Gart Curtis runs towards some gnarly winter storm surf in Alaska.

BARREN ISLANDS AND KAMISHAK BAY WATERS
400 PM AKST SAT NOV 29 2008

...STORM WARNING THROUGH SUNDAY...
...HEAVY FREEZING SPRAY WARNING THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT...
.TONIGHT...W WIND 50 KT. SEAS 16 FT. HEAVY FREEZING SPRAY.
.SUN...NW WIND 50 KT. SEAS 16 FT. HEAVY FREEZING SPRAY.
.SUN NIGHT...NW WIND 40 KT DIMINISHING TO 25 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. SEAS
14 FT. HEAVY FREEZING SPRAY.

We had some fun storm surf in Homer, Alaska today. Air temps were around 25F and it was blowing roughly 25mph onshore. That was all just fine and I was having a great surf until around 4pm when we started losing daylight fast the wind picked up even more and little icy precipitation started falling. The problem was the flying ice crystals were getting blown into our eyes making it painful to look offshore. Let me just say it wasn’t a good day to not be paying close attention to where you were at in the lineup.

According to the forecast something juicy is brewing up for tomorrow. Hopefully we won’t have so much wind locally.

I shot a bunch of photos today, but haven’t edited (or even downloaded) them yet. Stay tuned. The shot above is from January 2007 when the conditions were much like today.

NWS Marine Weather can be seen here

Tube with a view - The Kenai Mountains as seen through a hollow wave.

What a sweet welcome November gave us today! Sunny and gorgeous like the last few days, but this time with a nice little swell.

The phones were ringing this morning long before the sun rose- “Surf is up my friend, get ready for a 8am dawn patrol (thanks to daylight savings time we didn’t have to wait till 9am).

I spent most of the three sessions for today in the water with the camera in a surf housing and I’m very excited about the resulting photos. I’ve just had time to glance at them now, and am totally beat so I’m only posting one and heading for bed.  More to come soon though! Maybe not tomorrow since we might be hard back at it.

surf session photo from october 27th 2008 in Alaska

The 27th, Monday, brought some surprisingly nice chest high waves to Kachemak Bay. The photo above was a quick snap before I ran down the beach with a surfboard, leaving the camera in the car for this session. The photo doesn’t really do the waves justice. First of all, I was too impatient to wait for a good set, and the best waves where actually around the corner on a little sand bar. For about 30 minutes the little swell stood up against a light offshore on the sand bar making some beautiful, hollow chest high waves. Then the tide rose too high and they went soft. Some of the guys stayed right there on the point (see above photo) and got some nice, pretty long rides while another friend and I were out prospecting around the corner.

Monday was the first day the water started to feel a bit like winter. Up till now we were enjoying warm fall water, but with several straight days of below freezing air temps it’s clearly over. No complaints though, the sun was out and the breeze was offshore. I’m still happy wearing 2mm gloves and am yet to leave the beach feeling hypothermic this season.

The forecast is not looking very promising, so perhaps I’ll sort through a few of the other surf sessions we’ve had in the last couple weeks as I wait for the next swell.

Mike McCune surfing Bishop

I only have a minute, but wanted to get a photo up from today’s session. It was very windy, complete with water spouts on Kachemak Bay! Despite the wind though, there was a crowd of surfers out at Bishops Beach. If you could make it outside the crushing shore break there was actually some pretty nice waves. Not a very consistent line up and extreme side currents made it a thing of luck if you were in the right spot at the right time. With the current so strong it was ‘drift surfing’ – Jump in the water on the West end of the beach and scramble your way out of the break on the East end of the break, hike back up the beach into the wind and do it again.

Air temps were down for the first time this year really. I think it was around 28F with a windspeed I’d guess at around 20mph gusting to 30mph. This particular break is rideable during winds like this sometimes becuase of a little windshadow in the area.

More session reports and photos coming soon.