In Florida, everywhere you look there is a television screen bigger than the previous “biggest TV screen you’ve ever seen” and they are all shouting and displaying a massive radar depiction of Hurricane Irma — who deserves to be capitalized and probably deserves an even bigger TV. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t glued to them monitoring the storms arrival time. As you all know by now: It’s the  biggest storm ever to blitz through the Atlantic etc. I wake up each morning I’m here in Florida with a bit of “the fear” knowing Irma is preparing to pay the place I’m sleeping a visit. So yes, it’s starting to get real. We’re in Florida. Initially to have fun with our friends here. To play art and movies in a Radical Class lounge at Surf Expo, usually a boozie fun house to run around with our Floridian friends.  But now the conversation has switched to storm watching, and how to get on the run in the opposite direction of Irma.

I just spoke with Brian Toth — Puerto Rican legend and all around good dude — and his place and family are all safe, but he made sure to reiterate that these things are fast, unpredictable and nasty. “The thing is going like 15 MPH!” he said. Which is apparently fast for a storm. He also said that Puerto Rico had a window of unprecedented pumping surf for 2 hours today. And that’s the thing with these hurricanes. They’re tightly wound and can go from pleasant wave maker to destruction within the hour. So be careful out there, and in all seriousness I hope we’re all able to watch this slide by from the safety of a Hurricane party and the damage is somehow limited. We’ll see. Stay safe everyone. —Travis