May 6-

May 6- 10 waves. Head high. KB. Kerri

May 7- 10 waves. Shoulder. The pipe. Byron Kerri Beca Clinton

May 8- 10 waves. Chest. The pipe. Same.

May 9- 11 waves. Thigh. The pipe. Same plus Josh and Ryan. 5 more with Beca in from of house.

May 10- 15 waves. Knee. The pipe. Kerri Keith Ryan. 6 more with Keith and Brian at J.

May 11- 2 waves. Shin. KB. Beca. 5 more with Beca Jeff and Clinton at J. Did a few handstands on the surfboard for first time ever.

May 12- 4 waves. Waist. Pipe. Byron Kerri. Went back out at J ave with Byron, Clinton, Beca, Jen, Chris and Ryan. Lost track of how many waves I caught. At least 20. Probably 40…

May 13- caught one fun knee high wave about 5 minutes before Kaila’s bus picked her up. In front of house. Perfect timing..was in water less than 4 minutes….

May 14- 9 waves. Beca Clinton. In front the the house. Thigh high.

May 15- Day 375 – 4 waves. Pipe. Josh. Kerri. Byron. Knee high. Went again with Josh and caught 7 more.

May 16- 3 waves. I ave. Beca. Knee.

May 17- 3 waves. In front of house. Knee. 2 more at J by myself.

May 18- did Life Rolls On at Wrightsville beach for 8 hours. Another great event. Hope to get pics up soon. After Life Rolls On me and Beca went to I ave and I caught 5 thigh high waves.

May 19- went out at 10 with Beca Byron and Kerri at J ave and surfed about an hour then went from 12-5 with Beca Byron Kerri Josh Steve Jenn and John. 6 hour beach day! Great waist high waves. Caught between 20-30. Getting better at doing handstand on board.

May 20- went with Shayne at j ave at 11 for 2 hours… 10-12 waves. Chest high… Went back out with Byron and Beca at 6 for another hour. Caught 7 more.

May 21- went with Kerri and Byron at sunrise at Pipe. Waist high. 7 waves. Went back out with Shayne at 2 and caught 10….went back a 3rd time with Byron and Kerri by pier for 45 min and caught 8 more..

May 22- went with Clinton for an hour early afternoon in front of house…waist. 10 waves..

May 23- In front of house.. Waist high. 3 waves.

May 24- 1st session- 5:45 AM with Clinton, Kerri, and Byron at the pipe for about 90 min. Waist high. Caught 8.
2nd session- 11 at J ave with Byron. Caught 6 more. Surfed another hour.

May 5

Day 365

Whew… It had to be a crazy windy choppy nasty cold wet day on day 365… But I guess it was fitting. Beca and I went down to the pier and met Kevin… There were about 20 friends and family members on the beach when were down there to watch us and cheer us on. No way in the world I would’ve gone out in this normally. EVER. It looked awful. But at noon the three of us (tried to) paddle out in seas that were blowing sideways. After about 10 minutes of non stop paddling I caught a wave. It was a smaller one than the overhead waves that were out but it counts. I had drifted 3 blocks in that short amount of time. Done. Over. Finished. Just the one wave today.
It has been a great weekend. Saturday night my parents threw me a party for all my friends at the beach house and about 40 people came over and hung out, had drinks, ate a catered dinner and played corn hole. We had T shirts made up for the big day on Sunday. It turned out great. On Sunday night my friends and wife threw me another party at the Lazy Pirate in Carolina Beach. It was a surprise. The owners of the charity I raised money or were there and about 15-20 friends came out to wish me congrats. The restaurant put up a slide show that Kerri made for the past year of surfing. It was awesome.
All in all I ended up raising over $1200 for Ocean Cure. I feel like I could have gotten more if I had gone to local businesses but I wanted to keep in personal and just ask friends and family. Watching the slide show with my best friends and family made me realize just how much fun I have had in the past 12 months in the ocean. It was very very difficult and I will never do it again but I can say that every day was really special. There wasn’t a day that I did not have fun. Although some were definitely better than others! Lots of bumps and bruises. The worst part was having to get into a WET wet suit everyday for 5 straight months. Hasn’t been dry since October. And physically it was hard because you don’t give your body a break. At all. It’s every. Single. Day. But even harder was the mental aspect. After going out alone and freezing in 25 ° temps in choppy water to catch a wave and then coming home to look at the forecast and knowing you have 4 more days of the same conditions can beat you down mentally. Some of my favorite days were when it would be cold and I would be the only one in the ocean at 6:45 AM with no one in sight. Very peaceful times to clear your mind.. And surfing with the J crew is always fun.
Big thanks to every person that donated money to Ocean Cure, thanks to Ocean Cure for letting me help them out, my parents for the pictures, t-shirts, party, etc.., every person that I have surfed with and bugged to death about my streak (particularly everyone in the J crew), Kerri Cunningham for putting together an awesome slides show and paddling out with me on days when nobody else would, WECT and WSFX for putting me on TV, Libby at the Island Gazette for writing the article in the paper, Kevin for introducing me to Life Rolls On and Ocean Cure, and lastly Beca. For sacrificing her surfing time to take pictures, watch me surf, missing out on dawn patrols, making sure the great white shark that was in our front yard doesn’t eat me, repairing my wet suit, and encouraging me not to quit. Thanks everyone.
And yes, I did paddle out on day 366. I have no clue when I’ll stop but now I am not under any pressure to continue. It has become a routine for me. I would estimate that over the past year I have caught around 2000 waves and have no desire to stop. . But it was for a great cause and I did it with great friends. Peace..

2 different shots of my one wave on day 365

Finally over. More of a relief than anything.

Props to Kevin who actually made it all the way out.

Not really a beach day

Kaila photo bombing

Friends and family

Kerri managed to show up JUST as we were getting out of the water. I’m sure that was not by accident.

Lazy pirate party

Plaque given by Ocean Cure

Byron has his boots and gloves on here.

Great weekend.

Look how perfect these waves were just 24 hours later. Another 10 wave 2-hour session in overhead clean conditions with Beca, Kerri on day 366

Beach house fiesta

May 4

Day 364

One of the hardest days in past 12 months. 40 mph gusts on beaches. Went out with Clinton at 11. We paddled out by the pier and by the time we were in position to catch a wave we had been blown 3/4 of a mile down shore. It was just 30 minutes of getting destroyed in the ocean. I caught 2 smaller waves that I didn’t want to count. I finally caught a good one and rode it all the way in. There were some waves that were overhead… Very hard day.

Us just fighting to make it out

My one wave. This is after half an hour of a non stop beating…

Clinton. Thank God he went…

Strong winds.

May 3

Day 363

Went to KB pier at 2. It’s horrible. Very VERY large and VERY choppy. I was lucky to get out… I shot down the beach in no time… My mom went out to take pictures.. One wave day. They were in the 4-6 foot range. Wind was blowing around 20-25 mph….

Finally outside.

Struggled to get this one in

2 more days.

May 2

Day 362

Went out at 7:30 AM and had a tough time. It was so choppy I could not get all the way outside so I had to just catch a small one inside. It was so rough. And choppy. Just one wave. The waves were about 4-5 feet. Did not have a good session.

About 6 Clinton came down and we went and looked at it. I didn’t really wanna go again but we decided to try it for 20 minutes. Ended up having a blast. They were in the shoulder high range and I caught 4 more. Surfed for about 75 minutes. Had a few great wipeouts. It was still choppy but so much fun. Good call Clinton.

Waves in the morning. Because of the 20 mph winds and it being cold I was only one on beach. Very disorganized waves.

Beca came out to take a pic of one wave and it was the smallest one of the day…. 10 minutes earlier and I would have had a good pic to show here.

Only 3 more…

Tree at end of our street that looks like a wave when the sun sets.

May 1

Day 361

Went out at 7 in front of house. Waves were choppy. Caught 2. Would’ve caught 3 but 2nd wave took me all the way in. Waves were ok size…stayed only about 20 minutes.

Beca took these pics.

4 more…

April 30

Day 360

Went on a dawn patrol session with Josh, Kerri, and Byron around 6:20 AM. Waves were decent size but very pitchy and dumpy. A lot of close outs. Regardless I had fun. Caught 7 waves. 2-3 foot range.

Went back out out after Kaila’s soccer practice. It was dark… Kaila actually paddled out. We took Kaila’s new board. Caught 1 wave a piece.

Byron only one still in gloves…boots….

Kaila getting ready to paddle out

How dark it was on beach. This is a wave I’m on… Not much to see… I surfed at dawn and dusk…

5 more days

April 29

Day 359

Went in front of house at 7 am. It was pouring rain but the waves were nice. As much as I love surfing with friends, it is very soothing to go out when I am only one in water. Nobody else in eyesight in middle of the ocean. It’s very calming. Anyway I caught 3 waves. The last one was chest high.

Went out second time with Scott at the Pipe at 5:45. They were fun. Stayed a little over an hour and caught 7 waves. There were some out that were chest high mostly smaller. Scott as always caught some good ones.

Morning wave

Birds hanging out in morning and afternoon watching me.

Scott Primavera.

6 more days

April 28

Day 358

Went and helped with surf camp from 9-11 at the CB boardwalk. The group was from Greensboro. After that I went home and surfed my break for about an hour. Waves were 3-4 feet. I caught 5. Three hours in sun and ocean by 1:30.

Surf camp at Carolina Beach

Surfing at KB

They put the lifeguard stands back up

51 weeks down, 1 to go..

April 27

Day 357

Went to J ave at 3 by myself and just floated home. The waves were dumpy and pitchy. I surfed for about 20 minutes and caught 3 waves. 2-3 feet range.

Here I am.

Picture of my J crew. Clinton, Austin, Keith, Jeff, Laurie, Ben, Beca, Kaila.

Kure beach street festival

When Beca was teaching surf camp with Ocean Cure they were having this bizarre male shirtless beach wrestling tournament going on. It was sanctioned and judged and everything. Very strange.