(ocean crashing) - A few winters back, we had a swell come up and I surfed one afternoon, and I tossed my board in the backyard, and then the next day, a snowstorm had moved in.

(wind gusting) And the waves were good, and I get my suit on, and we had over a foot of snow.

I can't find my surfboard.

I'm out in the backyard (laughs) like shoveling and looking for it, and then finally I found the leash and grabbed it, and then had to ice scrape it.

And I'm like, "That's stuff that just doesn't happen in other areas."

(ocean crashing) (seagulls calling) I think a lot of people, when they think of a New England winter, it's the cold, unpredictable weather, snow and ice.

Not a lot of people think of it as a surfing destination, California, Hawaii.

But there's a lot of times we get great surf in the winter.

If you have a good swell and the winds are gonna be good, then it doesn't matter whether it's 90 degrees out, or whether it's 3 degrees out, you're gonna go out.

And then you're in the water and it's like, you're just waiting for the next wave, and you're stepping into another dimension.

(bubbles gurgling) (bright piano music) - First time I caught a wave, it was not the biggest wave, but... - It was the best natural high I'd ever had in my life.

(waves whooshing) - The first time I remember was probably when I was like three or four.

- Honestly, I couldn't tell you.

- I remember everything about it, the surfboard, where I was.

- Seeing it building and knowing that you're gonna just keep cruising right down that wave.

- Oh, here we go!

Yes!

- Once you're in the wave and you feel the momentum take you, now it's time to play a little bit.

- You almost have that feeling it doesn't count unless someone sees it.

- You know, that's why you're like, "That was the one!"

- You bring somebody out for their first time, and you're like, "Just give it a chance," and they're falling and they're swimming and they're seeing waves going underneath them, and they're going over the front of the board and they're falling.

- I went left, I remember grabbing my rail, my brother yelling, "Grab your rail!"

In a sense you're like, "I know that's never gonna happen again, but I'm gonna search for it."

(bright piano music continues) (chef's kiss) Oh, if I could just get a couple of those again.

(laughs) (ocean crashing) - My name is Melinda Ferreira.

I am a doctor and an acupuncturist, I'm married, and I have a little boy.

(seagulls calling) I'm someone that's tried to avoid cold my entire life, (laughs) so it's kind of ironic that I'm surfing in the winter now.

(air whooshing) When you go out into the water, and you're looking out to the horizon, the sun is rising, versus if you're on the West Coast and the sun is setting.

(seagulls calling) To be able to be out in the morning at first light, which is usually about 30 minutes before the sun comes up, as the day is starting, the lights are just spectacular.

(wind gusting) The last thing I do is pull my hood up, and it is kind of like game time, you know, and I kinda tuck my hair into my hood.

Once you pull that hood on in October, you know that hood's gonna be coming up until like May.

(laughs) (Velcro scratching) Growing up on the South Shore of Boston, I had no idea that surfing even existed in New England.

We'd go to the Cape every summer, but the upper Cape, so I had never seen a surfboard in New England.

My husband and I were dating in college, and he grew up in North Hampton, and we were driving along 1A one day, and I said, "Oh, look at those beautiful seals in the water right off the coast," and he's like, "Those are surfers," and I'm like, "What?"

(seagulls calling) I started surfing when I was 29.

(gentle piano music) The first time I went surfing, my husband and I set up lessons through Cinnamon Rainbows, and it was like a beautiful weekend in May.

The next weekend, as typical in New England, it was like 40 degrees out and hailing wind and rain, and we both woke up, hungover, and (laughs) we were like, "Oh, thank God, they're never gonna take us out in this."

And we went down to the shop to just politely reschedule and stuff.

The guy who took us out for a lesson was like, "You guys stoked or what?"

and we're like, "No!"

(waves crashing) I was pushed into the first wave and just completely wiped out, but he pushed me into the second wave and I got up, and it was a life-changer for me because it changed the way I looked at a lot of things.

I get a little bit emotional now because I was kind of going down a path that a lot of people had in my family, with alcohol and different things, and just not-great habits.

The second I got up in that wave, I knew that I wanted to have a reason to get up early in the morning to get up on my board in the sunrise, and to be up and be healthier, and it's changed everything!

(gentle piano music continues) My friends and family know if I've surfed or not, 'cause I'm just like, "Ahh!"

and wagging my tail the rest of the day.

(ocean roaring distantly) When you go out into the water and you're looking out to the horizon, the sun is rising.

To be able to see that come up from your board, in zero-degree (chuckles) temperatures or less is...

I don't know how to describe it.

(inspirational music) (seagulls calling) I would imagine it's like an astronaut looking back towards Earth and just being like, "What am I looking at?"

To me, a very spiritual experience, and I think it's an indescribable feeling.

(inspirational music continues) You're standing and you're walking and you're dancing on water!

(seagulls calling) (gentle guitar music) With different sports and stuff, people can have a more aggressive style or a lighter style, and that's the beautiful thing about surfing, is you can make it your own thing.

(gentle guitar music continues) I lost my mom to breast cancer when I was 14, so I think that ever since then I've been hyperaware, again, not in a bad way, of just my own mortality.

When you have a healthy body, to be able to use it, and to be out in the ocean but to be with nature, and I think from a physical standpoint, I've met so many people that are my age or younger, and they know they're in their final stages of life and they'd give anything, I think, to be in the ocean, up at sunrise, or doing the most that we can with what we have.

And quite often when I'm out there, I think of a lot of the people that I'm working with that are kind of at the twilight of their life, and I'm not sure what I have left in front of me, but that's actually more of a reason that I'm not taking for granted that I'm gonna have another 60 years or so.

I'd love to make it to triple digits, but just in case, I wanna have every single bit of my life that I can, used as well as I can.

And surfing's been a beautiful part of that for me.

(ocean crashing) (gentle piano music) When a wave comes in, when I'm out there looking east, I know that my friends and family in Ireland are sharing that same ocean over there, we're sharing the same body of water, and that that wave, whatever wave I end up on, that I'm having fun with, has had this entire life in front of it before it came to come to its end on the Seacoast of New Hampshire, and I'm just like, "Wow, we're gonna end this together."

And then the wave crashes and you're going back out and I might see you again somewhere else on Earth.

(piano music fades out) - Ooh!

(wind gusting) - People do think you're pretty insane, for getting out there when it's 18 degrees outside.

You'll run across them, coming out to just, you know, they think they're gonna go to the beach and take pictures, and there's three knuckleheads in wetsuits.

- [Photographer] I'm gonna take a picture of you guys.

- Oh, okay.

- My daughter lives in L.A.

Her boyfriend grew up in Monterey and surfs.

If I take a picture of you guys- - He won't know what- - (laughs) He's gonna go, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

- Best conditions.

- I love it!

- It keeps people outta the water!

- Surfing is as fun as you decide to make it, and that's why I think it's one of those sports that is different than a lot of other ones.

(car honking) Stairway to heaven.

It reminds you, like when you used to take your bikes into the woods when you were 10 years old, and you'd ride around and do whatever.

- As I'm walking into the water, I think to myself, "Am I really doing this?"

- The thing that's changed over the years is the technology in wetsuits.

- You have to know exactly kinda how to put things on, before your hands and your body parts start to freeze.

- And I took a wave to the face, and the water's 35 degrees, and I was like, "Ugh!"

- Taking three shots of espresso, one right after another and you're like, "I'm ready to go!"

(laughs) - Your lips, everyone looks horrific because nobody can smile 'cause your faces are frozen.

- Like, "This is just too cold, I'm just gonna go back out."

- Oh cool, somebody else, like somebody else to talk to, someone else who's freezing their off!

- "Oh, what's up?

You're roughing it too?

Nice to meet you."

(laughs) - You're doing this shimmy, trying to free that shoulder up.

- You've got a choice to make.

You could either sit in your disgusting neoprene wetsuit with the cold water that you probably peed in, and, like, you can wear it home for another half hour, 40 minutes, whatever the drive is, and then take it off at home, or you can get out of it right away and put it in the back of the car.

- This is when you know it's happening.

You're throwing on the gloves, and you're like, "That's it!"

(laughs) "Time to freeze!"

My name is Edgar Garcia, originally from Guadalajara, Mexico.

Moved to Southern California and Newport Beach, Orange County, when I was about 13 years old.

And moved here to Newburyport in New England, just in September of 2020, right when the pandemic was happening.

How cold am I actually gonna be today?

- [Surfer] Pretty cold.

- Growing up in Mexico was great.

I was a couple hours from the beach, but we had an uncle that was obsessed with going to the beach.

This is how you picture it when you live in California.

You're like, "Oh, there's a little bit of grass, and a little wooded fence."

- Yup.

- Being in the ocean, that was tranquility.

Yeah.

- And you can't really see.

- Well, my first time trying surfing, I was probably around 12, in Mexico, but the beach was a little bit far away so I had limited access to it.

I wanna do a snow angel before I jump in.

And then moving to Orange County and Newport Beach, it really opened up all the doors for me.

I lived about a mile from the beach.

I remember asking my dad before we moved to the U.S., "We need to either have the beach or a pool," because my dad's huge in the water.

He used to do 10-meter Olympic diving.

It's better than just sitting at home and freezing for no reason.

(people laughing) When we moved here, my dad was like, "We're almost to the beach," and I was like, "Oh my God, where are we?"

This giant freeway in California, the 55 freeway leading into Newport Beach.

And for a long time my dad was like, "We did it," you know, "we came to the beach," so that was... (poignant music) (wind gusting) Ah, my toes are already numb!

I felt like we were achieving the American Dream, you know?

(ocean crashing) Moving to California and being an outsider, and looking different had a big effect.

I didn't speak English, so, you know, surfing, it was one of my ways to make friends with all the local kids that... Everybody went to the beach.

We didn't need to understand each other, all we needed to understand was the passion for being in the water and trying to go surfing.

- [Surfer] Oh my gosh, it's like knee-deep.

- You know, California can be tough.

People are very territorial.

They believe the beach belongs to them, and you know, some new outsider kid from Mexico...

It was one of the first places I actually encountered racism.

(wind gusting) "Get outta here, you don't belong here, this isn't your beach," and you know, luckily, the people who were close to me in the area felt different.

(ocean crashing) You know, we stuck up for each other and there was a lot of times (laughs) where I had to defend myself.

You're not gonna let somebody get in the way of getting in the water.

(laughs) All my friends in California and Mexico think I'm wild.

"You take a snow shovel with you sometimes to go surfing, in case you have to snow-shovel a parking spot out?

That sounds crazy."

(laughs) (ocean crashing) The few friends I have here, or the few friends that I can talk to and hang out with, are my friends that I've either met surfing, or a buddy has introduced me to because they surf, and it's kind of fun creating like a new community for yourself and finding people.

(water gurgling) I don't necessarily think there's as many people who are willing to go out in the cold and do this, so it's kind of fun finding those people that wanna have that fun, and just creating that community again.

Nice to meet you!

- Nice to meet you.

I'm Scott.

- Edgar.

- Edgar, nice to meet you, buddy.

- Nice to meet you, yeah!

- Good to meet you.

- Nice to meet you, dude!

- Nice to meet you.

- Graham.

- Nice to meet you.

- Yeah!

- Pretty new to the area, but it's beautiful!

- Awesome.

- Have you found all the surfing spots up there yet?

- I have a buddy back home that I used to always say...

He'd catch a good wave or we'd have a good session, and he'd say, "We're having a surf date after this.

We gotta talk about it."

(laughs) (car door clunking) - [Forecaster] And a good morning!

It's Sunday, January 16th.

Bitterly cold conditions continue across the region, currently negative one degrees with a real-feel of minus four.

(traffic whooshing) - [Surfer] Yes!

So the winds are perfect.

- [Surfer] Yeah, today's gonna be really sweet.

- [Surfer] Outta sight!

(cheerful guitar music) (deep rumbling) - My name is Isaac Hamilton, and I've been paddleboarding for a little over three years now.

- I'm Ben Woodhouse.

I live in North Hampton.

I'm new to stand-up paddleboarding.

(ocean crashing) There's a lot of people that I work with and when they find out that I do paddle surfing, no one says, "Oh, that's so cool."

Maybe somebody says that, but what I get most often is, "You should try surfing."

(laughs) When you're on a stand-up paddleboard, you have way more opportunity to catch waves.

That Sunday morning is a morning that I will never forget.

(ethereal music) The way that the steam was coming off the ocean, I've heard Isaac describe it as "hot soup."

It's a great description.

I wish it was hot, though.

It's not.

The clouds are on the horizon, the way the light was hitting the waves and the atmosphere... (ethereal music continues) The angle of the light, it was catching the waves in ways that when I was facing the beach, I could see the wave coming 'cause it was casting a shadow in front of me, and I knew exactly when I needed to start paddling hard and getting into position.

Your feet are right underneath your shoulders, your chest is facing the front, and then you have to hop into a surf position.

The timing of that is critical, so having all those tells from the wave, saying, "Hey, this wave is coming, and now you really gotta start cranking with the paddle."

And once your board comes in contact with that wave, it just locks in, and I'm hooked, I'm a junkie for it, I keep wanting more and more of it.

And I watch this guy get after it, and I'm like, "I'll be Isaac someday."

Maybe a few more years, but I'll get there.

- But then I'll be better.

- (laughs) Yeah, you will.

- So you'll never quite catch me.

- I'm gonna surpass you one day.

(laughs) (ocean crashing) (geese honking) - My name is Jacob Edwards.

I prefer to go by Jake.

I'm originally from Southern California area.

I'm in the military currently, as a corpsman working in a hospital, and that's why I'm out here in Newport, Rhode Island.

I started surfing when I was like three or four, and my dad would just push me into the waves.

(children chattering) (gentle guitar music) You know, at 5 or 6, I was consistently surfing, and by the time I was like 8, 9, 10, I had my own board, and my dad would trust me to go out on smaller days, and on bigger days, we'd go together.

I never lived in a cold climate.

(wind gusting) (ice cracking) Ooh!

(chuckles) Oh!

And you come to New England and it's like dark, murky water and hurricanes and winter swell.

(electric guitar music) I just wanna buy some crappy Craigslist board and just surf.

I do get a lot of flack for surfing on a foam board on like a world-renowned beach.

(electric guitar music continues) And you gotta kinda prove your spot there.

(deep rumbling) (ocean crashing) I wish I appreciated surfing more when I was a kid.

But unfortunately my dad is not here with me, but I'm still out there, I mean, living through him.

(ethereal music) I wish he could see me surfing in the snow, 'cause that would be, you know, it'd be cool for him.

- [Forecaster] The region is bracing to be hit with a nor'easter this weekend, starting tomorrow night and running through Saturday night- - Temperatures in the 20s, expecting a mix of sun and clouds tomorrow with temperatures staying put, and on Friday- - Multi-facet storm, it's not just gonna be heavy snow, it's gonna be really strong winds, 50 to 60-mile-per-hour wind gusts, maybe even higher.

So power outages are possible for Cape Cod and the islands, possibly near whiteout conditions at times.

- [Forecaster] Coastal flooding is also a possibility.

(ominous music) (bright piano music) - I am originally from upstate New York.

I live in Rye.

I've been surfing off and on since high school.

(bright piano music continues) It can be June, it can be August, it can be January.

Surfing in the water, and the ocean and the beach are a big part of our family life.

As the kids were growing, they've always been going to the beach, being in the ocean and the water.

I remember the first time my daughter had a board, just sitting there was when she was like six months.

What gets me super stoked is when I see a kid and you know they're taking off in that wave, and it's a little too big, and it's like they're probably a little scared, and it's a little bit too much for them, but then they take off, they claw into it, and they like pop up and they land it, right?

And then they maybe even just go straight down the line, but that's it, but you know that that was like... (laughs) That's gonna be the story at the dinner table for the next month and a half or something.

(lilting piano music) The best moment of winter surf is actually, counterintuitively, when it's snowing, 'cause it's like you get that, like it's super quiet, and the snow is coming down, and it's very just like Ansel Adams.

Like imagine that in the ocean, and then on top of that it's like super clean with a super nice wave, and there's not a ton of people, and you look around, and it's just like...

It's just the magic moment.

(inspirational music) There are not a lot of folks who look like me surfing.

I mean, there's more which is cool.

Here in New England everyone's been overall usually very open.

Sometimes you get mistaken for somebody else, but I don't really stress on that.

In fairness, we're all, especially in the winter, covered in neoprene hoods, whatever, so it's like this.

You know, there have been moments, but it's never been about what I look like, unless I'm wearing a pretty crappy wetsuit or something, yeah.

(people laughing) (ocean crashing) (wind gusting) (electric guitar music) (people chattering) - Alright, let's do it.

(hypnotic synthesizer music) - Some days, you just swim.

(people chattering) I can't even grab onto my hands.

(engine rumbling) - My name is Pam, and I moved here to Maine almost six years ago.

(keys jingling) I grew up in Mexico City.

I grew up in like the border between, like, one side is like the lack of resources, immediately you cross, and there's more wealthy people or like there's more money there.

Mexico City was definitely challenging in different ways, especially as a woman, always having to watch your back.

(board clunking) At the same time, it was just magical.

(cheerful guitar music) (children chattering) There's a lot of diversity there in so many ways, people from literally all over the world, and it was just learning from them a lot.

I did grow up going to the water a lot, mostly because of my mom's job.

She's a scientist.

They used to send her a lot to conferences, to events in Cancun.

And my mom's like, "It's so hard to get you out of the water."

The way I think of myself as a creative is mostly an all-over-the-place (laughs) kind of creative person, and I think that probably comes from the fact that I do have ADHD, so I like to be everywhere, and I can't focus on one thing, otherwise I get bored.

When I moved to Maine, my whole creative self exploded, (soft piano music) so I start painting.

I start painting skateboards, I started painting just like outside, seeing if anyone wanted a mural or something, and I found a lot of people that were really interested in that.

I realized Maine is actually a pretty artistic state in general.

When you get a surfboard that it's custom for you, and you look at it, and it's not like a board you get from the shelf in the store.

It's special 'cause it's tailored to you.

(snow crunching) You put a little bit of yourself in it, so it becomes more of a treasure.

I painted an owl because my mom, when I was younger, used to call me her little owl, like a kululu, which is a word for little owl in like a native language in Mexico.

She called me that word 'cause I had really big eyes when I was a kid.

She was like, "You're my little kululu, you're like all over the place."

When I left Mexico, of course, the thing that I've been missing the most is family, so, bringing that board with me is just like having my mom out there.

(soft piano music) I'm sorry.

(wind gusting) (seagulls calling) I came here alone, so it's just like that feeling, like just remembering where you come from, and the people you left behind, and the ones you miss, especially, I mean, your mother.

(ocean crashing) (soft piano music continues) The first time I tried surfing, it was in Maine.

I didn't have a job.

I was waiting for my paperwork to be all set, and I went to the beach one day, and I noticed all these people surfing out there, and I was like, "Huh."

I start going from surf shop to surf shop, just asking, like, "Hey, I'm a designer, and all I wanna do is learn to surf, and I wanna get out there.

I'll trade you anything, I'll paint boards, and you'll let me out in the water."

And I got lucky with Blackpoint Surf Shop.

They kindly lend me and gave me access to this board that I was like really willing to try.

(ocean crashing) The first time, me actually surfing, was terrifying, looking at everyone out there, and every time I'd see someone, they would catch a wave, and I would be like, "That looks so easy!"

And I didn't last long either, 'cause it was cold for me.

I think also, I got really lucky with the community, people that will approach and was like, "Hey, do you mind if I give you some pointers?"

And I'm like, "Oh yeah, sure!"

They have like the right concept of what surfing is, which is sharing.

(gentle guitar music) And that's when Maine Women Surf came.

Maine Women Surf is a platform to encourage women to get out in the water.

More than a platform, it's to create the access for those who can't, to actually be in the water.

One of the biggest privilege that I think that exists is, you already have a community here.

You feel more comfortable if you have that community.

But what happens with immigrants, with refugees, who would love to try that, but they don't have a community, they're still building their own community, that's when it becomes even more hard for them to get out there.

And that's when I also realized, it's not about just being underrepresented, things shifted for Maine Women Surf, and it was not more about just focusing on the surfers that were already out there, it was more about like really sharing that with the ones that don't even know they could be doing this, and it actually changed its name to More Women Surf rather than just Maine, to just be more inclusive with everyone else.

Whenever I see some of the girls that actually, that really kept on it, it just feels like we did something good.

I see you, and that is great, and that makes me feel not alone.

(inspirational music) (water gurgling) - When I'm in the ocean, I realize more than ever how small I am, in the best way, and that you're part of something so much bigger.

(seagulls calling) It's just, it's the most beautiful thing on Earth!

And it's a place where I go to feel at home, it's a place I go to escape, it's a place I go to be with people in my life that are no longer here anymore.

It's such a life-giving place to me.

(inspirational music continues) - The ocean, to me, classic mother ocean, I mean, and not because of surf, but just everything.

- The ocean has that is telling you, like, "Yeah, have fun, have fun!

But hey, I'm watching you."

Gives you the love, but it's tough love sometimes.

- [Interviewer] So where does surfing rank in your life, in terms of like how important is surfing to you?

- Is my wife gonna watch this?

(laughs) - I surfed my first winter at 15.

When the waves are good, I'm still as excited to go out as I have been.

You never really lose that stoke.

- Until I can't push myself up anymore, I think I'll be out there even if I'm freezing.

(laughs) - It's as natural to me, or as much a part of my day, if I can do it, as breathing and eating.

I'm forever grateful for it.

(inspirational music) (music concludes) (water gurgling gently)