2008 Homer, Alaska surf season begins

A quick pre-surf snap of break before 10/8/08 3.5hr surf session.

October is traditionally the time that weather patterns begin to shift around my hometown of Homer, Alaska. Along with a bunch of rain, cold weather, and slush, October brings the first real westerly winds that push waves into the Kachemak Bay. After about five months with very very little to no surf, all of a sudden there’s a chance of a lump rolling onto the beaches. This is a great time of year to surf as much as possible in Alaska since the water is relatively warm (just above 50 degrees Fahrenheit) and you can’t complain about the air temps either.

I just returned from a week of surfing in Yakutat (more on this later) where it’s much warmer both in the water and out. After a nice two day break for my sore back and arms, Tuesday (10/7/08) brought some head high faces crashing into Homer. There was a record number of surfers in the water despite the close-out beach break conditions. The photo above was taken before I ran down the beach and paddled out. As the tide rose and the hours ticked by conditions improved and we actually ended up with some pretty nice clean barrels. Fast steep drops followed by a nice cool water sinus flush.

The next morning was even better – that report is next.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 6:26 am. It is filed under Blog, surf session, Uncategorized and tagged with Alaska, Homer, report, surf session. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

mcfish says:

October 13, 2008 at 2:20 am

Scott,
Looks like a nice start to your site, and to the surf season for that matter. Hope we get another session tomorrow!
Mcfish

ScottDickerson says:

October 13, 2008 at 6:14 am

Thanks McFish.
Got what you asked for! I was down on the beach looking for the lost fin around 7pm around low tide and the swell was all but gone. Hopefully it will reappear monday.

inheartofAK says:

November 25, 2008 at 9:50 am

Hi, my name is nathan and this winter surfing sounds like a blast. I’ve never been on a board before but it doesn’t scare me. Can I hook up with some one in Homer over Christmas break who will show me what the North Pacific has to offer?
thx for any response,
Nathan in Fairbanks

November 25, 2008 at 7:00 pm

Hi Nathan,
The ocean calls the schedule around here. If there is waves we surf, if not . . . well, we just think about it a lot. Winter time is the right time so there will likely be some waves in December. If you are around feel free to email, but no guarantees.

BradC says:

November 27, 2008 at 9:36 pm

Scott the site looks great…. needless to say, but the shots are excellent! Keep posting, its my only relief while I’m away….

November 28, 2008 at 7:56 am

Thanks Brad. It’s funny to think you are down there on the warm ocean fantasizing about surfing these freezing stormy alaskan waves! Funny, but I can totally understand.

We got some surfing in yesterday, and we are hoping for some swell this weekend too. There was about a week of nothing though so you haven’t missed much yet.

Jeff Crotts says:

September 7, 2009 at 2:07 pm

Scott,

Thanks for your blog posts and picts. My name is Jeff Crotts (37 yrs old) and I just moved here this summer – so I’m new to Alaska but grew up surfing on the East Coast and some in California. I live in Anchorage and am interested in surfing here. It there’s any way to connect over surfing I would really appreciate it. My email is jeffreycrotts@sbcglobal.net.

Thanks,
Jeff

JeffN says:

October 6, 2009 at 3:13 pm

Hi guys-

I’m visiting my sister in Homer this weekend 10/9/09 and was hoping to do some surfing at the spit. Any of you know where I could rent a dry suit and a surfboard? Was thinking about buying a used surfboard and renting a drysuit in AK. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!