Hurricane weather has dumped lots of rain and produced huge swell off the East Coast this summer and fall. Earlier this month, a magical convergence of two hurricanes and some luck produced some gentle(ish) giant waves off the Maine coast. Coincidentally, Alex Nicks of “Wicked Liquid” and “Jehovah’s Wetness” fame, happened to be in town and had his favorite play boat in tow.

After the skies cleared and before the wind picked up, 8-10 foot giant rollers hit Bowden’s ledge right outside the harbor here and produced perfect sets of waves – all afternoon long. The tide didn’t seem to matter because there were always surfable waves forming somewhere. Even the lobstermen were not out fishing that day, and they go out in any weather and sea! For the first time ever, I was able to surf inside the harbor avoiding moored boats and floating docs! After wearing myself out for 2 hours of inner harbor surfing, I took a chocolate break and went back out with Alex Nicks for the prefect 1-hour end of day surf session.

Alex and I got to surf wave after perfect wave, and it was hands down the best ocean wave surfing I have done! These waves were big enough to make me sure I would not surf them by myself, but having Alex there as my wingman gave me confidence and helped me relax so that I could really enjoy every wave I could catch – how lucky were we!! These waves had the unusual characteristics of being very tall, very fat, and very steep so that you could easily catch them with a play boat and they gave you nice long rides! They also had a friendly shoulder to surf off before they smashed into the rocks. Talking to a lobsterman who had been watching us from the town dock later, he said, “we figured you were either crazy or you had to know what you were doing!” We were so lucky to be there at the right moment to surf those gentle giants – thank you universe for an unforgettable day!