The harsh winter here is the best season for waves, as storms barreling up the East Coast can leave days of large swells in their wake. With wetsuit technology improving, surfers here say, more and more people are showing up on days better suited for skiing.
The surfing equivalent of a burkha (only skin tight), their gloves, boots, hoods and "6/5/4" wetsuits -- named for the thickness, in millimeters, of the neoprene material at the torso, legs and arms, and joints, respectively -- leave only a portion of their faces exposed to the elements.
"It's a bit counterintuitive, but the off-season really is the season here," said John Meehan of Rye, N.H., whose favorite surf spot is a peninsula off Hampton known as Boar's Head. "In the summer you get more people out there, because of all the tourists, but in the winter, you get a more advanced crew, the regulars."
The community is close-knit and remarkably diverse. Among the die- hards on a recent weekday morning were a carpenter and a chiropractor, an executive recruiter who is an amputee and a former professional hockey player. Some are squeezing in a few waves before work; others will play hooky all day. A few high school students hurriedly paddle to shore, just before their 8 a.m. classes.
"People who have been surfing here since the '70s say you used to have to drive around half the day to find someone to go out there with you. Now it's sometimes too crowded," said Jeff Denholm of nearby Kittery , Maine , who said the longest he has ever gone without surfing was the four months he spent recuperating after losing his arm in the drive shaft of a fishing boat off Alaska in 1992.