On the board, riding the waves. No cell phone, no worries.

“I enjoy being out here,” local surfer Jacob Simmons said as he emerged from the Atlantic Ocean, board braced by his side after catching a few early morning waves this week. “My alone time to get away from the world. For me, it’s like a sense of calmness.”

Like many other surfers in the Grand Strand’s tight-knit surfing community, Simmons remembers that first wave eight years ago; he caught it but, at that moment, the sport caught him too, for good.