-
Left. Photo: Matt O'Brien
-
Hans Hagen. Photo: Matt O'Brien
-
Ouch. Photo: Matt O'Brien
-
Wave storm. Photo: Matt O'Brien
-
Noah Erickson dropping in and feeling right at home. Photo: Shayla Chippendale
-
Interference. Photo: Matt O'Brien
-
First signs of Arthur. Photo: Mike Incitti
-
Taylor Pitz. Photo: Matt O'Brien
-
Looking down the beach as Arthur rolled in. Photo: Mike Incitti
-
Apparently the best things in life are empty. Gems like this were a common sight all weekend. Photo: Maxx Buchanan
-
Strong southern swell brought heavy waves to Californian shores. Photo: Shayla Chippendale
-
I stuck around Northern NJ with Tom Petriken at our home break. It was smaller up here but still some overhead waves on sets. The window for surf everywhere was so short. It went from flat to overhead to flat in a matter of two hours before dark. Unless you had a helicopter or a jet ski to beat the 4th of July traffic on the road, your best bet was to chill at your home break with your friends and wish for the best. Photo: Mike Incitti
-
South Orange County. Photo: Matt O'Brien
-
Gavin Hurd getting bendy in a hollow little nugget on America’s birthday weekend. Photo: Maxx Buchanan
-
Photo: Alex Swanson
-
Photo: Alex Swanson
If you’re a patriotic American, Independence Day weekend is an undeniably fun time. Generally, it’s an excellent excuse to stuff yourself into a pair of boardshorts or bikini, have a few (ish) beverages, watch (or light off) fireworks, chant “USA! USA! USA!” with your obscenely patriotic brethren, and spend some quality time with friends and/or family. There’s nothing dull about it.
This past weekend, both US coasts had more reason to celebrate than usual. On the east coast, Hurricane Arthur worked its way up and delivered some much-appreciated (read: much-needed) swell. The west coast, Southern California in particular, saw fun surf as well (also much-needed) from Ventura County through San Diego. There hasn’t been a better weekend to be outside in quite some time.
Thanks to our lovely group of photo contributors, we have some of the highlights from a great run of weekend swell. Hope you got some yourself! Happy (belated) independence, America!
