‘The waves are crazy’: Hurricane Erin producing large swells at Nova Scotia beaches

First at Five looks at how Erin will impact the Maritimes – even as it moves further offshore.

The waves at Lawrencetown Beach were big Thursday, which made for perfect viewing for tourists.

“We’re from Winnipeg, Manitoba. This is an absolutely beautiful part of our country, we’re super excited to be here, the waves are crazy,” one tourist said.

With Hurricane Erin passing off the coast over the weekend the surf is only going to get bigger.

“There’s some modelling that shows some near-coastal wave heights, significant wave heights for the Atlantic coastline of Nova Scotia could come up around two and four metres. Approximately between six and 12 feet, those would be large breaking waves,” says CTV Meteorologist Kalin Mitchell.

The pending wave action has forced the Canadian Lifesaving Surf Championships to change locations. One hundred and sixty athletes from across the country are here for the event.

“We were scheduled to go at Martinique [Beach] starting tomorrow, but they expected big waves out there and we decided for safety sake, and to ensure that we could operate that we would move here to beautiful Bayswater Beach,” says the director of the Nova Scotia Lifesaving Society, Paul D’Eon.

Despite the gathering of lifeguards at the competition, D’Eon says they will still be watching the water at supervised beaches and they’ll take action if the surf gets too dangerous.

“The Department of Natural Resources issued surf, high wave, advisory, and locally we’re going to monitor it and at such time that it’s not manageable the parks will be closed as needed.”

D’Eon advises any wave-watchers to keep their distances as the surf rises.

“Stay well back. You can be up to your knees and all of a sudden you’ll be in golf by a wave and slammed to the bottom so stay well back, if you’re inexperienced, you shouldn’t be in there.”

While the waves are already pounding the coastline in places like North Carolina, the current surf conditions at Lawrencetown are close to perfect.

“Really good day. I think tomorrow there’s going to be more size,” says surfer Aaron Phillips who’s here from Georgian Bay, Ontario.

Mitchell agrees with that timelines, confirming waves are expected to peak Friday afternoon and into Saturday morning.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page