That, my friends, is a barrell. Holy SHIT! 😲💥
He finds them! Nice one 😎
There's some pretty insane footage startin to show up from Jersey. I'm just watchin and waitin before I post any more of em. Ben Gravy Jersey somewhere in DOH? Rob Kelly's arms might need to be rehabbed. It's gettin crazy.
I still hope everyone is ok house wise. I didn't expect surf THIS nuts.
I'm just gonna trust this is real. 😎🤙
Mitch, do you have footage of the tow team in OC MD maybe on Friday I think it was? I think he posted it on the OC MD FB page. If it wasn't mitch, it was someone else on there. But it looked like the Hurricane Sandy swell when they dipped past the coast guard and were towing during Sandy with Raven Lundy and those guys.
Anyway, it looked plenty big and legit. Hopefully he can post it.
Zach - I didn't see anything that big out of this swell, or that Colin and Raven were towing. I didn't hear anything about this. I was sizable on Friday and Saturday everywhere around here
another
Opened YT and this hit my feed.
Yeah Mitch. I saw the video again this morning and although someone from OC MD originally posted it, it was taking place in OC NJ. Who was towing and surfing is unknown. The video that I saw was about 15 minutes long, and it was a re-post of a live stream, so the life stream starts with whomever is filming saying "Wow, that guy just pulled into a huge barrel and made it out. Then there was about 13 minutes of them riding around, avoiding sets, and the guy kept saying "I am going to try and keep filming until they get one" and finally, they got one. It wasn't a massive bomb and it wasn't a barrel, just an OH+ wave that he went backside and turned a couple of times...
Now, that was NOT the original video I saw, but I assume it was the same place. I am sure today or tomorrow we will start seeing more footage coming out.
And I doubt it was Raven and those dudes this time, I just know it was them during Hurricane Sandy. I will never forget that, because at the time, my Dad lived in Bethany Beach and I had just moved to Hilton Head like 2 weeks prior, so my Pops came down to visit in November and brought a copy of the "Delmarva" time or whatever the local paper there is called. And on the front page, it had Raven Lundy pulling into that famous/infamous left hander during Sandy.
That whole this was so ironic, because in the video, they are all hiding in a parking deck in mid-town and they are filming the Nationall Guard driving by. Beaches are closed. No vessels allowed out, so as the hummers drive by, they say "Okay, go go go"... And then they proceed to take PWC out illegally for a couple of hours and tow-at. At the time, highly illegal and a big no-no....
But when it was all said and done, they put the illegal activity on the front page of the local paper and it turned into OC surfing lore. That is my take anyway.
So, I am sure it wasn't the VB crew this time, but whenever I put the terms "OC MD" and "Towing" together, only one name pops in my head, and it's Raven Lundy. I am sure they have been doing shit like that for some time, but that was the first time I had ever seen any one charging like that on unsurfable OC MD swells. Legendary shit.
And then this one popped up next.
I'm on the outside lookin in, so don't have a real vote or can't feel it the same as y'all over in it. Does the past week save the season that so far wasn't? Maybe someone needs to go by broken bort counts? # of consecutive days?
The footage looks kinda up there.
We only got a taste of it down here, but from the looks of it, even though the mid Atlantic got the goods, it was brief with only a day or so of decent conditions....
So, to me. No, this is still an absolute failure.
Think of it this way: How fucking ironic is it, that our first major swell of the "Hurricane Season" actually comes from an early season Nor'Easter from the winter?
It doesn't get much more weird than that....
At this point, I will take what I can get, and don't get me wrong, the boy and I had a blast on our chest high, perfect conditions...
But to add final perspective on the 2026 Atlantic Hurricane season: For every session that was not a post work quick strike mission, I have been joined by my 8 year old son. Who again, is 8, and is new to surfing, but still insanely good for an 8 year old. Anyway, not ONE of these times, have we gotten to the beach and I have seen/said "You know what, you should probably sit this one out"....
So, until I get to the beach and have to tell my son: "Buddy, it's too big today. Daddy is going to do his thing. Wait here"... Until then, there is no "hurricane season".... Just another fall in Kentucky at this point.
Yeah what Raven and Colin did on that Sandy swell was amazing. I rarely see them towing, or stepping off, just because I'm not usually going to be surfing XXL waves. It's funny...Colin hits me up a lot for surf reports, and just to see if I might shoot a few pics, and I see him in the water a lot but when it gets up to ski size, he's other other camera guys who partner with him, and I get ghosted. LOL.
This was the best day I ever saw them Stepping off. There were actually a couple guys who paddled out from the beach this day, and that paddle out they made was pretty impressive. When OCMD gets over 8 foot, getting out is SO sketchy. It breaks top to bottom hard on an outer bar. You ain't gonna be ducking diving a set, you gotta get lucky and work the rips to get out.
@mitchell Yeah man, as I am now an OC MD outsider, that day during Sandy, on a national scale, put OC MD on the map. I know Jersey, Florida and OBX get most of the coverage suring surf events, but in my experiences, OC MD doesn't get quite as heavy in the fall as Jersey does, because of the coastal angle and what not, but otherwise, OC MD is one of the better spots on the east coast. Hidden Jem kinda thing. I can't tell you how many people said to me on the west coast: "Maryland has waves? Or, there are beaches in Maryland?" shit. All the time....
But that particular swell and that session made the rounds in the national surf scene, and I can't think of a more important day in modern Maryland surfing history. A lot of it was novelty, but seeing waves THAT BIG, being surfed THAT WELL, put the rest of the east coast on notice. It's not good like that often, but on it's best days, I think OC MD can hold up with most spots.
Anyway, I think this was the frame that made the cover of the Delmarva Times back in 2012 (I think that was the Sandy Year)....
Sandy was CRAAAAAZY!!! I remember I was down in PR with my wife when that thing first started spinning up, last day before we left was massive and wild. Came back to FL and watched the rest of it unfold along the Coast.
Yeah man. Sandy was the first notable swell that hit when I moved back to the east coast. I had been surfing a handful of times prior, but this was the first hurricane that I encountered back in 2012 when I moved here. From the few guys I had met and surfed with so far, they had told me A) I had picked the right beach, and this was "the spot" for hurricanes and B) The surf is ONLY good here 2 hours prior to high tide and about 1 hour after....
So, I took all these notes, got there 3 hours before high tide. It maxed out while I was there. Nothing crazy. Couple of feet overhead, HEAVY offshores.... And about an hour after high tide, it got so small that I was the last guy out (About 12-15 to start with) and I ended up having to paddle in. It go so small, I couldn't even nab a taxi ride back into the beach.....
So, Sandy will always have a special place in my heart. First major hurricane I surfed after moving back....
I also remember that day that there was this old lady out, like late 70s on a long board. It looked way too big for her to be out. But anyway, she was decent and got a few waves. But that is when I knew this was such a small island and that every surfer that lived there at the time was all at the same spot... So anyway, this old lady was a MENACE in the lineup. Multiple times, I would hear these other older guys yelling "Oh, for fucks sake Betty, come on'!!!!" as she dropped in on them and shit... She would paddle back out and say "Fuck off Tom" and all this shit... It was so funny. Everyone was super stoked, but ol' Betty didn't give a fuck. She was just a crusty, salty old local... So funny.
Speaking of which, RIP Betty from Swell Info. She was a fucking legend.
Get some my boyz. Yeah E.C., you have to remember hes wearing a wetsuit dont be cray wear the grey!
There ain't nothin more fun than a hundred year old ripper girl on a log. Betties rule.
"This ain't Jr High."©️®️
Hell yeah, Betties. 😎🤙
First Betty I ever encountered was in San Diego. I am at a lesser surfed spot in front of my apartment the first year we moved there. It's like chest high, mid tide. Nobody out. So, at the time, I bought a used wetsuit when I moved to SD for like 50 bucks. At this point, it's mid winter and there is a cannon ball sized hole in the side of my wetsuit. Better than nothing. Cold as fuck, but more than anything, the hole just looked ridiculous. So, at the time, I would usually put on the wetsuit, then wear a rashguard over top, just so it didn't look so bad. I know, total kook move.
So anyway, I am out there alone for like an hour. I am like 23 years old. This old lady, maybe late 60s at the time paddle out on a longboard, sits right next to me at the peak, looks over and says "What, are you surfing a fucking contest or something by yourself?" I lift up my rash guard and show her my situation and say "No contest, just poor"..... Then she shakes her head and paddles away.
Every time I saw her after, I was like, there is that only Dyke bitch... Fuck that ol' Betty.....
She was a crusty bitch. Total cunt in the lineup every time I ever saw her after. Not even a good surfer. Just an entitled old bitch. And I went on surfing that spot about 100 times per year, in every condition. I will name drop, because who cares, but the spot is called "Peskys", short for Pescedero Point. It's at the old boat ramp at the end of Cable Street. Anyway, it's a wonky break. Pretty short wave for the cliffs, and anything over 10ft, it's a washout shit show into cliffs. So, most people don't fuck with it because it's a specific wave, but it works well on anything from 3ft-10ft.... Great spot. And when it's good, there are like 5 guys on it, compared to 100 on any other decent reef break in the area.
Anyway, point is, when I encountered that bitch at the same spot a few years later (She was not a local to that spot I guess), I basically owned that point at the time. And every surfer in town knew that if it was working, that is where it would be.... So, that crusty old bitch had to get to the end of the line and watch anytime after that....
So, not all betties are created equal. Some are just cunt bags.
Yup. There's bad people everywhere. Reckon some are 80yr old dykester surf terrorists. She probably don't get any favors.
I never ran into one like that, Zach. Not a big sample size here in G-Town. You found a real winner there. I don't get out much.