Old surfers never die…they just photograph younger surfers
By Charles P. Eberson
Senior Moments
As an old surfer who has hung up his surfboards, I have not hung up the anticipation; the expectation of an epic surf break in the morning. “Back in the day” as they say, we didn’t have “surf cams, ” where one can pull up the site while still in bed and see if our expectations have been realized. We became amateur meteorologists, following storms as they cross the Atlantic, while monitoring wind direction and checking tide charts.
Once it was evident something big was on the way by the increasing swells marching in from the horizon, I remember being gripped with nervous excitement. At the time, I was riding a ten-foot Hobie longboard that paddled like a dream but turned like an aircraft carrier. There were also no leashes that attached us to the board which was a good thing. One big wipeout with that heavy board and it would probably wash up on the beach with my left leg still on the leash.
Recently, Hurricane Lee was predicted to brush the East Coast creating epic surf conditions. I started monitoring the various surf cams until I saw the lines of swells, one behind each other uniformly rolling towards my Ventnor beach. I grabbed my cameras and felt the same anticipation and expectation at the prospect of making some memorable photos as I did when I was surfing the waves myself except for the fact that I didn’t have to worry about losing a leg via a lost board. Upon my arrival to the beach, I realized that the surf cams did not do Mother Ocean justice. The waves were big, hollow and the offshore winds were blowing the spray back over the waves in an effect called spindrift.
Surfers were lined up in the water like black buoys as far as I could see towards Longport and Atlantic City. I am sure there were some classrooms with empty seats and employees trying to haggle doctors’ notes for their absences. I made it to my vantage point on Ventnor Pier and had a front row seat to some of the best surfers in the area. I will say that one doesn’t have to have been a surfer to take great surfing shots but it certainly makes it easier. You instinctively know when the surfer is going to crank a hard cutback or bang a turn off the lip and certainly can see when a surfer takes off on a wave larger than all the rest and finds nowhere to go.
After a few hours of walking up and down the pier checking the surfers to the right side and then the left side, I started feeling the fatigue; ankles and back hurting, neck stiffening up and a bladder ready to burst. But each time I put the camera back in the bag, I took one last glance out to sea only to watch another large set approaching and the surfers scratching their way towards the swells jockeying for the best takeoff position. Amid the chaos, there is an etiquette among surfers to be observed.
Eventually, I succumbed and started leaving the pier as other surfers, tired but satiated, were leaving the beach. Surfboards were piled into contractors vans, on top of luxury cars, sticking out of the hatches of small coupes and out the backs of landscaper’s pickup trucks. Some even managed to find a spot among strollers and beach chairs. Everyone was a surfer that day. This scenario repeated itself for two more days.
Surfers grew accustomed to seeing me on the pier. We exchanged some pleasantries as they looked up from the ocean and I looked down from the pier. Some of them posed for me while riding the waves or looked up to see if I caught their ride. My work was far from finished, though. I had to go through a workflow of hundreds of images to find the keepers. These were posted on social media and the response I received from the surfers and their families was gratifying. If I brought them some memories while only costing me a few hours and some Ibuprofen, I look forward to the next sessions with anticipation.
Photos by Charles P Eberson
Charles Eberson has been in the newspaper business for over 25 years. He has worked as a writer, advertising executive, circulation manager and photographer. His photography can be viewed at charles-eberson.fineartamerica.com
