VIRGINIA BEACH — Hurricane season is scary for some, but its the perfect time of year for a surfer.
When Gil DeVera was a teenager in Virginia Beach, he and his friends would chase hurricanes to find good surf. Their adventures would often lead them about two hours south of Hampton Roads to Cape Hatteras, N.C. where they could find some of the best swells on the east coast.
“Surfers are always looking for the next big storm that will generate big surf,” the 52-year-old surfer said. “When I was younger, I remember I could never tell my mom I was surfing a hurricane. If she knew, she would have never let me go.”
When category-five Hurricane Felix formed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2007, DeVera chased it up the east coast from Rodanthe, N.C. to Isle City, N.J. In August, he surfed category-two Hurricane Gert in Buxton, N.C.
From 15-foot waves in the Outer banks, to winning a continental master title in Hawaii in 1992, DeVera has surfed it all.
And this week, he swept two divisions in the East Coast Surfing Championships in his home town — Virginia Beach.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, DeVera surfed and won the 55th annual ECSC’s Grand Masters Division and — for the third year in a row — Legends Division.
“It’s almost like a brotherhood,” DeVera said of competing. “Yea, for that 15 or 20 minutes that you’re surfing in the heat you become one and you compete against your friends … but after the heat, everyone’s hugging and talking.”
The ECSC is the second-oldest surfing competition in the world behind the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The competition draws surfers from across the continent and globe in swell capitals like Brazil, California and Hawaii, DeVera said.
“If the waves are going to get big it really brings in some big names in the area,” DeVera said.
An Old Dominion University graduate and current information systems regional manager for a civil engineering firm, DeVera says he still loves to chase hurricanes, find big surf and compete. But now he factors family in, bringing his 9-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter to places like Cape Hatteras to practice for competitions like the ECSC.
But for DeVera, surfing is about more than winning championships and riding waves: It’s about friendship — both with his fellow surfers and Mother Nature.
“I just love being out there in the ocean. You feel closer to Mother Nature,” he said. “I understand the ocean. Even though it looks calm … it could take you really quick.”
Send news tips to [email protected].
