A normal person doesn’t get excited about El Niños, blizzards or hurricane season. So if you flipped on a television anywhere in the U.S. last week the tone of every storm advisory was simple: “watch out.” If you wanted to fly out of the East Coast, good luck. If you wanted to get to work, good luck. If you wanted to do anything other than sit at home and binge watch Making a Murderer, good luck. Flights all over a good chunk of the country were canceled, making it a hassle to even travel from the West Coast. Yes, Jonas was a pain in the ass to the normal person. Key word, normal.
But for anybody in love with the ocean a massive storm pounding everything along the Atlantic meant a pot of hollow, spitting gold at the end of that snowy rainbow. It’s a perfect example of the paradox that is being a surfer: the world sees one thing and we look straight at another. The non-initiated think of white outs, getting snowed in, grounded flights, and dancing with death on the highway. The rest of us, the ones that are really lucky (yes, that means you), just see a forecast with waves. And if there are waves involved, well, that’s one beautifully half full glass.
So now that the dust, err snow, has settled it’s edits like this that remind us of that paradox that is this salty obsession. Chaos and Mother Nature declaring war on civilization, or waves? I think it’s a pretty good trade for the tribe.
Cold Outside : Surfing Winter Storm Jonas from Brown Bear Visuals on Vimeo.
