For surfers on the East Coast of the U.S., the Panhandle and the Caribbean, it is the Atlantic hurricane season that provides the most anticipation, excitement ... and disappointment.
However, this week has already delivered much more of the former, rather than the latter. The second week of September is statistically the historical peak of the season and the recent tropical activity backs up those numbers.
Tropical activity in the Atlantic - WSL / National Hurricane Center
Over the weekend the National Hurricane Center notified seven areas of interest for storm development in the Atlantic. For surfers, the two hurricanes, two tropical storms, a depression and two disturbances provided a variety of quality of waves depending on your location.
Now if your location was Barbados, as is the case for the Burke Brothers, Josh and Jacob, you would have already scored from the first of these hurricanes.
Hurricane Paulette ran into Bermuda on Monday, but then veered back into the Northern Atlantic, but had already offered an excellent window for some of the Caribbean's best breaks.
"This is a wave known as Box by Box, and also as Z-Land, after our friend Zander Venezia died there three years ago," Josh Burke told the WSL. "It is usually breaks only for two hours, and this time it broke for three days. On the last and biggest day of the swell I surfed for 10 hours. At one stage it was just me and my brother surfing perfect 10-foot waves on our own for three hours."
Paulette's North Atlantic trajectory then provided waves up and down the Eastern Seaboard, though the Northeast and Florida scored more optimal conditions than Virginia and the Southeast.
Micheal Dunphy and Evan Geiselman, were two surfers who made the trip to New York to chase a swell. Leaving good waves at home is one of surfing's bravest, and riskiest, moves, but from their Insta feeds it looked like it paid off.
Up in Carolina, the mix of swell and wind has made for some interesting conditions. As ever Brett Barley was right there. And if you can somehow get barreled almost going straight then surely you're ahead of the curve.
Away from Paulette, Hurricane Sally was operating in the Gulf. However, the storm focused swell at a few breaks around the Florida Panhandle and West Florida and came with driving rain, storm surges and strong onshore easterly winds.
And now there's Tropical Storm Teddy, who is forecast to develop into a hurricane. Many of the models predict Teddy should provide good swell and winds for Florida and south facing coasts in the Northeast.
"The next week's forecast looks as good as I've seen in Barbados," said Burke. "If it goes to plan, we could have some of the best waves I've surfed in my life."
Stay tuned folks, this hurricane season is far from over.
Atlantic Hurricane Season Delivers Bounty Of Surf To Caribbean and U.S. East Coast
Ben Mondy
For surfers on the East Coast of the U.S., the Panhandle and the Caribbean, it is the Atlantic hurricane season that provides the most anticipation, excitement ... and disappointment.
However, this week has already delivered much more of the former, rather than the latter. The second week of September is statistically the historical peak of the season and the recent tropical activity backs up those numbers.
Over the weekend the National Hurricane Center notified seven areas of interest for storm development in the Atlantic. For surfers, the two hurricanes, two tropical storms, a depression and two disturbances provided a variety of quality of waves depending on your location.
Now if your location was Barbados, as is the case for the Burke Brothers, Josh and Jacob, you would have already scored from the first of these hurricanes.
Hurricane Paulette ran into Bermuda on Monday, but then veered back into the Northern Atlantic, but had already offered an excellent window for some of the Caribbean's best breaks.
"This is a wave known as Box by Box, and also as Z-Land, after our friend Zander Venezia died there three years ago," Josh Burke told the WSL. "It is usually breaks only for two hours, and this time it broke for three days. On the last and biggest day of the swell I surfed for 10 hours. At one stage it was just me and my brother surfing perfect 10-foot waves on our own for three hours."
Paulette's North Atlantic trajectory then provided waves up and down the Eastern Seaboard, though the Northeast and Florida scored more optimal conditions than Virginia and the Southeast.
Micheal Dunphy and Evan Geiselman, were two surfers who made the trip to New York to chase a swell. Leaving good waves at home is one of surfing's bravest, and riskiest, moves, but from their Insta feeds it looked like it paid off.
Up in Carolina, the mix of swell and wind has made for some interesting conditions. As ever Brett Barley was right there. And if you can somehow get barreled almost going straight then surely you're ahead of the curve.
Away from Paulette, Hurricane Sally was operating in the Gulf. However, the storm focused swell at a few breaks around the Florida Panhandle and West Florida and came with driving rain, storm surges and strong onshore easterly winds.
And now there's Tropical Storm Teddy, who is forecast to develop into a hurricane. Many of the models predict Teddy should provide good swell and winds for Florida and south facing coasts in the Northeast.
"The next week's forecast looks as good as I've seen in Barbados," said Burke. "If it goes to plan, we could have some of the best waves I've surfed in my life."
Stay tuned folks, this hurricane season is far from over.
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