December 14, 2020

Report Details

It was the height of the king tides. About 50°, mild breeze, intermittent sunshine. No real beach to walk on safely. When the waves ebbed they left a little beach space up near the dunes, but intermittently the water surged rapidly all the way up to the edge of the dune grasses. I could not safely walk down my mile so I stayed at the entrance just south of the jetty and also walked over to the side of the jetty along the channel. The whole beach was littered with huge logs that had washed up since my last report on 11/8/20. The big white tree is no longer perched on the end of the jetty. The waves at their highest came all the way up to the dunes. They knocked around huge logs as if they were pickup sticks. The waves were really high in between the jetties too, cresting over the height of the jetty. A few people were watching the waves. Including one idiotic guy who manically kept rushing out to the water's edge or standing on beached logs, daring the waves to catch him. A couple walked south down the beach, also not safe; I’d just taken a photo of the water right over the place where they walked. Saw a total of 10 people at the beach, plus one surfer between the jetties.Last year (2019) during king tides I saw two men surfing between the jetties, so I was on the lookout to see if I could spot any surfers again. Yes indeed! A lone surfer took good advantage of catching the really long ride of the waves multiple times before he turned in, riding a wave clear down the jetty on one shot. I wish we could post videos on these reports--I took a great one of the surfer! Probably not a wise place or time to surf, but evidently irresistible.After about 30 minutes I drove to the south end of the road by the houses along the strand, almost at the south end of mile 295. There too waves had nearly reached the dunes leaving lots of foam, and big logs were strewn all along the beach. I could tell the tide was now already subsiding.