The East Coast plays little brother to California in the history of surfing in the US.  I bet there's hardly anyone out there that could point out on a map an epic East Coast US surf spot.  I certainly couldn't.  But the East Coast has hatched so many quality surfers including Cory and Shea Lopez and of course 10 x World Champ Mr Kelly Slater that you know there's got to be waves.  The East Coast grommet scene is bursting at the seams with talent such as New York local Balaram Stack, Asher Nolan, brothers Evan and Eric Geiselman and Cam Richards.  The list of world class surfers and epic breaks over this side would blow your mind.  Expect a little more noise from this side of the US especially now with Quiksilver banging the drum here in New York At Long Beach this morning the locals turned out en mass in the rain to see their local kid Balaram Stack take on the Champ in clean shoulder-high waves.  Balaram threw everything he could at it going for high scoring maneuvers over the "4 turns to the beach" routine, but he just couldn't get one to stick.  Unfazed by the rowdy locals on the beach Kelly stayed ice cool and did what was required to win the heat without even getting into 2nd gear.  Balaram will come up against Mick Fanning in Round two tomorrow morning for a shot flying the New York flag int Round Three.  Waves are supposed to be bigger and building rapidly right through to Friday as the Hurricane swell from Katia fills in.

How's the surf in Manly?  Just checked the cams and it looked ok down there.