The nor’easter canceled flights, concerts and sporting events, pushing many to opt for a cozy weekend indoors. But for the intrepid surfer, the storm system brought a late September delight: the first major swell of the season.
From North Carolina to Maine, surfers have slipped into wet suits and paddled toward the waves.
While high winds and steady rain have stifled weekend plans, thinning out the crowd at New York City’s annual San Gennaro festival, for example, surfers have been checking the forecast, looking for a beach with the right mix of wind and waves.
“This swell is like Christmas morning,” said Brian Higgins, who works at Matunuck Surf Shop in South Kingstown, R.I.
Mr. Higgins, 23, has been in the water before first light most mornings since Tuesday, carving up the surf before work.
“We can’t even sleep because we’re finally so excited,” he said.
The nor’easter has been a boon for his surf shop, Mr. Higgins added, which has been chock-full of customers eager to buy wet suits and boards.
Surfers have reported waves from four to eight feet.
Gray Goyetch said he knew better than to let this opportunity pass, driving 90 minutes north with friends on Saturday after he clocked out of work at the surf shop Summer Sessions, in Rye, N.H.
“It’s been relatively flat here for the past month, and we all got pretty stoked that there’s some size coming in,” he said.
The group drove up the coast, from New Hampshire to Maine, searching not just for swell, but for the right kind of wind. At Hampton Beach, near Summer Sessions, the winds had turned the ocean into what resembled a washing machine.
Mr. Goyetch settled on Higgins Beach in southern Maine.
“It was really nice,” he said, “we were all having a blast.”
The former professional surfer Tom Ihnken, from New Jersey, made a similar calculation. He drove his van from Bradley Beach on the Jersey Shore to the coasts of Queens and Long Island, where he rode barrel waves for the past three days.
Mr. Ihnken said he often has to wait until winter for these kinds of rides.
“A lot of the times when we do get these really quality swells, it’s a lot colder out,” said Mr. Ihnken, 35, a co-founder of Swellframe, a company that makes a swell forecasting device.
So much of surfing the Northeast is enduring the elements, no matter how extreme.
“When you are a surfer on the East Coast and especially in the Northeast, you have to embrace this kind of weather and the conditions that go along with it,” he said, adding, “It’s like an adventure in your backyard.”
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