Tropical Storm Chris draws surfers to Wrightsville Beach

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC (WWAY) — Cloudy skies and rough waves aren’t exactly ideal beach conditions for most, but for some, this is a welcome change of pace.

Tropical Storm Chris sits a couple hundred miles to the southeast, and surfers hit Wrightsville Beach on Sunday to take advantage of the swells.

“There’s nothing like it. It’s just unreal getting out there, and the opportunity to take a nice wave every time, it’s just unbeatable brah,” said surfer Blake Hilgen.

“There’s a ton of surfers that flock here, obviously when we get tropical storms or hurricanes,” said South End Surf Shop owner Jeff DeGroote.

DeGroote says this summer hasn’t been too kind to surfers.

“We kind of have a dry spell in surf, so having Tropical Storm Chris off there producing some surf has been good for us,” said DeGroote.

And surfers seem to agree.

“Definitely this summer it’s been more flat, so this is kind of the bigger waves of the summer,” said surfer Samuel Young.

And it’s not just locals taking advantage.

“We’re from Raleigh, we go to school up at NC State and we just heard there were some bombs out back so we rolled up to Wilmington,” said Hilgen.

15-year-old Nick Bacik, who has been surfing for three years, says he saw the waves on a phone app and rushed to the beach.

“The rush, when you get going down a wave it just looks, the view, everything about it,” said Bacik.

DeGroote says tropical storms are always good for business, as long as they stay far away.

“We always love when the hurricanes or tropical storms stay off our coast, produce waves, and stay far from making any land impact,” said DeGroote.