Check the pics here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=214237&id=194729383197

Kurt Kessler's Hatteras-After-Earl

Rodanthe. Not huge, just hollow and perfectly fun

Yet, I am not apologetic for this. You see, even with social media making our sport to be something that should be instantly shared via YouTube and Facebook, the results of which have led to instantaneous sensory gratification for all surf fans, the essence of the experience remains the same. A surfer, their board, and waves.

Unknown airing one out between first and second groin, Buxton, NC

It’s that simple. Getting the feeling doesn’t originate from sitting on those sites to see what your buddies or the ripping pros have scored, it comes from getting it yourself. And that means that experience, knowledge and luck have come together at once, to form a pure stoke. The kind which keeps your face smiling for more than a couple of days. The kind that you can go back to when your in the midst of a long spell with no surf.

Waking up to this doesn't suck. Didn't take enough time to shoot a good set before paddling out

The consensus on Danielle’s waves is that most of the East Coast did not see stellar or even good conditions. Too much wind, smaller swell than forecast in many areas… One place that got the goods was the Outer Banks. At the first part of the swell, the East facing side dealt with the same onshores that plagued much of the rest of the Eastern Seaboard. The South Side was annoyingly devoid of any really good sandbars, making for racy closeouts along most of the beach.

Throwin a top turn at the lighthouse on a fun but sloppy day during Danielle swell

Then things changed, specifically the wind. Danielle’s energy kept flowing into the Outer Banks, and winds varied from slack to light onshore to light offshore for three days. And the barrel fest started. For some reason I won’t speculate on here, the best sandbar I found was directly in front of the house we were staying in. Not far from S Turns, but in a lot of areas including there, the sand was flat and closeouts were the norm rather than the exception.

Rodanthe, mid afternoon. It was this uncrowded all day. Where was everyone?

Earl has also been weird in terms of swell. It seems that Long Island should have gotten bigger than it has been. Looking at the surfcam, it doesn’t look like it’s too much overhead in Western L.I. Montauk looks bigger, but kind of ragged. Hopefully my old home gets the goods from Earl before he jets by. And of course, let’s hope the rest of the Northeast is spared from any major damage or loss of life.

But damn it felt good to get amazing and uncrowded waves in Rodanthe for a few days. The smile still hasn’t waned.

This will come off sounding funny, but it’s refreshing that we can still go to a venue to take in a real punk band in a day and age when hair gel, skinny jeans and Facebook have replaced actual substance in musical acts.

It’s also very telling that one of the top musical artists in social media can’t draw 250 fans to a decently sized venue, but Guttermouth can cram them in to the Black Cat in DC. There’s a lot more to success in music than compiling huge numbers of transparent “friends”.

So it is without further ado that I show the images from the Guttermouth and The New Threat show at the Black Cat in DC, from August 19th, 2010.