Topsail Advertiser: How long have you been surfing?
Featured Surfer Lee Jernigan: 26 years
TA: What kind of boards do you use? What was your first board?
Featured Surfer: Longboards and shortboards; Caster Twin Fin.
TA: Do you compete? If so, what have you won?
Featured Surfer: No, but I help out a lot at a lot of contests.
TA: Dawn patrol or evening session?
Featured Surfer: Both.
TA:Describe your dream wave?
Featured Surfer: Long, glassy barrels.
TA:Highest number of stitches ever earned in a surf session?
Featured Surfer: Seven.
TA: What’s your favorite place you have surfed, or would love to surf in the future?
Featured Surfer: Large Wilderness in the past, and Indonesia in the future.
TA:Name two rules of surfing etiquette every beginner should live by?
Featured Surfer: Don’t paddle out in a crowd and don’t drop in on people with priority.
TA: What is the best advice another surfer ever gave you? Who was that person?
Featured Surfer: Cover your head.
TA:Any shark or sea creature encounters?
Featured Surfer: Lots of sharks.
TA:What’s the best local storm you ever surfed? What made it superior to others?
Featured Surfer: Hurricane Luis, 1995. It stayed glassy for three days and the waves were not closing out.
TA:How did you learn to surf? Or who taught you how to surf?
Featured Surfer: Self-taught.
TA: What surfing story do you never get tired of telling?
Featured Surfer: Surfing giant Wilderness or a crazy trip to Hatteras in the late 80s.
TA:Would you ever mention your favorite place to surf locally?
Featured Surfer: To certain people, yes.
