Kilian Garland

Hurricane Hilary: One Wild Weekend in SoCal

While it didn’t generate widespread pumping surf up and down the coast, Hurricane Hilary was an especially dynamic swell and weather event for Southern California surfers -- some of whom scored the best surf of the summer. The storm itself topped out as a Category 4 major hurricane on Friday, August 17th with 125-knot winds, which is when it (just barely) made it into SoCal's swell window. It also hit land in Northern Baja on August 20th and tracked north over the southwest US, bringing widespread wind and rain to parts of the country that rarely see such things.

Surfwise, it was all location, location, location. Hilary was a strong, giant storm, sure, but due to its extreme SE direction, most of its energy bypassed most SoCal surf spots and only really shined in places like Newport Beach, where it brought the biggest and best surf in months. An initial pulse hit Saturday evening, almost a day early, but Sunday was The Day. Hilary's approach created offshore winds and rain along the coast -- another rarity -- and the swell pulsed on and off, building through the day and peaking in the afternoon for a hearty pack of locals and visitors. By early evening, though, Hilary shut down the party it created -- near-tropical storm force southerly wind tore through lineups that had been near perfect only a few minutes prior -- and it was over as quickly as started. Hurricanes are like that.

"Our Winter Narrative" (Part 3) California Surfing Series

"Our Winter Narrative," is a series of surfing short films documenting the winter surfing season in California. This is the third part out of three short films. I'm "trying" to keep it in chronological order as each session occurs.

Surfers: Nat Young, Kolohe Andino, Ian Crane, Luke Davis, Kilian Garland, Adam Lambert, Kanoa Igarashi, Trevor Gordon, Yadin Nicol, Tom Curren