Winter came early in New England this year. Cold temperatures and a few inches of snow ended any prospect that Fall temperatures might linger for another few weeks. Early season cold fronts interacted with warmer air from the south and as a result, there was plenty of miserable weather to enjoy. The surf was generally up on the east coast. But I missed most of it. Once the clock moves forward and the days grow shorter I'm not left with many hours of day light to squeeze in a

A nor'easter turned sub-tropical storm stirred up some fun-sized surf in the North Atlantic over the Indigenous Peoples' Day weekend. We don't celebrate that mass-murderer in the state of Massachusetts, but we still get the day off in his honor. This year that day off lined up with rideable waves in Nantasket, and I took full advantage. What started off as an early season cold front pushing out into the Atlantic, quickly became a cock n balls weather event known as Sub-Trop

There is always an increase in surfable days going into September. The tropics start to heat up and the North Atlantic begins to transition out of summer. This is all great for those folks who can spend the days chasing the right tides at the right angled beaches, but for me it's back to work. So barring a few, quick, after-work sessions, I'm probably going to miss it if the waves don't land on a weekend. But this past September, a couple of short-lived tropical swells landed

It figures I had to wait until the last week of summer to get some fun waves. I didn't snap many photos, but I got about 30 rides between last night and today on the east swell. Surf arrived on Monday afternoon and built into Tuesday morning. The broken up wind blown waves of Monday evening were actually more fun to ride than the glassy waves the following morning. The swell was almost directly east so the angle was causing a lot of closeouts. Nonetheless there were plenty of

There's been a consistent pattern of long period swell from the southern hemisphere hitting New England coastlines for the past few weeks. South facing beaches have gotten the brunt of it, but the east facers have seen some traces as well. Did you see how I worked my last name in there? But on the morning of August 8th one of those long period pulses showed up a bit stronger and with more of an eastern angle. This helped Nantasket Beach break the waist high barrier for the fi

I had a blast hosting my Journalism students for a beach day in Nantasket yesterday. They spent the day riding playful knee-high surf and bonding as a team. I'm so very lucky to have such amazing students and I'm looking forward to reuniting with them in the fall for another great school year... That'd be year #23 for this old guy! Looks like we've got a couple of surfers in the group. These Norwood kids put the surf camps to shame as they dominated the small rollers all morn

Some fun swell arrived with perfect timing for the Memorial Day holiday. Solid waist to chest conditions rolled through the Northeast with a few occasional bigger sets on the better days. What made things unusual was that the wind was calm for most of the weekend and it didn't do it's normal routine of blowing things out. I posted a gallery below of a few shots I snapped with my iPhone. I mostly surfed the south end of Nantasket Beach, in front of the new construction of the

Fun waves for September... hopefully that's a sign of a good Fall season to come. Here's a slide show from the past month. Waves were in the waist to head high range with semi-clean conditions... and not too cold yet! #Nantasket

We had the rare pleasure of getting some surf above knee-high the past two days. Who says Friday the 13th isn't lucky? And Surfline was calling Nantasket flat today. Phsshhhh. Rhode Island and all of the south-facing beaches of New England got the best of the Hurricane Chris swell on Thursday night. I was able to catch the dwindling part of this swell on Friday down at Horseneck Beach. It was clean, waist to stomach-high waves, and I pretty much had it all to myself. It was h

So I've been through my share of storms living in Florida for 39 years. I've had roofs damaged, windows and ceilings crashed, massive damage to fencing and landscaping, not to mention countless days in the heat with no power. Summer 2005 stands out to me as a bad season. But I never thought I'd see that type of thing in New England. Well, the winter of 2018 was one for the record books in my town of Hull. Residents say they haven't seen storms like that in 30+ years. We got t

After an eventful January with winter storm Grayson, it's been a great start to my February staycation. I elected to stay put this one-week break from school to enjoy being across the street from the beach. I have been rewarded with some fun east swell the past couple of mornings. The bonus was that I had it all to myself. Not a single other surfer. It was definitely cold on Sunday and it snowed early that morning. But all the snow melted quickly as temperatures rose and the

After a winter storm dumped a moderate amount of snow on the south shore Christmas day, the sun came out and Nantasket Beach delivered some fun waves. It was SUPER cold with windchills in the teens and lower. The short period east swell was a constant barrage of sets, one after another. After five duckdives in a row paddling out, I popped out the back of a wave and uncontrollably projectile vomited. My head felt like it was going to pop off and I started to see stars. Then my

I had to race home to get a few waves before dark today. The days are getting shorter and surfing after school will be nearly impossible in another month or so. Being a high school teacher basically means you can't surf in the fall unless waves land on the weekend. So I enjoyed catching an hour's worth of surf before it got dark. It was a fun session, not too cold and worth the rush home. I was also the hit of the beach on my new surf bike... Winter is coming fast. Hope we ge

June 2017 has been pretty active so far if you're comparing it to most years. There have been a dozen days above waist high and the month's not even over yet. I managed to get on one day and it was quite good. I could have done without the gigantic sunfish swimming next to me and giving me a momentary heart attack. But fifteen waves in an hour and a half is a great average. You can't do that in California, it would take you four hours with those crowds. School is still in ses

I was just reflecting on this past winter's surf sessions and the empty glassy magic that becomes the Northeast. I already miss it. Well, I don't miss my 5 mil wetsuit that's for sure. But I was thinking... Is there was a way to determine what the best month of surfing is each year? There have been a few summer months where I catch massive numbers of waves in New England, but are the waves actually better then? Does quantity surpass quality? Can you even base it on the most w

While February started off slow, it ended with some really fun waves and surprisingly warm conditions for the season. I hadn't gotten in the water three days in a row since summer, so that was nice. I surfed alone, or with fewer than 5 other surfers in the water for most of my sessions. It's so nice to stretch out and not be crowded. Looking back on the past two years I'm actually off to a better start in the first two months of 2017 as far as wave count and quality goes. I'v

We finally got some swell! It had been a minute since some decent swell had landed on a weekend without any wind on it. East facing beaches in the New England area were treated to a small long period swell and calm winds. Sizes never topped shoulder high, but there were plenty of rides to be had. Here are some shots from Nantasket from Saturday and Sunday mornings coming off the high tide and dropping. It looks like there will be really strong but junky surf arriving tomorrow

2017 is off to a slow start. Surf days just aren't lining up with days off from work. There has been some spotty swell in the water here and there, but it's had a ton of wind on it with bitter cold temperatures. Lately, the sunny, offshore days seem to end up happening during the work week. It's been really frustrating. Bottom line, there just haven't been a lot of surf days the past few weeks and I've had no luck with those days landing on a Saturday or Sunday. School teache

So I haven't had a job where I was able to surf before work in quite some time. While I do have stretches where I don't work during the year, I've mostly turned into a weekend warrior. My schedule does not have much flexibility on weekdays during the traditional school year. Being a teacher, I do take advantage of summer, but once September begins, I'm owned by Norwood High School. Frustrated by ill-timed weekend flat spells, I saw that there was a Tuesday lining up with the

Today was a good day. Super fun surf in Nantasket. Lots of turns, I've gotta say... putting a 9 inch flex fin in my longboard has really made it super responsive on turns. I had broken off the fin I'd been riding in there for over a decade. I'm glad that happened because I'm really liking the way this board feels now. It's so difficult to surf in October because of work obligations, so I feel lucky to score this day. Hope to get a few more like it before it gets cold and the