Hatteras trip report & pics

jonah · Since 20 Jul 2006 169 Posts Hood River Stoked

Hey all, Lauri and I just got back from a week in Hatteras with some pretty sweet 40+ winds due to a tropical storm passing through. For those thinking of a trip there, here's some info and pics:

First the pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carvethebowl/sets/72157607487588268/
The best ones here are Eclipse co-owner / pro rider Dimitri Maramenides riding with his 6yo kid Cameron between his legs. The kid is already kiting on his own (heavily supervised) and can skate, wakeboard, and skimboard. He'll be an insane kiter soon.

Low down on Hatteras:

When the wind is good, it is hard to beat the terrain here. You can ride uncrowded butter-smooth flats (created by grass/marsh islands) on the inside ("Sound" side) of the island. Then walk a couple hundered feet and ride waves on the outside. The waves are breaking over sand shoals that shift every day. So there's not a lot of clean point breaks, but since there are so many shoals, there are waves breaking pretty much everywhere (even miles out). Shorebreak is gnarly due to steep beaches.. not a good place for your 1st wave sessions.

Winds seem to be best in Spring & Fall (frontal), but they also seem less reliable than the Gorge (e.g. almost no wind for past 6 days straight, not much in sight either). This is also cheap time to go since tourist season is summer, with lots of huge rental houses available.

Pros:
-Butter flats or wave terrain on almost any wind direction
-Cheap housing during peak winds
-Easy to do downwinders (lots of kite-friendly hitchhiking). On a North wind in the ocean, you *will* be going downwind due to strong downwind current.
-Drive on the beach if you rent a solid 4wd
-Wind fairly steady (though still a little gusty when frontal, but not as bad as Gorge)
-Lots of good kiters there to learn from/watch (saw and/or met Jason Slezak, Andy Hurdman, Matt Nuzzo)
-Not crowded on the water
-Shallow enough to stand in most places in the flats, so good for teaching/learning

Cons:
-Not much to do other than kite; scenery is nice but is all the same and gets boring after a while. Fishing is good, surfing looks decent, maybe scuba (hundreds of wrecks)
-Mosquitoes! Lots of em when the wind is dead. You will be eaten.
-Not sure how reliable wind is.
-If it gets *really* windy (50+), the roads wash out and are closed for a couple days.

We demoed the 2009 Eclipse gear. If you haven't tried an Eclipse Thruster, I highly recommend trying it.

In summary, I think I would go back to Hatteras, but if I do I will maybe try a last-minute trip only when the weather is looking windy. Tickets weeks in advance are around $500, a few days in advance $700. Worth it to know you will get wind.