Pensacola Beach Blogger

These guys were out a few weeks ago (before Hurricane Ike) kitesurfing (also called kiteboarding I think). I couldn’t believe how fast he was going across the water. You can click these pictures to enlarge them:

It looked like he was having a lot of fun out there until he took a spill:

When I came home tonight, there was nearly a full moon out, perfect to get a night shot of the beach!

I’m still a beginner when it comes to manual modes on my camera, but I can usually figure out what I want after some fumbling around. For shots like these, a tripod is necessary. The shutter was open for 15 seconds, which is why you can’t really see the huge waves that are still crashing in from Hurricane Ike. Everything seems to level out, to what appears as a peaceful beach scene. You can also see some blur in the clouds, since they were moving so fast.

Speaking of night shots, I got this cool shot during last week’s Bands On the Beach:

This one was also taken under moonlight, with some help of the stage lighting from the band. The purple wavy lines you see are trails from children running around with glow sticks. If you look close, you can see where one kid threw the glow stick into the air!

Hurricane Ike is out in the gulf, and will be missing Pensacola Beach completely. But we are seeing very high waves, and the Santa Rosa sound is getting pretty high. These are some pictures I took this morning:

Charlie’s Beach doesn’t look like a beach I’d want to be on today:

This is behind the Boardwalk on Pensacola Beach. There is usually a beach behind it:

You can see the water crashing through the dock behind the big stage:

To get that last shot, I had to run out on the dock while timing and dodging the waves shooting up through the wood:

Forget sea-side dining. How about dining IN the sea?

Some of these scenes were amazing, but this flooding is making a mess in some areas:

As with Hurricane Gustav, the flooding has taken over the picnic area on Pensacola Beach:

Well, I’ve never seen this. Waves actually crashing over the Pensacola Beach Pier!

The pictures I took from under the pier ended up looking like scenes out of an Indiana Jones movie. Check this out:

Run for your life!

These are some of the biggest waves I’ve ever seen out here on the beach:

Hurricane Ike is causing some high tides and flooding over in my neighborhood on Pensacola Beach, the sound-side in particular. I woke up this morning to a beautiful sunrise:

But water rushing down the street is never a good sign:

Looks like the Gulf is coming over the dunes! Not a good thing for our expected turtle hatchlings on Pensacola Beach.

In fact, I found this screen covering used to keep crabs out of the turtle nests. I’ll be sure to let Barrier Island Girl and Traveling Turtle Girl know.

The Santa Rosa sound is rising:

And it is causing plenty of problems for my neighbors on the sound-side of the island:

I took many more pictures down at the pier this morning… I’ll have them up shortly!

Hurricane Gustav is gone, but he took something with him! My beach! This walkway usually ramps down into the sand. Today there’s a 2 foot drop-off:

You can see some damage to the sand fences (or whatever those are called):

But the good news is that the sun is shining, at least for now. There are still a few storms rolling through though. I snapped this picture around noon today:

Every cloud in paradise has a silver lining:

Looks like I’m not the only one out for a walk on the beach:

The rough surf from a few days ago washed up all kinds of shells:

There was a midget on the beach… but probably not what you’re thinking of:

Fay is gone, dropping a measly .25 inches of rain on Pensacola Beach. It appears to be very difficult to forecast weather for this area, as we were expecting up to 20 inches of rain from this. My neighbors put their hurricane shutters up! But as you can see, everything is back to normal, with a bright, sunny, 84 degree day:

The gulf is a little churned up. Today is a Yellow Flag Day on Pensacola Beach:

It is a little hazy, but otherwise a nice day. Can you see the Pensacola Beach Pier in the distance?

Live music at Flounders today. Business as usual on Pensacola Beach!

Fay is upon us. Although you wouldn’t think so from looking out the window. It is getting windy, with winds around 30-40 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph. But since it is coming from the northwest, it doesn’t affect the beach much:

The beach is void of people today, in all directions:

You can see how calm it is. If anything, there are small waves moving away from the shore.

Looks like we have quite the day ahead of us, be the looks of this:

Stay tuned. I’ll post updates throughout the day and weekend.

It has been a stormy few days here on Pensacola Beach.

Storms like this usually get the waves on the beach going. We’ve had a few red-flag days here on the island.

At last.. the sun shines though: