To me, they were sleek loners on the sea, able to carve water, skim whitecaps and command their own loping vocabulary. On a recent morning, I caught my first wave in Westport, a depressed fishing town that has become the surf capital of Washington. The main beach, Westhaven State Park, draws thousands of people every year, but unlike Hawaii or Southern California, surfing here is uniquely Northwest. The average water temperature ranges from 40 to almost 60 degrees, making a full wetsuit essential year-round. Enormous changes in the tide and wind create gritty, unstable conditions.
Waves go from small in the summer to overhead in the winter.
Despite the chill and ruggedness, surfing has found a toehold and grown considerably. Last month, the annual Northwest Longboard Classic drew 230 contestants, compared to 54 when it began nine years ago. I rented a board and wetsuit from the oldest shop, a small, quirky, laid-back venue packed with boards, suits, faded postcards on the wall and old longboards suspended from the ceiling. He wanted to know if I preferred being hit by a soft, spongy board or the more popular hard one. Beginning surfers, I soon learned, are easily slammed with their own boards, hence the choice in rentals.