Cold Water Surfing in New Hampshire: Surf History and the Anatomy of a Swell

Cold Water Surfing in New Hampshire: Surf History and the Anatomy of a Swell

From Time and Tide by New Hampshire Sea Grant

February 1, 2026 · 39 min · Episode 12

About this episode

The episode explores the history and current culture of cold water surfing in New Hampshire, featuring insights from local surfers and photographers.

Surfing has become an increasingly popular way to recreate here along the seacoast, and across the US as a whole. During the summer, it’s hard to drive anywhere without seeing a longboard strapped to the roof of a fellow commuter’s car. But why has surfing become so popular in recent years? From 2019 to 2020, the surfing population in the US grew an astounding 28 percent, and over the past five years the sport has experienced 8% average annual growth. On this month’s two-part episode of Time and Tide, we’re paddling into the lineup with local legends of surfing to look back at the sport’s past along NH’s coastline, attempt to understand who today’s cold-water surfers are, and unpack what coastal issues New Hampshire surfers care about most? In part one, we paint a picture of what surfing’s past and present looks like along the seacoast. We kick things off with Ralph Fatello, a local photographer and surfer who runs a weekly surfing blog called Ralph’s Pic of the Week and has been doing so for the past 21 years. Ralph has been surfing and photographing New Hampshire waves since the 60’s, and has seen the sport, and how surfers are using our coast, change through time. Next…

People in this episode

Guests: Ralph Fatello, Brayden Rudert

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: New Hampshire Sea Grant

Places: New Hampshire, US, seacoast

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