Surf's Up!

I was thinking all day (Thursday) that I had already completed Friday's post. That is, until Craig Ferguson retired for the night and I happened to check. Now I'm left wondering what the hell I did all day. Not to worry. I'll go ahead and prepare this post, then go to bed and sleep late. Maybe I'll be productive tomorrow. . .

Today is Surf Day on my East Coast Tour; the location is Hatteras Island. There are actually two surfers in this first picture, the guy walking in toward the camera and a little speck on the far side of the pier just to the right of center. That's why the picture got in this series.

What's interesting about the picture, though, is the damage incurred by the pier. I don't know for sure but, after checking online, I suspect the damage is at least partially a remnant of Hurricane Earl in early September. I understand the pier had already been closed due to previous damage, but suffered more as a result of Earl. The good news is, for adding interest to a photograph: a pier is good, but a damaged pier is better.

I'm not sure how long I sat there on the bench just taking shots whenever some movement caught my eye. But afterwords, it seemed like everything had just been waiting for me to get ready so the show could begin. In the picture above, the swells were small, and not even breaking. . .

It didn't take long, however, for things to pick up. This is probably as close as I'll get to a shot of the "Banzai Pipeline". Hey! Could that be James (Moon Doggy) Darren? You never know. . .

I obviously don't know much about surfing, but I would be interested in knowing how good the surfing is at Cape Hatteras, compared to Malibu for example, or the beaches around Sydney, Australia. Perhaps my son, David, will let me know, at least about Sydney.

This is the one I like. The surfer, that is. She's not Sandra Dee (Gidget), but she looked awfully nice and it turns out she could surf as well. The picture above and the next two are of the same girl. . . er, woman. . . uh, lady. . . oh hell, Gidget.

I like the surf in these shots too. They'd be great if I'd already had that bigger "pelican" lens I mentioned before. It could be my "pelican/surfer" lens. Maybe next year.

Here's Gidget one last time, shooting the curl. Pretty good, huh? Everything I know about surfing I learned from the Beach Boys, and Jan & Dean.

And, of course, the beach movies. This scene was set up for Gidget, with the breakers crashing in the background in the glare of the afternoon sun. Alas, who comes padding out of the surf instead? I guess this "surfer dude" will have to be "the Great Kahuna". . .