FLORIDA SAYS, "OH, I FEEL YA" by Kevin Welsh/SurfNRG.com

Florida is always on edge during the peak of hurricane season and for a good reason. Last year the Sunshine State had four major hurricanes make landfall including Charlie, Frances, Ivan then Jeanne, racking up billions of dollars worth of destruction. The East Coast of Florida got pummeled quite bad when the eyes of Frances and Jeanne embarked on the Port St. Lucie area creating destruction in towns from Palm Beach north to Volusia counties. So, when Tropical Storm Ophelia formed off the coast a little over a week ago, everyone was edge especially after being flooded with the horrific news reports of the outrageous devastation that Hurricane Katrina dealt out to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama a couple of weeks earlier.

Fortunately Ophelia was a dream come true for Florida surfers and a relief for homeowners alike. As the storm grew into a Category One hurricane with sustained winds up to 85 mph she stalled just 70 miles off of Cape Canaveral sending solid groundswell with offshore winds to Central and South Florida for almost a week. She slowly drifted toward Cape Fear and Cape Lookout (Look Out - here's another hurricane) of North Carolina and is now affecting the Cape Hatteras region with hurricane strength winds.

Last year the Carolinas scored awesome surf from Frances and Jeanne as Florida got spanked. This year, at least with Ophelia (knock on wood), it's been the opposite with Florida reaping her fruits and the Carolinas taking it on the chin. Like a woman not sure of what she's gonna wear, Ophelia went from Tropical Storm to Hurricane status four times in her spinning frenzy. And she's not even close to being done shopping. As she heads off the Carolinas and into the Atlantic the Northeast surfers can be heard waxing up for more epic surf that they've encountered from her already.

Here are just a few images from a weeks worth of surf we encountered here in Florida. Thanks God this swell wasn't during Surf Expo.., -- Kevin Welsh / SurfNRG.com .