The past few weeks on the East Coast have been a boom time for chiropractors and bartenders. Those are the two professions that tend to thrive after heavy snowstorms, as folks suffer bad backs from shoveling and boredom from being shut inside.
NOAACold air from Canada has done nothing but make life miserable for surfers in the Northeast.Psychologists could see an upswing if this miserably cold winter continues, however, and surfers are already primed to have their heads examined. While summer is known to be an annual drag on the Right Side, winter is the proverbial feast or famine. Extreme weather can line up a nonstop swell train. On the other hand, it can also beat the surf down to a sad nothing.
Normally, winter storms are a blessing for this coast, but the track, storm speeds, and oppressive air masses coming in from Canada in the form of icy offshore winds, have kept any kind of swell from building. If you're interested, Mike Watson, of Surfline has a more technical explanationhere.
The mid-Atlantic has seen the worst. Not only has the snow from the Christmas storm become an obstinate layer of frozen crap with brutal cold, but there has not been any kind of wave now in 18 days. Western Long Island is going on a month.
Nothing, nada, zip.
Jon CoenIt's pretty. It's cold. It's flat. It's pretty cold and flat.
"I've been updating the surf report every morning for the HeritageSurf Wavecam. It's been the same -- flat, west wind, cold. It gets to a point where I don't even change the text for weeks at a time," said Ocean City, NJ pro, Andrew Gesler.
Gesler says the only thing saving his sanity is the pit bull/lab mix puppy he and his girl got recently. He also went out and bought a Nintendo Wii (that's encouraging.) He was fortunate to get to the Katin Pro-Am Team challenge last week, which meant a few days of surf in Huntington. He returned to find an ocean that hadn't moved since he left. East Coasters are all scrambling to find airfare somewhere warm and wave-laden.
The Outer Banks saw a few days of small stuff and Maine got the best of the most recent blizzard, but all in all, this has been a heinous time to be a surfer on the East Coast. There is some chance of a shift in the weather pattern, with the potential for a warming trend and south swell for the middle of next week, but the models have backed down on that.
Rubber rooms and straight jackets await.
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