Hurricane Grace Swell 2021

On Friday, August 20th, 2021, Hurricane Grace was about to make landfall in Mexico as a category three hurricane with 120 MPH winds. The largest swells from the hurricane were making their way across the gulf toward the Texas coast at a steady pace. The swell peaked Saturday with bouy readings of nine to ten feet at eleven second intervals. Finally there would be a reprieve from the continuous summer doldrums. I arrived at Surfside beach just before daylight. As with any large, long period swell, there would be a lot of anticipation and hype. This scenario was no different. There were a lot of surfers lined up on the granite rocks listening to the sound of crashing waves trying to see the size of the swell in the dark. The Saturday morning daylight soon began to expose the surf conditions. What we witnessed was a long period swell that was coming from the south. The waves on the Quintana Beach side of the ship channel were breaking much further out with some well-overhead walls. The mystic “white whale” was pitching tons of water on the end of the south jetty. There was a lot of water moving on that side. I watched several people attempt to paddle the channel in an effort to get to the larger waves. You will see in the video, a surfer rounding the end of the south jetty heading towards the bigger surf.

Most people, even those with a lot of experience, opted for the cleaner, smaller waves on the protected side of the north jetty. I started out surfing in front of Crab Street with only a few people out. I caught some really fun waist to chest-high waves with some nice workable walls. It didn’t take long for the crowd to fill in the lineup. It soon became a challenging slalom course to weave through all the surfers in front of me. That was ok with me. I just paddled down to a nice sandbar further down the beach. The further I went from the jetty, the larger the sets became. It was much less crowded also. The early morning waves were not only bigger, but also cleaner as the wind wasn’t blowing as hard as it did later in the morning. Guess you could say the early bird got the worm. After three hours of fun waves, I got out of the water, ate a snack and shot a little video.

The same scenario repeated itself on Sunday. Arriving early again was the ticket. The surf was a little smaller but much cleaner for the first three hours of daylight. There were still some chest-high sets rolling through with some clean workable faces. It was what all surfers hope for in Texas. This was evident by the amount of people that were entering the water as the morning wore on. I surfed for four hours that morning, and the wind really picked up during the last hour. Around eleven I got out and drove down the beach to shoot some more video. The combination of strong winds and an outgoing tide made for some not so perfect conditions. As you will see in the video, the surfers were doing the best they could with the declining conditions. Most of the footage I put in the video was from around noon on Sunday.

Being a surfer in Texas means patiently waiting for the next swell. As I am writing this blog post, there are predictions of another possible hurricane swell coming into the gulf this coming weekend. We usually hope and pray to be on the dry side and not to be impacted by a direct hit or to be on the dirty side. As Texas surfers, we learn to be content with what we can get, be it micro, short period swell or overhead, long period swell. All I know is I am very grateful for two days of fun surf on the Texas coast. I thank the maker of the swells we ride – the creator of heaven and earth. [Isaiah 40:28] I hope everyone had a good time and got the opportunity to make it to the coast for some fun in the sun!

See you on the next swell. Thanks for reading my blog, and enjoy the video.

Tim Lumpkin

Instagram: @tlump10

Blog: Legacy-Outdoors.net

YouTube: Legacy-Outdoors