How great is surfing in Northeast Florida in the summer? I mean besides the crowds, lack of beach-adjacent parking, tourists, lack of quality surf… did I mention crowds? Not to be stick in the mud, but summer in Northeast Florida has a tendency to test the resolve of even the most surf-stoked among us. Relatedly, June’s unrelenting flat spell has many of us here at Void considering other hobbies—HQ Trivia, anyone?
Not so for the region’s style-focused, pleasure-seeking longboard community who have an uncanny ability to keep the stoke alive. Despite a marginal knee-high-ish SE windswell in the water, dozens of the area’s best longboarders descended on Mary Street in St. Augustine for the third annual Old City Log Jam, a contest that celebrates classic longboarding technique (trimming, stalling, styling) and fun, fun, fun, while attracting the best practitioners of the approach from the eclectic community of Northeast Florida log-evangelists.
The 9-foot plus, single fin, the proper equipment for the log jam (or most summer days in NE FL). Photo: Gabrielle Wilde
Started by St. Augustine style masters Chris Tincher, Alex Hobbs, and Chad Doyle to reflect the emerging longboard renaissance best exemplified by Joel Tudor’s traveling road show, the Duct Tape Invitational, the Log Jam kicked out its 3rd year of competition in small, but fun surf on Saturday.
