This is what we like to call the Black Hole. You might be able to get in, but good luck making it out!

Double overhead on the Gulf of Mexico!

Sizing it up.

View from the road

First paddle out was WAY out the back!

Hurricane Katrina - Gulf of Mexico

During the month of September, FAT Tours will be teaming up with Max Morrill from The Mission Films for a monumental DVD film project. We will be travelling up the east coast of the United States from Florida to Maine following hurricanes as they travel north up the coast. We have a team of athletes on standby, waiting for the right storm to come along.

This past weekend, we made a last minute decision to skip the MTV Music Video Awards down in Miami and travel to the panhandle of Florida for a surfing/kiteboarding mission. A group of surfers from St. Augustine met us over there early Sunday morning, August 29th, and this is an account of what we found.

Hurricane Katrina was upgraded to a category 5 hurricane in the morning when we arrived. The buoys off the coast ranged from 15 to up to 23 feet of swell at 12 second intervals. We left St. Augustine at around 3:30 a.m., and it took us around 5 hours to travel to the panhandle coast. By the time we arrived, there was water washing over the road and into the marsh on the other side. The waves weren't very big on the first piece of coast we saw, so we continued south. As we drove along the beach, we started to see huge waves cloudbreaking several hundred yards offshore. The wind was blowing 20-25 knots sideoffshore, creating huge fans of water spraying off the back of the waves.

We decided to go to a state park down the beach where the beach curves and the wind is more offshore. The park ranger informed us that they would be closing the road soon due to washover, but we opted to go anyway. When we walked up on the overlook, it was obvious that this was the spot. Several surfers were paddling on the outside, and double overhead plus sets were pushing through.

Excitedly, we put on some sunscreen, baggies, rash guard, waxed up our sticks and ran towards the water. There was a substantial drift, so we opted to walk several hundred yards up the beach before attempting the paddle out.

The waves looked pretty evil from the beach, but as we paddled, we started to get more comfortable with our surroundings. It was huge for sure, but manageable and coming in sets. We had no problem getting out past the waves, and soon were watching massive barrels freight train through the lineup. The waves were shifty with the strong side-offshore wind, but the faces were pretty clean.

I picked off a nice left right off the bat, and made an elevator drop into a clean peeling left. It was unreal. I ended up catching 4 waves total before we drifted past our starting point and decided to head in. Keith had a little trouble lining up the shifty break, never having been to this particular break before. He would redeem himself later.

Upon arrival on the beach, Max informed us of the evacuation orders, and we decided to head over to a more protected stretch of beach with more manageable waves. More to come...