Times of the Islands Summer 2017

But every so often a storm gathers strength far out
in the North Atlantic. The swirling winds, perhaps 600
miles away, push on the sea creating surface waves that
organize into ground swells of turbulent kinetic energy
heading in all directions.
Moving swiftly across the open ocean as fast as 40
MPH (64 km/h), these swells arrive in less than a day to
the shores of two carbonite sea mounts rising 7,000 feet
(2,100 meters) from the ocean floor. Created over eons
by layers of coral, sand and limestone, the Caicos Bank
and the Turks Bank protrude just above the water and
make up the islands and cays that we call home. The
mass of liquid energy from the distant storm slams hard
into the long protective barrier reef that meanders a mile
or so offshore from Providenciales northeast to North
Caicos before wrapping around Middle and East Caicos.
As the swell hits the coral, the lower section quickly
slows down from the friction of the shallow bottom and
pushes upward. Meanwhile, the top part of the swell continues
forward unimpeded, outrunning the lower part,
creating a breaking wave. The wave rises until the water
can no longer support it, and collapses in a roiling torrent
on the reef. Some of these swells, however, advance up
the reef gradually from an angle rather than head-on all at
once, forming what is called a “peel.” When this happens,
the waves break progressively to the right or left. And
that sets up the kind of waves surfers yearn for.
From the beach, the pounding surf in the distance
makes not a sound and only appears as a long white
fringe of silent foam—lovely to gaze at while relaxing on
the sandy shore or from an oceanview hotel room. But
to the small band of surfers who live here on the tail
On the rare occasions when the “surf’s up” in TCI, it’s time to grab a
board with no time to waste.
end of the Bahamas Archipelago, that same twitching,
ivory ribbon on the horizon quickens the pulse and puts
in motion a venerable ritual—cancel appointments, wax
boards, ready the boat. It’s time to surf!
These are grown men and women, most with serious
work responsibilities, not teens skipping school. Many
are approaching or well into middle age and simply can’t
help themselves. There is no time to waste. They have to
get it together at the first indication of favorable conditions
because they don’t know when surfable waves will
come again or how long they will be there.
Good swells are maybe not quite as rare as the
mythical Scottish village of Brigadoon that appears to
outsiders every 100 years for one enchanting day of joy
and celebration before suddenly disappearing for another
century. But “routine” is hardly the word for the waves
that suddenly erupt from the deep in breathtaking glory
to those lucky enough to be at the right place at the right
time—only to vanish back into a ripple as if they never
existed.
The surf stoke
Filled with anticipation, the surfers gently place their long
or short boards into a boat so as not to scratch them and
motor out to where the sets roll in. For a few moments
they just watch. The mind concentrates to study where
and how the waves are breaking. Then no one wants to
hang back any longer. They throw their surfboards in and
paddle off to the “sweet spot” where they wait for their
wave just beyond the break, as excited as if they were 15
years old all over again.
When the swell steepens rapidly to a sleek, shimmering
incline just before cresting, the surfer first in the
line-up paddles as fast as he can. The idea is to gather
enough speed so that the surfboard accelerates down
the wave under its own force using gravity, matching or
exceeding the speed of the wave. The surfer quickly leaps
to his feet in a crouch, and leans and twists his body to
angle the board across the increasingly precipitous liquid
slope to keep ahead of the breaking peel. Done right, he’ll
be in the zone and feel the mesmerizing exhilaration of
the “Surf Stoke.” Get it wrong, and the wave crashes over,
knocking him off the board into roiling white water—a
wipeout.
Is TCI surfing dangerous? In a word, “Yes.” The coral
barrier that creates the surfable waves barreling in from
the deep is just a few feet below the surface. Sometimes,
if the tide is low, the coral heads actually pop up above
the surface. So the surfer must kick out of the wave
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