By Jackson Long  Freelance reporter for the Daily Emerald
Photos by Nick Coté

Huge waves, warm weather and the beaches of Australia, California, South Africa and South America. That is the typical imagery for surfing, a sport that conjures up thoughts of summer days and the music of the Beach Boys.

But don’t think that surfing is just for warm weather beach-goers. In fact, the University has the largest surf club in the entire Northwest.

The club, which was started in 1995 by Bryan Bates, a legend in the Oregon surf community and a renowned surfboard crafter, is still running strong today with more than 30 members. For the past three years, senior Matt Hundhammer has run the club as the coordinator for all things Oregon Surf.

“Surfing is an outlet for us; for me personally, it has been the outlet that has allowed me to stay at UO,” Hundhammer said.

For the typical Northwest surfer, a “normal” winter such as this one can be pretty hard to endure.  Opportunities for quality surf have been few compared to some memorable, unusual winters.  So what’s a frustrated surfer to do?

Travel. It’s a popular antidote to short, rainy, onshore days, and 5 mm Neoprene.

For most of us, just the idea of warm water, coral reefs, palm trees and tropical wax is enough to awaken the wanderlust.  What’s tropical wax?

South Oregon Coast

Written by Scott Graves, Curry Pilot staff writer

Brookings’ Noah Bruce tames giant surf at Sporthaven Beach.
Photo by Grant Fraley

A sunny Sunday afternoon, a handful of local surfers and a solid west swell delivering  clean, overhead surf at Sporthaven Beach.

It doesn’t get any better than this.