Scott Cohen waits. When he sees a wave forming, he goes for it. After surfing in Virginia Beach for 30 years, he knows good waves are rare and fleeting.
Virginia Beach isn’t known for having much in the way of waves at all. But despite its relatively flat waters, a vibrant surfing community has evolved over the last century, shaped by new materials, technology and historical events.
Dana Sizemore, executive director of the Virginia Beach Surf and Rescue Museum, traces the history of surfing in the city back to 1912.
“A fellow named James Jordan Jr., his uncle came back from Hawaii and brought him a big 12-foot wooden surfboard that weighed over 100 pounds,” she said. “He started surfing on it, and people marveled at what he was doing out there.”
The economic boom after World War II would be the main catalyst for surfing not just in Virginia Beach, but nationally, said Deena Sasser, the museum’s head curator. People had more disposable income and their own cars. Vacations weren’t just for the wealthy anymore. Beaches, once desolate and unforgiving landscapes, became destinations.
“There was nothing and no one for miles because it was dunes, sand,” she said of Virginia Beach’s Oceanfront. “It wasn't that hospitable. But as people started flocking to oceanfronts, they started catering more towards bringing more people in.”
Hotels and other amenities cropped up.
Around the same time, surfboards themselves were changing. Traditionally, surfboards were made of solid wood. In 1929, hollow boards came on the scene, shaving off around 100 pounds, Sasser said. But fiberglass and plastic foam decades later made surfboards even lighter and easier to carry. These boards didn’t require multiple people to haul across the sand.
Then, surfing really took off in Virginia Beach in the 1960s, when local surfers began to earn a name for themselves in competitions and the city started hosting the East Coast Surfing Championship, now the longest-running surfing competition in the world.
The pop culture of the day exposed more people to surfing.
“You get the Beach Boys in there, and you get those surf movies,” Sasser said.
Vibrant surfing communities popped up coast to coast. And what set Virginia Beach apart from these other areas were waves — or lack thereof.
“Having people with the desire to surf and not having waves, that created a certain type of surfer,” said Jason Borte, who started surfing in the 1980s and went on to be a pro-champion. “There's a real kind of bond I think between surfers here because they're dealing with all these elements.”
Those elements include cold winters, city restrictions on where surfing is allowed, crowds and, of course, flat seas, Borte said.
But local surfer Dylan Rogers said that just meant Virginia Beach surfers had to be extra committed to catch the waves that did roll through. He grew up surfing in Sandbridge in the 1990s and caught his first wave at just five years old.
“You had to be on the weather, the winds, the tides,” he said. “ ’Cause in California, you can just walk out and there's always waves, never rains over there. It's always perfect. It's crazy. But here we had to really work for it.”
He remembers calling WRV, a local surf shop, every morning for the surf conditions, he said, noting the advent of online surf cameras made them a lot easier to track.
Now, Rogers owns his own surf and skate shop called Pungo Board House and has been teaching others how to surf for decades, including lessons on surf etiquette.
“There's a lot of rules, like not taking somebody else's wave,” he said.
Camden Hoover, 19, has been surfing at the First Street Jetty since she was three. Now, she’s a local competitive surfer with aims to go pro. She’s surfed around the world and has competed in hundreds of competitions, but she said growing up surfing in Virginia Beach taught her that waves don’t make a surfing community; the people do.
“If you're surrounded by people who love what you're also doing, it's super uplifting and motivating, and it makes every experience or session just happy,” she said. “Even when the waves suck, it can be completely turned around by who you're out there with.”
The city’s surf culture is still evolving. For one, surfing has historically been male-dominated, but that’s been changing as more girls and women jump on boards. The city hosted its inaugural Super Girl Surf Festival just last month.
“The competition in itself is such a cool thing because from the time I was a little girl to now, there are so many girls competing, and it's crazy to see that boom happen,” Hoover said.
And new technology continues to shape Virginia Beach’s surfing community.
Near 18th Street, Cohen paddles toward a wave. He jumps to his feet to ride it back to shore — then wipes out. He’s laughing by the time he returns to the surface.
“I thought you were going to jump in and save me,” he jokes to Nate Stevens, the general manager of Atlantic Park Surf.
Atlantic Park Surf has a 3.5 million-gallon artificial lagoon that produces consistent and customizable waves for different skill levels. Cohen has been a regular since the wave garden opened a year ago. For him, it’s a game changer.
“I can come here and surf for an hour and catch 15 perfect waves,” he said. “If I were surfing at the Jetty where we all grew up surfing and learning, you couldn't catch 15 perfect waves in a month or two months.”
He said Virginia Beach surfers finally have the waves they’ve been missing — just a few blocks from the ocean.
