Hurricane Erin Sends Waves and Tears to ECSC Finals
The 63rd East Coast Surfing Championships closed with a punch of swell, a couple of rainbows, and the heaviest kind of stoke you’ll ever witness. The Virginian-Pilot reports that North Carolina’s Owen Moss and California’s Ella McCaffray took the men’s and women’s titles, but the scoreboard only tells half the story.
Moss’s Roar: Five minutes into the men’s final, Moss locked into a left, laid two thunderous turns that drenched the judges’ tower, and capped it with a rail-bury cutback. An 8.17 lit up the board; from there he never trailed. After the buzzer, he pointed skyward and dedicated the win to Jacob Venditti, a close friend who passed away just days earlier. The beach went silent, then erupted—half applause, half hugs.
McCaffray’s Cross-Country Clincher: Ella, usually spoiled by San Diego point breaks, surf-splained the East Coast with a 6.50 and a backup 5.73 for a 12.23 heat total that Lanea Mons couldn’t touch. It’s her third Qualifying Series win and vaults her from second to first in the North America standings. Translation: plane tickets to more dream locations are already booked, and photographers are sliding into her DMs.
If you were on the beach, you saw oversized jerseys flapping, lenses fogging, and strangers becoming family. If you weren’t, scroll through Surf Snaps—our shooters caught every spray trail and tear-streaked smile so you can feel it anyway.