A, 



Ls veteran surfer Bob Sykes 

 surveys the pounding waves in the Atlantic 

 Ocean at Avon, he compares the surf to a 

 washing machine. 



"It's disorganized and has a lot of 

 current," says Sykes. "It's more work than 

 fun. The ideal waves are head-high and 

 glassy, with the wind blowing over land." 



Despite the choppy conditions, Sykes 

 and other die-hard surfers are competing in 

 the Outer Banks/Eastern Surfing Association 

 (ESA) contest. About 1 10 surfers from age 6 

 to 55 participate in the all-day 

 competition. 



As the horn blows, Sykes 

 and other surfers paddle out on 

 their long boards to where the 

 waves break. Dressed in wetsuits 

 and colorful shirts, they disappear 

 in the brutal surf until they find a 

 wave to ride. 



When the surfers find a good 

 wave, they stay up on their boards 

 for only a few seconds before 

 disappearing again into the soapy, 

 brutal surf. The contestants look 

 like break-dancers on the ocean as 

 they leap on and off their boards. 



When surfing conditions are 

 good, surfers from all over the 

 country bring their boards to the 

 beaches along the Outer Banks, 

 which have developed a reputation for some 

 of the best waves on the East Coast. 



What makes the Outer Banks a good 

 surfing spot? 



"If you want big surf, you go to Cape 

 Hatteras on the Outer Banks," says Stan 

 Riggs, professor of marine geology at East 

 Carolina University (ECU) and a former 

 North Carolina Sea Grant researcher. "The 

 continental shelf at the Cape is very steep and 

 narrow, allowing the full brunt of the Atlantic 

 Ocean's waves to reach the shoreline. 



"Northward into Virginia and New 

 Jersey and southward into South Carolina 

 and Georgia, the continental shelf becomes 

 increasingly wider and shallower, causing the 

 ocean waves to expend their energy dragging 

 across the shelf rather than on the beach." 

 Other good surfing spots include Avon, 



Rodanthe and Oregon Inlet to the north of 

 Cape Hatteras and Frisco, Cape Lookout 

 National Seashore and Wrightsville Beach 

 to the south. 



Each Sunday, Bill Hume, co-director of 

 the ESA's Outer Banks District, joins fellow 

 surfers on the northern side of Oregon Inlet. 

 "There are a lot of sandbars here and 

 consistent surf," he says. 



Because of the Outer Banks' wave- 

 dominated coastline, some avid surfers have 

 relocated to the area. 



Contestants run to start their heat. 



"Surfing is better here," says Barbara 

 Corey, a veteran surfer. "That's why I 

 moved here from New Jersey. I had been 

 coming to the Outer Banks since I was a 

 teen-ager." 



As surfing has grown in popularity, the 

 ESA's Outer Banks membership has 

 swelled from 185 in 1995 to more than 400 

 this year. It has also become more family- 

 oriented. 



"When I started in the association, 

 parents used to drop their kids off at the 

 beach and leave them for the day," says Julie 

 Hume, who is co-director along with her 

 husband. "Now the parents stay." 



Families arrive at the competition with 

 their children, dogs, coolers and beach 

 chairs. Many of them make it a daylong 

 activity. 



The Barnes family has three genera- 

 tions of surfers. Betty Barnes, a 70-year-old 

 artist, rides the waves, as do her two sons, 

 John and Rex Barnes, and Rex's two 

 daughters. 



"I started surfing when I was 35," says 

 Betty Barnes. "My kids were teens, and I 

 had to watch them on the waves." 



She taught Rex how to surf on a long 

 plank board. 



"I knew on the first day, I would do it 

 the rest of my life," says Rex. "It was 



wonderful — the thrill of riding the 

 waves. You have to take a wave 

 and master it. You have to make it 

 work for you." 



Since paddling on her first 

 board at Virginia Beach, Betty 

 Barnes has seen many changes in 

 surfing. "When I first started, we 

 didn't think of it as a sport," she 

 says. "Now it is an organized sport. 

 The equipment has also improved. 

 In the early days, we had to make 

 our own boards." 



Now surfers can buy different 

 styles of boards, including long 

 boards and short boards used for 

 maneuvers. 



As the sport has grown, 

 participation among young girls 

 has also increased. Recently, the 

 ESA's Outer Banks District started a 

 Wahines Club for female surfers of all ages. 



"More girls are into the sport because 

 they are health conscious," says Rex Barnes. 

 "If you surf a lot, every muscle stays trim. 

 It is a beautiful sport." 



The increase in older surfers has given 

 these enthusiasts more political and 

 economic clout. 



"As baby boomers get into their 50s, 

 you see more older people surfing," says 

 Mike Orbach, a long-time surfer and director 

 of Duke University Marine Lab. "It has also 

 become part of the political economy. On 

 the North Carolina beaches, you see three 

 times more surf shops as a decade ago. 

 Surfing has become a style of clothes and 

 line of auxiliary products." 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 15 



