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Fellow surfer Justin Markley, like Gonzalez, seems to always have his surfboard nearby. Also like Gonzalez: Markley loves his big waves.
“I usually try to go out a couple times a year when it gets big like that,” Markley says. “We went out during Charley and Frances this year.”
A wiry young man with a mop of brown hair, Markley has been surfing the past five years. He makes his home in Jacksonville, surfing at nearby Ponte Vedra Beach when the waves are good.
“My favorite break is called Crossroads by the people that live here, and during Frances, it was the biggest I’ve seen this year,” Markley says. “We had eight to ten foot waves the day before he came through Jacksonville, it was craziness.”
“Craziness” is a relative term, ranging from wild to downright insane, and it seemed like the latter in the eyes of many an outsider this past summer. During September, when Charley came through, there were still large numbers of northern vacationers on and near the state’s beaches.
“They couldn’t believe we were going in,” Markley recalls with a laugh. “They kept saying things like, ‘you’re going to drown,’ or ‘watch out for that rip current,’ like we didn’t know anything.”
The wildest Markley has ever seen it was a couple years back when a storm wiped out the entire Jacksonville Beach pier. He was standing on the shore, with slightly deranged thoughts of going in the water running through his head, when he heard a loud, despondent groan coming from the pier. Markley looked over just as the end of the pier sheared off, collapsing into the water. He decided that maybe this was a sign and took the surf leash off his ankle.
When asked if he thinks paddling into waves of that size was a little crazy, he shrugs his shoulders and admits with a little smile, “maybe.”
Surfing in Florida is not always considered an extreme sport, though. There are two sides to the surf coin - the eternal battle: East Coast Florida vs. West Coast Florida. In most cases, the distinction is unnecessary as the search for Florida’s best surf usually leads to the Atlantic. That’s not to say that the Gulf side is completely dead. Just as a storm will raise the bar on the Atlantic side of the state, a good strong storm in the Gulf of Mexico gives every surfer, tired of driving two or more hours for surf, cause for celebration.
And celebration it was this past summer, with both Ivan and Frances making waves on the west coast of the state.
West coast surfer Ryan Shirley makes no bones about his love for smaller, cleaner sets, but says he couldn’t resist getting out for some of the bigger surf that Frances stirred up.
“We don’t get big waves in Sarasota, the biggest we usually see is two to three feet,” Shirley says. “During the storm we had chest-high waves with some up to head high or higher.”
Shirley is not usually a big wave surfer, even though his last two spring breaks have found him surfing in Costa Rica. He admits he was a little nervous about the larger, messy hurricane waves.
The fact that he was riding his dad’s board from the ‘60s with no leash might have had a little something to do with his concern, though.
“I figured my board had a good chance of getting snapped so I borrowed my dad’s. It’s so old it’s practically petrified – there was no way it was going to break.”
If Shirley had lost his board, even for a second, it could have been bye-bye board and hello hospital. He knows big waves bring greater danger and stronger currents. He knows he only has his friends to rely on in the event of a disaster. And he knows the consequences of those accidents – cuts, bruises, broken fingers and head injuries just to name a few of his friends’ misfortunes. But, Shirley can’t help but feel the pull of the big waves. For him, it’s like how the moon affects the tides: big waves tug on a surfer’s soul.
Shirley has been surfing only smaller waves for the past three years. And while he may lack the big-wave savvy necessary for conquering large surf, Shirley certainly isn’t lacking the enthusiasm.
And isn’t that what it ultimately comes down to?
For Shirley and so many others, surfing is the purest form of recreation. And the only rules to follow are the ones you made up along the way. All it really takes is a little love – and a whole lot of respect – for the power and beauty of wind and water.