Chris Bickford

Autumn is drawing to a close, and with it the convergence of warm water, tropical storms, and nor-easters that make it the best surf season on the Outer Banks. The long Indian Summer has faded, the winds are getting stronger and more biting, the long afternoons of surfing after work have ended with Daylight Savings Time. The committed are stepping into wetsuits, still damp and cold from the last session, and bracing for the first duck-dive into burly waves for the punishing paddle-out. It only gets colder from here on out, and the faster you get used to it, the less time you’ll lose procrastinating. Now’s the time of year when that old wetsuit you’ve been meaning to replace really starts to show its age and you have to ponder whether or not to spend a few hundred bucks on a new one that will keep you warm all winter, or keep wearing that same ripped-up, water-swallowing sack of rubber. A smart investor would put the money on the new suit, knowing that the payback will be more time spent in the water; still, facing a long winter of no money coming in, on the heels of a slow summer and an abysmal economy, it may mean the difference between surfing and eating…or at least drinking…

Still, it’s been a good season. A little windy perhaps–okay, REALLY f-ing windy–but there have been some fine swells coming through and a lot of great fall weather. Who knows what kind of winter we will have. Bets are on it being a cold one, since we’re due for one. Hopefully, though, the cold snaps will be broken with a few of those sublime winter warm-spells, where it gets up into the ’70s and the winds lay back and the beaches fill with locals walking dogs, collecting sea-shells, and just enjoying a little bit of respite before the next nor-easter drives them off the beach again.