Seasonal Surf throughout New England
The surf season for New England properly begins in autumn, when seasonal storms start to kick up more regularly and persist through the winter. I made my way to the beaches on a few occasions to watch the surf come in and the surfers paddle out.Here we start with a late afternoon surf session with some lumpy bumpy swell that rolled into Narragansett, Rhode Island. These were the first waves in quite some time as the summer had been quieter than usual. Once I arrived, there wasn't much time left in the day to photograph as the autumn light began to fade but I sat contently for about an hour on the Ocean Road seawall and just watched. There was a crisp breeze but otherwise it was pleasantly warm outside for October.
As we moved into November the weather started to become more seasonable, but still rather sunny. Lyle and I took a trip to Cape Cod up to a well known surf break just north of the Marconi Station landmark in Wellfleet. The Cape Cod National Seashore is a vast expanse of nearly unpopulated beaches where salty Cape Codders hunker down for the winter. Waves crash endlessly along these shores and this was our first trip to explore some of the more talked-about breaks. We picked quite the day to visit, with some wave sets coming in overhead! We stayed for several hours and as the sun began to set we made our way back to Rhode Island.
And of course there was surf for Christmas! Just as Christmas Eve arrived, so did the waves. It was a last minute decision to go back down to Narragansett but I sat at Monahan's dock for an hour in 65 degree weather in the middle of December. The sun was trying to break through the clouds but I had to go just as the swell was properly coming up. I came away with some nice shots of both the waves and the surfers.
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