Western Autumn Swells 06: Hurricane Florence

17 September 2006: Hurricane Florence.
The extended tribe had been keeping a sharp weather eye on this particular depression swirling around the Atlantic seaboard of Amercia, and the drums had been beating well into the night. Sure enough come Saturday morning the horses were saddled and the dusty road west trodden at speed for another autumn surfari. An easy sun- soaked Saturday afternoon on the western shores bobbing about in the blue, followed by a round of the habitual boule little prepared us for the kraken to follow. Woken from my slumber under the open skies to the boom of swell on the reef I knew, before I had even opened my eyes, that this was indeed the day. We were not proved wrong. A hearty cooked breakfast courtesy of our ever-lovely support team set us up for one of the most exciting of days as can been seen above (courtesy of sunsetsurfers.co.uk), snapped at around 11am that morning. A perfect swell of well over head- high waves battered the sandy shoreline and after a surprisingly easy paddle out much time was spent paddling back in, springing up and subsequently tumbling back down into the 'heavy soil' spin cycle of the Atlantic washing machine. A day we had all been practicing for was well rewarded. Spat back on to the beach in due course we were resuscitated thanks to the kind preparations of the support team and its much appreciated argentine Mate. (Team: The Longboard, Smaug, Cousin Jim, Il Surfero).