These old wooden piers get a bit shaky underfoot during a big swell. Safe? Well all of the piers down here in the outer banks have been totally wiped out by storms at one time or another and like everything else here get rebuilt. When it’s breaking out beyond the pier most normal people are a bit afraid to venture out. Yet it’s too exciting to not go. You feel the raw power of the sea, know it’s destructive, yet are blinded by the beauty. Takes your mind off all other things. A mental cleanse. Relentless the sea. Hypnotic. If I get too far away from this, things just don’t seem quite right. So what if the wooden pilings bend and groan? I’d rather have that than a traffic jam or a line at the airport. Kaaboom is the sound. Salt is the smell. Life. #OBX #nagshead #storm