As the old surfer saying goes, September separates the kooks from the shredders.
OK, that’s a saying I made up over the weekend while trying to slog out through a whitewater blast that knocked me and my longboard over and back toward the beach.
I thought I had timed everything right. I thought I had enough speed. I thought I’d make it over, but instead, it was fins up, nose over, and me holding on as best I could before ending up back where I started in waist-deep water.
The waves were strong, but nothing compared to the Katia-powered swell on Friday, when I stayed on the beach with a camera. Those waves were big, and strong, and many slammed shut with a 20-foot-tall backwash.
From a jetty on the Ocean City beach, I watched a lot of guys try to paddle out, but most were rejected in no uncertain terms. They just could not get past the wall of whitewater rushing in. One of the surfers said he could not find a channel to take him out or enough time to push through before the next set came in.
A few made it out only to find themselves in a fast, inexorable current dragging them south along the beach. Not everyone who brought a board to the beach tried to paddle out, and only a fraction of those who tried made it to the break, and only a few of those who made it out managed to catch one of those slamming waves and find some clean water to ride. In all, I think I saw three or four rides.
These looked to be the kind of waves local surfers pray for – clean, overhead, hurricane-powered waves on a clear day. But for much of Ocean City the angle wasn’t there. I heard Ventnor and Sea Isle City did a little better, which meant that after the takeoff, there was somewhere to go besides straight down.
It’s pretty clear that the whole idea of what constitutes a big wave can mean different things to different people.
I’ve known some very good surfers who say they don’t like big waves. I then found out that their idea of big had very little to do with mine. Summer is known for little waves, but now that September’s here, a chest-high wave is not generally considered a monster, even if a 4-foot moving wall of water seems like a heck of a thing to try to ride.
For Jeff Pace, who has been surfing in South Jersey since he was 17, a big wave for this area is over your head or higher. That’s not measured by someone standing in the water. It means that if you’re standing on the board, the top of the wave is above the head of a grown man.
For some surfers, it has to be double that to be called a big wave, and with tow-in surfing, people are now riding waves more than 30 feet tall. Some riders have successfully ridden waves that were more than 50 feet tall, while a few have died trying.
They don’t get that big here.
The biggest swell usually gets broken up by shoals far outside.
“It just doesn’t hold the giant swell around here like some of the classic point breaks,” said Pace, who has surfed big waves in Costa Rica, California and too many other spots to list. “Anything head high, or a foot or two overhead, that’s a big wave around here. The big wave pro surfers – they’re looking for something over 20 feet.”
Getting in to the big waves is mostly just a matter of getting used to surfing, and stepping up a little at a time until you know how to handle yourself in the bigger swell, Pace said. It’s also a matter of knowing what you can handle and what the ocean is likely to throw at you.
Pace surfs off a small town in Costa Rica where overhead swell is pretty common. There is a spot the surfers call Baby Reef, where those giant waves break in a way that gives you plenty of time to take off, even in the whitewater, and just ease down the face for a sweet, long ride.
Don’t expect that around here, where the big waves are rarely all that friendly.
“On the most dangerous big waves, you have no margin of error. You have to have your feet just right, you have to have the rail set in just the right direction, and you have to be prepared to have this thing get really hollow really fast,” Pace said.
He said a lot of beginners have trouble telling when it’s a good day to paddle out, and when they should sit it out. They hear the buzz or read the forums about the good waves on the way, and they want to be part of it, not taking into account that they are listening to people who have been surfing for 20 years.
“They pick up on this vibe, ‘This is the time to surf,’” Pace said. “Everybody learns this.” He said at 17, he and a buddy went out at 30th Street in Avalon on a huge day.
“We didn’t even get close to paddling out,” he said.
One nice thing is that the ocean tends to reject those who aren’t ready to be out there. It’s hard to get out to the break on a big day, and when the tide’s coming in, only a very strong, very skilled surfer even has a chance of catching a wave.
“You’ve got to earn it. It’s getting denied; that happens to everybody,” Pace said. He rides a longboard, which means he can’t duck dive under the big waves like a shortboarder can. He can use the rip currents or the channel next to the jetties as an escalator to help him get outside, but when the currents are strong, it can be tough no matter what.
For instance, along the Ocean City boardwalk, there are jetties and outfall pipes about every half block. In the summer, they aren’t much in the way, but in a hurricane-powered swell, you’ve got to get past them before the current takes you into them.
Once out, Pace said, a surfer has to pick a landmark and stick to it. On Friday, that did not seem possible, as surfers washed blocks at a time, coming into view from the north and disappearing behind the Music Pier in about 10 minutes.
“There’s a lot of timing and luck that go into it; 80 percent of the game is just getting out there,” he said.
Katia threw some heavy water around, and there are more storms to come. I made it out on a smaller weekend day and after a few frustrating attempts got some nice rides, including a long left that took me about half a block.
The biggest waves usually come to South Jersey in October and November, when the lifeguards are gone and the waves pretty much empty out. This week, tropical storm Maria is supposed to pass by the coast well out to sea, and on Monday, forecasts call for waves close to head high but a mess for most of Cape May and Atlantic counties.
Friday’s waves look a lot smaller, but also a lot more inviting, at least according to the early forecasts.
Also this weekend is the 16th Nun’s Beach surf contest, set for Stone Harbor on Saturday, Sept. 17 at 111th Street to raise money for the Villa Maria by the Sea retreat there. There are cool T-shirts, and organizers say the event is open to surfers at all levels. The contest runs from 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m., and registration is $35. Call (609) 368-5920 or email Sister James Dolores at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for details.
For more photos, see Katina's Party
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