After an awesome September for fall surf and a mostly satisfying October, November brought a sort of doldrums of surf to southern Maine. With fewer sessions available, and decent swell seemingly more rare than a snow leopard, I have been hunting down 2′ waves in 35mph offshore winds just to get on something – or so it has seemed.
Just before dinner on Sunday, December 3, my friend and colleague Matthew called to ask if I’m planning a session under the supermoon. I could see the moon through the trees across my street because I was out grilling at the time. But I quickly dismissed him: it was already quite dark and I was about to head in for the family Sunday dinner.
But over the course of dinner, the thought sat in the not-quite-back of my head. I hadn’t caught a really good wave in more than a week, and the moon was, as our president might say, “YUGE!”
At the end of dinner, I pulled up the Wells Beach cam to see what – if anything – I might see. Not much. I pulled up a swell, wind, and tide report, and things looked semi-promising. After checking in with the family, I threw gear in the car and a board on the roof before driving to Wells on a semi-hope for a 3′ wave. Was I ever rewarded.
It was hours after sunset when I arrived, of course, but the sea, sand, and sky were nicely lit by Supermoon. It was tough to gauge the size of the waves from the lot, but it was clear that I’d at least get on clean, 2′ waves while bathing in moonlight and ocean temps in the mid-40s.
But it wasn’t 2′; it was a solid, consistent 3-4′! And clean. It was a bit tough to really judge position and time the waves. While the moon carve a long, runway-like swath of bright light across the narrow band of the ocean, outside of that band it was really tough to see the incoming swell. When I dialed it in, though, the near-dark drops were exhilarating. I caught perhaps half a dozen rights and at least as many lefts. Partly owing to the vision penalty, I often struggled to get the most from the waves, and there was a bit of a rip where I was set up, which pulled me too far outside over and over. But also got my share of 10-second rides complete with cutbacks.
The hardest part of it all, I think, involved finding and maintaining trim position on the face. The supermoon lit the lip right up, leaving a really dark (practically black) face and trough, which made it really difficult to judge position on the face. Going left, especially, I found myself riding up the face (towards the lit lip) and even off the wave – even with some conscious efforts to avoid that problem. It was interesting – and weird.
I’ve been thinking about it, and I liken it to driving a car into a pronounced curve. If you look to the inside of the curve, you’ll drive right in and round nicely. If you let yourself look to the outside of the curve, you find yourself battling an outward drift that can actually be dangerous. I think my eyes were drawn to the light of the lip, and the board just followed.
December 3, 2017: 1 hour of night surfing under the supermoon at Wells Beach, Maine.
