Emerald Isle Surf Kayaking
| River: | Other |
| Skill: | Novice |
| Trip Date: | 08/12/2012 |
Paddlers :-
Paul Clawson (k1 – Mega Megatron)
Paul Scrutton (k1 – Mega Proton)
Mike (9'2" longboard)
We met up at 7.30am at the Station Street parking lot on the Western end of Emerald Isle, NC. Emerald Isle is a south facing beach on NC's "Crystal Coast", about 3 hours away from the Triangle. The Station Street parking lot is a very convenient walk to the ocean area known as the Point. This area offers good, uncrowded surfing, and also has an inlet that is a short paddle away, providing other options if the sand-bar isn't breaking. 7.30am while being early, ensured us to get a parking space in this small lot that offers spots for approximately 16 vehicles.
We took our kayaks and surfboard and walked the 1/4 mile down to the beach from the parking lot and were greeted with an ominous looking black storm cloud hovering off-shore, and occasional cracks of thunder and lightning. As Mike had been nearly hit by lightning a few weeks ago, the consensus was to retreat back to the trucks to wait things out. So, we walked back to the trucks with our gear and pulled out the smart-phones to check the weather.
While seated under Paul C's camper top on his truck, we looked at Accuweather which offers radar, and realized that a storm was hovering off of the coast and moving slowly our way. The rain started coming down good and we debated what to do. After about 45 mins of steady heavy rain, the rain lightened, and the sky became a whiter shade of grey; and storm activity had stopped. It was unclear what rainbands would be coming next, so we made a decision at this point to try and squeeze out an hour of surfing in this lull of weather activity. To speed the process up, we drove the gear back down to the beach, and Paul C then drove back to the lot and jogged back to the beach.
We got in the water, which was pretty choppy and paddled out, Paul C and Mike taking the lead. The wind had died down somewhat at this point, and the tide was rising from low tide. Paul C got some immediate roll practice while paddling out, and I was tentatively getting my head around my new boat. It was a little more squirrily than what I was used to paddling. The set-waves coming in were about "waist-high" (as viewed on a surfer) – this translates to head-high while sitting in a kayak.
After about 45 mins of working the choppy waves, the wind completely died, the remanants of the storm had gone, the sun came out a little, and the waves went quite glassy – just long period swell was left; ie. large ramps of glassy water with no chop. We had these conditions for about an hour and it was good, no it was great. I was able to work one peak doing three bottom to top turns on it. The new boat is a keeper.
Paul C and I made our way back to the beach to empty water out of our boats, and Mike came in after a while. After chatting some about the conditions, we saw that they had detiarated somewhat, and the wind had started up (causing chop). We decided to bail at this point, and hiked back to the parking lot.
While loading up vehicles we spotted some local friendly wild-life.
Paul Clawson loading up his boat. Mike (boardsurfer) in foreground.