Fall doesn’t officially start until September 22, but we’re past Labor Day, so let’s consider the surf from the past weekend as the start to the Outer Banks fall surf season.

After two weeks of enduring the effects of a persistent low pressure system that sent gloomy weather and consistent North East winds, the Outer Banks felt the wind switch to the West on Friday and swell from the system started to clean into gorgeous lines with head high sets of great OBX waves.

The rough ocean began to clean on Friday afternoon, but the paddle out was still tough.  By Saturday morning, the west wind had cleaned the waves enough to make the paddle bearable and the reward of clean, head high waves well worth the effort.

The excitement of great surf that happens to land on a Saturday morning in early September was palpable.  The hunt for the right spot was on, and surfers were out in force.  Good breaks were filling up as early as 7:15 a.m.  It was more of a longboard wave that early, but as the tide came in around 9:00 a.m. spots up and down the beach were exploding with waves and surfers.