Stevie Pittman In Not Just Another East Coast Edit

It’s a proven fact that pre-hype kills hurricane swells.

But what about post-hype? What about praising a hurricane swell after it’s already dissipated? Energy cannot be created or destroyed (or obtained through crystals sold by dreadlocked Caucasians in Byron), so where does all that post-hype energy go? We’d like to think that it funnels into the next swell.

Although it was destructive, the 2017 hurricane season supplied the East Coast the best run of surf it has since ’97. And this edit of 17-year-old Stevie Pittman is the best we’ve seen of all that. So, consider it hyped.

Now, here’s a beige discussion with Stevie about how it all went down.

Stab: Well, that was entertaining. Please elaborate.
Young Mr Pittman: It was all filmed in September. We did one trip to New England, a few sessions around my home in the southern part of North Carolina and a some time on the Outer Banks.

How’d you like New England?
That was one of the best surf trips of my life. My dad and I chased a storm up there and stayed in this little fishing village for three days, not knowing if we were going to get skunked or not. But the waves ended up being insane and there was nobody around. A lot of places on the East Coast have a hard time breaking up long period swell, but the spots up there handle it just fine.

What was your best experience up there?
One morning, it was so foggy that you couldn’t even see the waves from the beach. We ended up paddling out anyway. It was firing and we got some good ones, but we didn’t get any clips due to the fog. It was so sick surfing out there like that though.

And how about those sessions on the Outer Banks?
There used to be some really good sandbars around where I live, but things changed and they don’t really break anymore. So I go up to the Outer Banks pretty much every swell. It’s a three-hour drive, but it’s still like a second home to me. There’s something about scoring good waves at home because you’re so comfortable.

How do you think the waves there compare to other heavy waves in the world?
When it’s on, it’s really heavy — I think it rivals some of the heaviest waves in the world. The photos make it look like you can just paddle out and get barreled all day, but it’s nothing like a perfect reef pass because there’s so much water moving. During one of my best sessions filming for this clip, I had to paddle for 45-minutes without even getting a wave. But it was so worth it once I finally did.