travel helps us to see these things. Finally, talks started to take a more serious tone with the quick approach of the hurricane season in the East Coast. We all got our eyes set on two locations; New Jersey & New York because it is only a few hours’ drive away.

Hurricane Irene - National Geographic.com

A few weeks before the surf trip, we were all glued to the computers following the behavior of hurricane Irene to decide whether to go or not. We read about the strength and possible consequences of her touching ground.

Also, informed ourselves about the prevention measures in New Jersey and New York. They had closed the beaches in some areas or restricted access due to fear of water levels rising.  At last we decided to drive down to my aunt’s house in Long Island – New York in search of waves.

The ones who eventually joined the trip were my good friends Larry C., Brian L., Justin W., my mom and myself. My mom came over with us to stay at my aunt’s house for a couple of weeks. My aunt asked me to bring my mom along on the trip and she would allow me and my friends to stay at her house! So that was a no-brainer, we made space on the car and we all fit. They say Spanish people can fit any amount of people in a car if it is really necessary. That is exactly what we did. 5 people plus 6 boards and bags was plenty to fill up the rental car. 

We left on a Thursday night from Toronto late at night. Brian was dropped off at my house and Justin came over with Larry who was driving the rental car. We put everything inside the car and took off. No one had checked the weather conditions for driving that night, so when the pouring rain started coming down on us and it was pitch dark on the highway we were not very happy about it. Nevertheless, the great driving skills of Justin under the rain saved the night. His driving skills proved to be much better than that of any of the other drivers - especially mine. At that time I didn’t know I needed to get glasses to read the signs from far away and the GPS we had was very confusing for me. When it was my turn to drive, we ended up missing several turns and going the wrong way more than once. Eventually, Justin decided to take over and drove us safely to the outskirts of New York city. At this point, Brian volunteered to continue driving into what was the welcoming of New York traffic. 

Driving into New York - That is the trailer....!

Oh my…New York traffic. Coming from Peru as I do should have made this experience normal. However, the years I’ve been living in Toronto, Canada have made me become comfortable and used to good driving etiquette. Getting into New York and crossing the bridge over to Long Island was like driving back home or worse. Cars crossing from one lane to another, and for that matter , drivers would not follow the lanes they would just go after the empty spaces to keep moving. If you drove slow, too bad for you! Even tractor trailers would drive the same way. At one point we were close to get squished by one of these under a bridge. We all screamed in the car when we saw the big trailer switching over to our lane. Brian reacted quickly and sped up to pass him. Otherwise, we would have been on the morning news in New York!

When we finally arrived at my aunt’s house we were greeted by her and her husband. My aunt was very friendly with all my buddies. We chatted for about 30 minutes after we had settled in. Of course most of the talk revolved about us wanting to surf while the hurricane was passing by. You could hear the wind blowing and the rain falling that cold morning in New York.

At the same time we were looking up for surf spots nearby and were using the internet and picking on my cousins’ brain for that. We finally decided to go out and check out a spot ourselves and decide from there what was best to be done. We went to a spot which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road. We climbed up the sand dunes and what we found was stunning. Solid waves 2 and a half meters high rolling in one after the other. This was the first sign that our trip would pay off.

Long Island, NY. -by Brian Lourenco

We talked to some surfers who showed up after us. We got some info about some other spots further down the line and then we jumped in. The paddle out was tough. You had to time it very well otherwise you would hit by several waves before reaching the point. Funny part was that when we thought we had reached the point, we had already been pulled down half a mile by the current. Because the beach was completely open (no peers or rocks to be seen) the current was very strong. We tried to fight the current but after some time we all started drifting down the coast line. The waves were big and strong, however, most of them were closing really quick. After a few hours we decided to go further down the line looking for shelter from the current.

We ended up right at Long Beach. Finding parking was very easy as it was still quiet early in the morning. We got off the car and what we saw from the walk board at Long Beach was just wonderful.  Small waves breaking back to back, several different small beaches divided by small rock-peers. There were some surfers in all spots but down the line we could see a very large number of people standing on the sand. All of a sudden we see this one guy surfing a wave pull out an amazing air on the wave and land it followed by a nice roller…I thought 'he surfs like a Pro….' Turns out I wasn’t too far from reality. Over the weekend we were there, the Quiksilver Pro New York in Long Beach was taking place. They had some of the best professional surfers participating that weekend.

Kelly Slater in the air! - by Brian Lourenco

At that very moment we didn’t know exactly what kind of tournament it was so we decided to go grab the boards and catch some waves first. Larry and I were the first in the water. Justin and Brian came up later and went to a different beach break. Even though we didn’t surf together that day, one thing is for sure, we were all extremely happy we had already scored such great waves in our first day. One thing you can notice right away between waves in the Great Lakes and the ocean is the power waves have. The ocean has most of the times powerful waves. This makes it easier to catch (small) waves, make better turns and try new tricks.

Waves of the 1st day @ Long Beach - by Brian Lourenco

Larry and I, we both got nice waves and a couple of barrels. We were so stoked the little kids surfing near the shore looked at us in a funny way every time we came out of a wave yelling and screaming out of excitement. Of course they couldn’t understand how good it feels to be surfing a solid wave in the ocean after one year of freezing surfing and mushy waves in the Great Lakes… After several hours of surfing the tide started getting high and waves started slowing down. Larry and I came out looking for Justin and Brian.  We were looking down the line in direction towards the surf competition when we saw this guy with a yellow board do a critical drop on a big wave breaking right on the shore. He was successful to do the drop and then bottom-turned into the section of the wave getting a nice ride. We thought it was another local surfer. Nevertheless we were skeptical, who else could have a full yellow board other than Justin?! Once we got closer we confirmed our thoughts. It was no local surfer, it was Justin putting into good use all the advice we had been telling him since we left Toronto.

 We all surfed there our first “late surf session” with an amazing sunset behind the city buildings. I thought we were in heaven or somewhere similar because nothing, nothing at all could ever beat the great feeling I had. Surfing good waves, a colorful sunset and great friends has no price and the feeling…well, I hope you know what I am talking about here…and if you don’t know, you need to go on a surf trip ASAP!!! It is pure magic – you have to experience it to know - only a surfer knows the feeling.

We finished the day very late at night sharing stories about waves we had caught throughout the day. Every single one of us was extremely stoked about the day we had. What was yet to come…. none of us could have ever dreamed of… 

……To be continued.

Justin W, Larry C and Antonio A. - by Brian Lourenco