I ve got video somewhere of a solid 10 foot swells comming in at the poles on topsail back in like 88, 89 I forget which hurricane it was but man it was glassy and no close out which is a miracle cause it always seemed to close out with big surf on those sand breaks. But was 1 of my best days out. In 93 I almost drowned when me and a buddy went out to surf Hurricane Emily we had to jump off the pier to make it out, Emily was still a day away but the surf was a rageing 15 to 20, it was late and I sat in the water for an hour trying to catch a wave but it was comming in so fast it was just throwing the lip at the beach. It started getting pretty hairy and dark so I decided to just belly it in, I still fell about 10 feet on the take off and when I got to the bottom I looked up to see the wall coming down on me FKN scary lol, it slammed me and took me a good 50 yards through the wash cycle. I swam up and paddled my ass off for shore thats when the 10 ft shore break said "where are you going?" and began to pound me over and over just a few feet from shore. And it was right there I almost died there was no time and no break between sets it was scary as hell, but somehow I made it out. My friend came running over and said it was the narlyest thing he ever seen. He was the smart 1 that stayed on the beach lol good times.