Surf Club catches winter waves

Members of the Connecticut College Surf Club pose with President Lee Higdon.

For a sport that is most popular in places of perpetual summer, New England may not seem like a hotspot for surfing — especially in the winter. But CC Surf Club President Nick Perold '07 and his team make the best of it.

"Most people are pretty surprised that we have a surf club," Perold says. "A couple of parents at Fall Weekend thought it was a joke. So I had to stand out there in my wet suit with a surf board."

An economics and philosophy double major, Perold, a surfer since age 13, decided to revive the Connecticut College Surf Club last year. The club has ten regular members who meet to surf about once a week throughout the school year, as well as others who participate when they can. Last spring break, they traveled to sunny San Diego to ride the waves, and this winter, they are catching the breakers on the shores of Costa Rica.

"During the school year, we go to the beaches in Rhode Island because Long Island cuts off Connecticut from the ocean and its waves," Perold says. "So the closest beaches are Watch Hill and Port Judith."

Fall is ideal for surfing. "Surfing in New England during the hurricane season [from August through November] is great because there are perfect waves and no crowd," Perold says. "The surf culture here is very homegrown, very New England. There are a lot of lobstermen and a lot of professional fishermen that surf during the fall and winter."

To combat the cold weather, the surfers wear wet suits called "654s," equipped with hoods, booties and gloves. "The water gets down to 30 degrees so you can easily get hypothermia," Perold says. "But none of us really have an issue with it. In the winter time none of us would go by ourselves or spend more than two hours in the water. You drive there in your suit and come back in your suit to conserve body heat."

In addition to weekly surfing sessions, the club participates in competitions for 18-24 year olds in the Eastern Surfing Association. Last year, Perold ranked second in the Northeast and this past October, the team finished seventh out of 15 teams in the Surfrider Challenge.

"I wouldn't trade anything in the world for piling a bunch of really, really tired guys in my Volvo at five in the morning," he says. "It's dark outside. There's frost on the windshield. It's freezing. And we´re driving to a beach, hoping there's some waves."

- Paul Dryden '07