Are there surfable waves on the East Coast? Brad and I visited Va Beach in an
attempt to discover the truth.
First, I needed a board and a wetsuit. This was the best I could find for a board.
It's basically an oversized boogie board. A word of advice: If you're ever
looking to rent a board and you find one of these, keep looking. For the wetsuit,
I decided to test my endurance in the "high 60's" water without one. Another word
of advice: If you're ever surfing in late October, use a wetsuit.

Brad managed to get some nice pictures looking down from the pier. I'm the last
one out in the lineup, studying the waves. Two easy ways to spot me: (1) the guy
with the funny blue board, (2) the guy with no wetsuit.

I don't know how he did it, but Brad got me actually (somewhat) riding a wave.
This is quite impressive when considering how few such opportunities like this I
gave him.

Paddling out through a nice one.

Waiting for another one.

A nice view of the beach to the north of the pier.

Still waiting. By now I'm shivering uncontrollably and my feet are starting to
lose feeling.

I like this shot -- heading down the backside of a breaker as the wind kicks up
the spray and lets it rain down on me -- as if I wasn't cold enough already.

Time to head in and juice up.

Step 1: Stop uncontrollable shivering by drying off.

Step 2: Drain sea water from nose. Step 3: Bring blood flow back to knees and feet.
So, it seems the answer to our question is: Yes, there are surfable waves on the
East Coast (especially when there's a big storm just off shore), but in late
October bring your own board and (especially) wetsuit.

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