I've been surfing Tortola and the outer islands for past 15 years. So many really good days, intermingled with great swells, but with North winds which blows out most spots except Cane Garden Bay, which if you haven't been here before is a point / wrap around break, with generally an easy paddle out. Getting caught in the impact zone is less than fun though. From the inner harbour there is a low pier to jump from, then out to the line up. Depending on the swell direction, usually North, but if there's some West to it, it will section out, and pretty much split the point into 3-4 line up areas.
I've surfed the "bay" 8 to 10 feet sometimes barreling, for hundreds of yards. The inside can be radical at times, with the water sucking out from the line reefs close to the rock beach. I've seen guys eat it on the inside, not bailing out soon enough or just going for it, coming out of the water looking like minced meat.
The bay needs a good solid swell for it to go off, and the crowds, even these days are tollerable when it's happening.
I think it was '95 or '96 when we were hit by Hurricane's Luis and Mayilynn, with a week between them. I called a buddy of mine who was living in the hills of Cane Garden to see how he was hanging. The eye of the storm was just passing. He was on his cordless phone outside, screaming when he answered, I thought his roof might of blown off or something really bad had happened. He could barely talk. He finally sputtered out the point! It was a perfect 20' plus, no one out of course, and he was all ready to load his sticks and go for it, until I reminded him that the party wasn't over yet as we still had the backside of the storm to deal with. He was pissed, but there's times when nature wins. He sat out side for a half hour calling out every set till It was time to hunker down for part 2 of the hurricane.
The problem with the storms that pass close to us, is that they don't generate swells for very long time, but we'll take what we can get.Most of the clean swells come off the U.S. during the winter when there's a nasty cold front coming off the east coast. During the summer if there is a Hurricane or large tropical depression, 2 to three hundreds of miles to the North of us we'll usually get a nice 3-6 foot swell out of them.
I have another friend of mine , a transplant from California, that lived here for more than 23 years and has surfed the bay as big as 15' with 5 guys out, that swell lasted about 5 days. Anybody have photos of the bay going off? Stick em here, or stories about sessions anywhere else in the BVI's? How about Anegada, or the Sand Spit off Jost?
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