Florence Swell

Apparently the best part of the Florence swell hit Nova Scotia on Tuesday evening. These photos were taken on Wednesday morning. One is of the reef at Lawrencetown and the other is the point at the same place. The reef was breaking left and the point is a right. The swell direction was mostly out of the South with a little East slant. The buoys were reading 10 feet at 11 seconds and the wind was about 10 knots out of the Northwest.

It was big. I paddled out at the reef first. To my surprise I was the only one at this spot. From the beach it looked like it was peeling perfectly. And had I been in good surfing shape and ready for such a fast wave I may have done ok. But the waves were overhead and steep and fast. I was having a hard time getting into them. When I did manage to catch a wave it dumped on my head. Then I got stuck inside and took the rest of the set on my head. After a while of receiving this kind of punishment I got out.

I went over to the other end of the beach to see how people were fairing at the point. There were about five people in the water and they were catching waves. The paddle out looked easy, as there is a rip tide next to the point that pulls you out. I caught a few waves in the three hours that I stayed out there. I am a little intimidated by the fact I haven’t surfed since May and even before that I hadn’t surfed much partly do to a broken elbow. I almost felt discouraged. But should I let myself get down on something so simple and pure as surfing? I mean isn’t just being out there with the sea lions –all of us moving up and down as the swells roll by, enough to make anyone be happy?

Luckily I talked to one of my surfing mentor’s who reminded me that it takes a lot of conditioning and practice to be ready for surf like that. Life feels so vivid when you are actually going out and living, exposing yourself to it. I feel satisfied.