THE SLURPEE WAVE

Jonathan Nimerfroh has been a good friend for a while, he's a photographer based in Nantucket, Massachusetts. On 20th February his daily surf check resulted in his photo's of the slurpee wave going global. We caught up with him to find out what the hell was going on over there. 

 "These frozen wave photos were taken on February 20, 2015 during my daily surf check. When I pulled up to the beach I could see the horizon just looked strange. When I got to the top of the dunes I saw that 300 yards away from the shoreline the ocean was starting to freeze. 
 
The high temp that day was around -7 degrees. The wind was howling from the southwest, which would typically make rough or choppy conditions not so good for surfing, but since the surface of the sea was frozen slush the wind did not change the shape. What resulted was perfect, dreamy, slush waves. Most waves were around 2 feet with some larger sets slushing through around 3 foot. What an experience to be absolutely freezing on the beach watching these roll in while I mind-surfed them! I wonder if a shaper can make me a special designed slurfboard?
 
The next day I drove up to see if they melted, but beginning that same 300 yards away from shore the water had frozen solid and there were no waves at all. I've been asking all the fishermen and surfers I know if they have ever seen such a thing and they have all reported that this is a first, a result of it being the coldest winter we've had in 81 years!  I guess the people I asked weren't old enough to remember a colder winter than this."