Surf served cold

There’s more and more interest in hitting the waves during the winter months

By Sam Pfeifle

Here’s a brief synopsis of the weather that day: “The conditions were brutal as water temperatures hovered in the 40s, air temperatures never rose above the low 20s, and a consistent 40-mph wind blew throughout the day.” My initial ignorant opinion when I heard about the qualifying event for the Red Bull Ice Break surfing competition, held in the surf off Rye Rocks in New Hampshire, November 7, was that only complete sadists could possibly have competed. Who in their right mind, I wondered, would get in the ocean on a day like that?

Well, it turns out, lots of people. Duh! Take Steve O’Hara, who, along with 60 other people, competed that day. “I’d go surfing on the coldest day of the year, but I’d go nowhere near the mountains to go skiing,” he says. O’Hara, owner of Pioneers surf shop in Hampton, New Hampshire, was one of the top six surfers that day, and therefore qualified for the Red Bull Ice Break finals.

Not only was a rain storm pounding New England and providing big winds to stir the seas, but there was also a huge ocean storm about 500 miles offshore, which led to ideal conditions for the contest. “The waves were perfect for that contest that day, just perfect,” says O’Hara. Sure, but wasn’t it ridiculously fucking cold?

“It’s a cold event if you’re sitting on the beach and judging it,” he says with a laugh, but, otherwise, he claims that cold isn’t a problem. I guess I had heard of folks who set up shacks like ice-fishing huts on places like Higgins Beach and surfed during the winter, but I just thought they were crazy. Nope.

“The wet suit technology is just phenomenal now,” O’Hara says by way of explanation. “They’re a lot more flexible now than they used to be. You can move around in them.” Just in the last three years, he says, have companies like O’Neill and Rip Curl made winter surfing much more enjoyable. “But all the companies are doing it now,” says O’Hara.

Also of note is that the Red Bull competition is the first professional event to be held in New Hampshire or Maine that O’Hara can remember. The overall purse is $10,000, and 24 qualifiers — eight each from events in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and New Jersey, the last of which has yet to be held — will be competing for the top prize.

The location for the final has yet to be announced, which might make sense if they don’t want the locals to have an unfair advantage. But O’Hara knows they’ve got a different motive in mind.

“They’re waiting for a huge blizzard to kick up the craziest waves and conditions they can find,” he says. He also reasons that, though the contest stipulates it can be held anywhere from Maine to New Jersey, the organizers will try to find a good place in either Maine or New Hampshire, which are known for decent mid-winter waves thanks to those Nor’easters that tend to terrorize us. “It’s a good chance it will be held New Hampshire north,” he reasons. “They want the whole winter effect, snow on the ground, hopefully after a blizzard.”

Unfortunately, the waiting period for the event is ridiculously long. It can be sprung upon the contestants, with only 24 hours notice, anytime between January 15 and April 15. That’s right, they’re on-call for three months. That’s another reason O’Hara’s hoping on a local location. “I wouldn’t be running from Jersey in the middle of a blizzard to get to New Hampshire,” he says. The three-month wait is also likely to cut down on spectator interest, though more people than you’d think came out for the New Hampshire event earlier this month.

It’s a sign of a burgeoning surf community taking advantage of some good swells at beaches like York and Wells, Maine, and Hampton, New Hampshire. Particularly, a number of amateur events are held — roughly one every six weeks, spring through fall — by an organization called the Eastern Surfing Association. Through them, surfers can compete for district, regional, and national titles. O’Hara says as many as 50 surfers under 17 have been coming out to compete in events this year, and he sees the fields continually growing.

“It all depends on the district,” he says of the field strengths. “This one’s really growing. A lot of kids are getting into surfing.” Judging by the lengths some of them are willing to go to catch a good wave, it must be a whole lot of fun.

Sam Pfeifle can be reached at spfeifle@phx.com. “Game On” tackles all manner of marginal sports and runs once a month.