rhode island report, thurs.

Here in New England, USA we have a fun-sized ground swell coming in from an ocean storm situated N of Bermuda. Size is a little overhead on the sets right now, forecast to increase until tonight, and then level off into Friday and before slowly dissapating. This may well be the last hurrah before the summer doldrums and kook invasions of June, July and early August, before the tropics start to cook.

Anyway, I surfed at Mary's Bar, a S-facing left point, from 7 - 11am this morning. At first it was glassy, clean, and chest- to head-high with a few overhead cleanup sets coming through. The waves were surprisingly mushy for a ground swell, and the peak shifted around a bit, but boy when you dialed into one you could sure feel the power and speed! I scored some real roller-coaster lefts. You could trim high up on the face (I was on my 9' Becker) since they were not real steep waves, and just keep dropping in, climbing, dropping, etc. Despite the mushiness, I remember vividly a few sections that stood straight up at eye-level or higher and I prayed they'd start to throw out, but they just didn't have the pitch to get very hollow. At around 9 or so the wind started to pick up from the SW and that chopped it up a bit, but the sets just kept coming in at head-high+. Long wait between sets, but usually worth it.

There should be good waves from NJ to Maine so I hope some of my northeast US brothers and sisters also got some!

Hey John- glad it was good down at Mary's Bar. I surfed Town Beach from 8-10 and it was similar to what you described. The smaller waves tended to close out (typical of town beach) but the outside sets had some power! Occasionally clean up sets would come through and start to break way out, almost even with the coast guard house. I was lucky to catch one of those for my last ride

I cursed:

... ;-/
http://www.monmouth.com/user_pages/sisom http://www.altsurfing.org

wrote on 5/10/01 8:52 PM:

Aw shit, you were just caught up in the moment!

Glad you scored. I figured NJ must be getting some insane barrels. Early morning in RI was hollower, but the four hours I was out were sandwiched around high tide and that's why it was a little mushier. Hitting it in a few minutes for morning leftovers...

Nice to hear that you scored some juice KR.

HaHa! Funny story and so...Nantasket.

I was debating heading up there this morning since there might be a little more size leftover up north, but it's too long a drive for a weekday. Hitting it here instead in a few minutes.

Praying this isn't the last good swell before summer flatness...