Why Hurricanes Are So Special to Surfers and Looking Back on Hurricane Bob

Surfers are goofy about hurricanes.

It’s been 35 years since my first true hurricane experience. And even though most of those swells were overhyped, even though our uniform shoreline does terrible on long-period tropical swells, and even though one particular superstorm in 2012 threatened to wipe us off the map, I still get goofy about hurricanes.

My first hurricane experience was when I was 10. Major Hurricane Gloria came barreling up the East Coast. If you research data from Gloria, you learn the U.S.