East vs. West

GromsDad

Duke status
Jan 21, 2014
54,145
16,164
113
West of the Atlantic. East of the ICW.
The best day of the year on the EC (in any given year) is just a day with waves on the WC. While it has moments, the EC in general just doesn't compare to any real-wave destinations. It's just not comparable given the bathymetry, lack of variety, consistency, weather etc. You can almost literally do more actual surfing (feet on the board) in one session at, say, K38 than you would in a month or more here. It's still fun, but good attitude is crucial.
Gotta give that post a thumbs down. The Outer Banks, New Jersey, New York, New England and occasionally Delaware and Florida produce great waves when there is swell. What are you calling a real wave destination? Won't disagree with the quality ride time at the pacific point breaks but its not nearly as bad as you describe. Some places on the East Coast do suck but not everyplace. Glad to live in one of the places that doesn't suck and where I can have waves like this down the street......Corey Lopez seemed to like the place.

Capture.jpg
 

One-Off

Tom Curren status
Jul 28, 2005
14,121
10,240
113
33.8N - 118.4W
Gotta give that post a thumbs down. The Outer Banks, New Jersey, New York, New England and occasionally Delaware and Florida produce great waves when there is swell. What are you calling a real wave destination? Won't disagree with the quality ride time at the pacific point breaks but its not nearly as bad as you describe. Some places on the East Coast do suck but not everyplace. Glad to live in one of the places that doesn't suck and where I can have waves like this down the street......Corey Lopez seemed to like the place.

View attachment 122889
East Coast is surely better. Notice how the OBSF guys are silent?
 

Ranga

Billy Hamilton status
Dec 31, 2008
1,682
1,422
113
Gotta give that post a thumbs down. The Outer Banks, New Jersey, New York, New England and occasionally Delaware and Florida produce great waves when there is swell. What are you calling a real wave destination? Won't disagree with the quality ride time at the pacific point breaks but its not nearly as bad as you describe. Some places on the East Coast do suck but not everyplace. Glad to live in one of the places that doesn't suck and where I can have waves like this down the street......Corey Lopez seemed to like the place.

View attachment 122889
Yep -- has its days for sure. I went to HS on the OBX, which probably gets the lion's share of waves on the EC, and have surfed a ton of good, nutty, barreling waves. But IMO, it just doesn't compare to somewhere with a geographically and bathymetrically diverse coastline that receives consistent, long period groundswells from a variety of directions (as well as some short period stuff too). I know there's lots of hometown pride, but even the best days are typically 5/7 on a global scale.
 

Sharkbiscuit

Duke status
Aug 6, 2003
26,253
19,081
113
Jacksonville Beach
1. Anything North of Pt. Conception from (I'm guessing the season) Sept-Feb takes a gigantic, monstrous, corn-kernel-speckled, steaming deuce on SoCal and the East Coast. Spring/Summer sound better in SoCal.

2. Most of the East Coast is less closed out than the South Bay. Except the stretch from Bonschmeagol in South Brevard to Jensen Pube Lick. That makes Potty look like Lakey Peak.

3. Jacksonville in a cold winter is on a par with pretty much anything on the West Coast. Show me someone wearing a 4/3 in SoCal or a 5/4 south of Alaska and I'll show you someone who only surfs in Puerto Rico Jan-March if they live OBX -> North. I am pretty sure the coldest surf of the year in NorCal is an offshore Mother's Day morning in NJ/NY.

4. Lots of SoCal (and Santa Cruz) crowds look to be at/past critical mass. Beautiful place, but IMHO you might wind up getting more chances to hit the lip in North Florida than if you had to surf between The Hook and Natural Bridges. I saw like 20 people at Moron Lake SC, or whatever that beachbreak is just up past Sewer/Rockview, scrapping for something I could surf by myself at the end of my street.

5. From say NC-FL, you can motivate to surf some ungodly tiny dogshit in trunks season because it's trunks season.

6. I disagree with Ranga too. The tenth-best day of the year, maybe. The best day of the year at Mayport is way better than the average day at Huntington. The best day of the year at Monster Hole is hilariously better than an average day at any left in California. This thread isn't about the Galapagos or Indo vs Tybee Pier. It's Port Angeles to Sloughs vs Acadia to South Beach.

Like Jim Morrison said, "The West is the Best". But that doesn't mean the East is never Beast.
 

EastCoastBrah

Legend (inyourownmind)
Nov 16, 2020
474
432
63
Lived and surfed on the east coast for 20 years. There's no comparison to be had. And now the east coast is super crowded too on the good days. Rather live on the west coast where at least you have consistent surf in exchange for the crowd. Pictures often make east coast look better than it is.
 
  • Like
Reactions: menobrah and mundus

VaB

Michael Peterson status
Nov 14, 2004
3,075
682
113
Virginia Beach, VA
Yep -- has its days for sure. I went to HS on the OBX, which probably gets the lion's share of waves on the EC, and have surfed a ton of good, nutty, barreling waves. But IMO, it just doesn't compare to somewhere with a geographically and bathymetrically diverse coastline that receives consistent, long period groundswells from a variety of directions (as well as some short period stuff too). I know there's lots of hometown pride, but even the best days are typically 5/7 on a global scale.
what he said, except the part about HS.

I think the surfing hierarchy is fairly well known and established. The better it gets, the more crowded and expensive it gets....
 
  • Like
Reactions: Boneroni

Sharkbiscuit

Duke status
Aug 6, 2003
26,253
19,081
113
Jacksonville Beach
Gotta give that post a thumbs down. The Outer Banks, New Jersey, New York, New England and occasionally Delaware and Florida produce great waves when there is swell. What are you calling a real wave destination? Won't disagree with the quality ride time at the pacific point breaks but its not nearly as bad as you describe. Some places on the East Coast do suck but not everyplace. Glad to live in one of the places that doesn't suck and where I can have waves like this down the street......Corey Lopez seemed to like the place.
Most people are calling Indo, Hawaii, South Africa, West Oz, etc. real wave destinations. Montauk and New England are pretty much the only places you named that can even handle anything referred to as "swell" at a real wave destination.

Real wave destinations are mental on good-sized 16+ second period swells, the spots are under control past sizes ours redline badly, and they get as many of those swells in a decent month as we get in a decade. Sure the Hamptons to South Beach is the most thoroughly documented stretch of short/mid period beachbreak tube zones on Earth, and the storms get Gulf Stream Super Mario power up mushrooms and give us tubey one-and-dones ideal for our beachbreaks.

Doesn't make up for having one canyon that's not that deep and surrounded by 100 miles of shallow shelf, one Hatteras jetty, and a few outer reefs/shoals in Central/South Florida that are unmanageable without a ski at any real size (see Sandy/Slater).
 

TeamScam

Miki Dora status
Jan 14, 2002
5,485
1,119
113
Mid-Atlantic
"not holding a swell" does not equal "I didn't make it out".
The effort needed on any size is substantial, a deal breaker many times over when the water is below 47°. The EC doesn't compare to the West for so many reasons but the top 10℅ of days is plenty for anyone who finds themselves in this God-forsaken, 3000mi from any real consistency-like place.
Shark biscuit, I work nights, so I am often entertained by your (I presume) post drinking postings. I would say " forgive me if I'm wrong", but I say this with ZERO disrespect so I won't apologize instead Thank you for carrying the torch!
Gromsdad, thanks for blowing up Delaware, with it's 3.5 spots, I wish the DE guys would hurry up and realize how much better it is up there because we only have 3.75 spots and 2.25 of those breaks like Florida.
One thing about the East Coast, we can take a joke and shred it all to hell brah!
 

menobrah

Gerry Lopez status
Feb 28, 2021
1,024
2,096
113
Not a dig on any East Coasters, but I feel like the only people who every try to do a comparison between both coasts are people from the EC. I've never heard someone from the West care enough to try to initiate a comparison between the two
The East coast, particlularly the NJ, LI region fucking sucks. The only thing we have going for us is that the waves suck here so badly that it is nominally less crowded than places where the waves dont suck, and during our best wave season the water is so fucking cold that it clears at least half the lineup. Last Saturday was the coldest day of the year so far, with fun chest high waves at my local. I was super stoked to see a few people out at the jetty I frequent...chatted and traded waves with a good friend and two guys I dont know at all. How often are any of you guys stoked to see someone you dont know in the water and genuinely happy to trade waves with strangers. Reminds of what surfing in California used to be like say 60 years ago. That said anyone that even tries to compare EC waves with WC waves just stfu. Our absolute best days of the year would be a decent morning at Emma Wood...
 

LifeOnMars

Michael Peterson status
Jan 14, 2020
3,164
2,106
113
Our absolute best days of the year would be a decent morning at Emma Wood...
I agree with you except this statement, Emma Wood is generally a terrible wave. A decent sized shorter period swell with offshores would sh!t on most days there. The EC can get extremely good when conditions line up, you can probably count that number on one hand per year in the NE and maybe twice that in the OBX.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mundus