October 5, 2003 - Jeness Beach, Rye, NH

Hurricane Kate! It was pretty far out in the Atlantic, but ground swell was coming through pretty good. The reports said only waist high, but these were almost perfect/epic conditions (not huge). The wall was about chest-head and super clean. Jeness was about waist-chest with occasional head high cleanup sets and super clean perfect waves. Only thing that made it difficult was the west wind which was about 15-20 mph. Could have taken about 10 mph off the wind speed and it would have been prrrrfect. The air temp was only around 50 but it was sunny. I declined the wall and went to Jeness. I caught a nice one right off the bat. There were some waits between sets but I definitely had some good rides. The waves were kind of hard to paddle into at times because of the wind resistance, and once you got up you had to crauch down or just stop in mid surf. I did get cold pretty quick because I got whitewashed a couple times early on. My last ride in was a killer left where I was right on the perfect part of the wave. Had to wear booties and gloves...and to think just 2 weeks ago all I had in RI was a 2 mil top. Fun but cold.