Surfing During This Freezing Time

You look outside. Its windy, snowing and absolutely freezing. Bone chilling cold. The kind of cold that you can feel just by looking and listening. The kind of cold that confines ninety nine percent of our population to indoor activities. Then, there's the other one percent. These are the people that leave you questioning them. "Why the hell would you ever want to do that in this weather?"

And there, you have us, cold water surfers.

There's surfing. Then, there is winter surfing. While any outsider would consider them one in the same, winter surfing is an enitrely different world.

Winter water time brings on a new, intense set of obstacles. Air temperatures in the teens, the thirty degree water, the power of winter time surf, getting into the winter wetsuit gear, the chances of hypothermia, the list goes on.

When I think of my years spent in the ocean during our coldest months, the one word that seems to embody the entire experience is HEAVY. Everything is heavier the colder it gets. More trying, tiring, scarier and testing, especially since we get our biggest surf during the coldest and most brutal time of the year.

Winter surfing has us donning six millimeter wetsuits, with equally as thick booties, gloves and a hood. Imagine being wrapped, tightly, in almost an inch of thick rubber. Now, imagine trying to do your workout routine wearing this, all the while holding your breath for long periods of time with freezing cold surrounding you everywhere you turn. Everything is more difficult in all of this gear.

Our snowy months also bring our biggest surf. Waves as large as ten to fifteen feet are not uncommon during this time. Performing with all of this gear on is already a task in itself. What were once the easiest, most fluid moments now seem like a strain. You lose eighty percent of your flexibility. Even a simple fall on a four foot wave takes your breath away and leaves you feeling beaten down.  Along with the hardships, however, come the rewards. 

There's no such thing as a great reward without a trying road. There's no greater embodiment of this sentiment than the feeling you get after a wintertime surf.

You've just braved the elements and done something that most don't think you're supposed to do. You've engulfed yourself in sub-zero temperatures all in the name of fun and surfing. When you get a good wave in warm temperatures, it leaves you excited. When you get a good wave in the winter, you never forget it. It's an indelible feeling. Your nights even seem better after a great frozen surf session.

I have been a professional surfer since I was 17-years-old. I have been able to travel to some of the best surfing locales in the world. I have surfed some of the biggest surf spots in the world. I can honestly say that I have taken the worst beatings here in New Jersey surfing in the winter.

A few years back, I paddled out with one other person on a day when everyone else just watched. It was 15 feet with bigger waves coming through every few minutes. After my first wave, I took a beating that will be instilled in my memory forever.  I got caught in the impact zone and held there for what seemed like hours. In reality, it was only about two minutes. Two of the worst minutes of my life.

The result— crawling on all fours, seeing stars, breathing like I had just run 60 miles at 60 miles an hour and throwing up water and blood once I hit the beach.

That night, I felt giddy. Like a child. I was hyper, laughing and enjoying telling the story of the day. I was giddy because I was pushed. I was pushed to my physical and mental limits and was there to talk about it.

It just so happens that we get our biggest surf when the least amount of people are in the water. I recently wrote a piece about hurricane season and the feeling we all get as its approaching. Well, we all get that same feeling for our winter season. You just know that each snow season is going to be accompanied by large surf. You know that you are going to be tested and pushed to the absolute limit of your endurance and skill, both mentally and physically.