A Blog A Day 2017: Blog #7
Thursday, September 7th
#TBT Throwback Thursday
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| (Left to Right) Mike Byrne, Matt McKay, Anthony Scrocca, and Steve Jackson. Delaware, September 1999. |
In September 1999, a solid crew of bodyboarders from New Jersey drove down to the OBX (Outer Banks, North Carolina) to compete at the ESA East Coast Surfing Championship. Me, Matt Edelson, Jason Bitzer, Mike Murphy, Matt McKay, Mike Byrne, Anthony Scrocca. Day one was almost flat, but still "contestable" by ESA standards...knee high "shin slappers." The next day, at Buxton Lighthouse, the swell from Hurricane Floyd had filled in with "Victory at Sea" storm conditions. Outside of the contest, a bunch of us scored solid sessions at Avon Pier and down at Frisco Pier. As Hurricane Floyd approached, we decided it would be best to leave before Highway 12 (the only road in or out of the OBX) started washing out or turned into an endless traffic jam. We left that night. Mandatory Evacuation was declared the following morning. Some of us headed to Virginia Beach (Virginia) and spent the night at Ricky Miller's place. The next morning we hit up a fun session in VB, before packing up and continuing north. Floyd was catching up to us. We drove up to Delaware and caught the last ferry back to Cape May (Southern New Jersey). By this time the hurricane had caught up to us. That was an extremely rocky ferry ride, to say the least. We stayed at Mike Byrne's house in Cape May for the night, allowing the storm to pass by. The next morning, I drove back home and scored some pumping waves with my local crew for the next couple of days. It was a little nerve-racking and exhausting chasing a hurricane swell up the US East Coast, but such an epic experience! Even almost two decades later, I'm still stoked to have had this experience and chased this swell with these guys!
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