FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — There was a unique sight in the waters of Hampton Beach in New Hampshire over the weekend.
As rare as it may be — like pigs flying, or a smooth evening commute on the Southeast Expressway – there was a surfer riding the waves of the frigid Atlantic Ocean. And the guy riding that surfboard was Patriots rookie long snapper Jake Ingram, a Hawaiian who couldn’t pass up the chance to jump into the water when Hurricane Bill added some extra excitement to the typically calm New England waves.
“It was cool,” said Ingram, a laid-back 23-year-old from Oahu. “Just, the water was so cold, a little different than Hawaii. Not as much power behind the waves, but it was definitely a lot cleaner because it wasn’t windy or anything. It was cool. I didn’t have a wet suit, so my ears were frozen.”
Ingram hit the beach with his girlfriend, whose family lives by Hampton Beach. He went to the University of Hawaii with her sister, and the pair began dating when Ingram came to the area for rookie camp in the spring. None of the surf shops were renting out boards because of the hurricane, so his girlfriend’s cousin loaned him one for the day.
The long snapper, who is battling for a job with veteran Nathan Hodel, has been surfing since he was about six years old, a practice that seems to be as common in Hawaii as walking.
“That’s just what we do,” Ingram said. “That’s like our playground out there in the ocean. If you get a day off and you want to have fun, the ocean is where it’s at. I’ve always been around it and just enjoyed it.”
Eventually, if Ingram earns the chance to stick around New England for awhile — he might have the slightest of edges in the competition with Hodel — he is hoping to check out some popular surf spots in Cape Cod. While it’s much colder in the water here than in his native Hawaii, Ingram is just excited to be playing for a team that resides near the ocean (obviously, among other things the Patriots offer).
The ocean is also dry of surfers compared to Hawaii, where it can get pretty competitive.
“Not everybody surfs like you’d think,” Ingram said, somewhat dispelling the stereotype, “but a lot of the guys that do it want to be pros. If you’re in Hawaii, you have a pretty good shot [to go pro]. If you go surf in Hawaii and there are, let’s say, 40 guys in the water, like 20-25 of them are pros. The competition is real high, so you’re always competing. Everybody is a good surfer out there.”
Ingram said he’s been lucky enough to avoid any shark encounters while on his surfboard, although he’s seen a few from a safe distance on a boat. But he did have one run-in with a 10-foot-long monk seal.
“It was my freshman year of high school in the late afternoon, and we were surfing,” Ingram said. “The water was kind of dirty that day. I just had a feeling, and I turned around to look behind me, and there was a big, big monk seal, and his head was right next to my feet. My friend was looking at me, his mouth dropped, and I turned around and thought it was a shark.”
If Ingram sticks around the Patriots’ locker room long enough, there is the increasing chance he could meet up with one of his newest friends: linebacker Junior Seau, who has told reporters he might return to the NFL in November. Seau taught himself how to surf a few years ago in San Diego.
He and Ingram were introduced through a mutual friend — an Oakley rep who is heavily involved with their surfing products — while the rookie long snapper returned to Hawaii for two weeks prior to training camp. Seau never mentioned anything to Ingram about surfing in New England, but the rookie is hoping the opportunity arises when he can hit the beach with the 40-year-old.
“I got to hang out with [Seau] and talk to him about it,” Ingram said. “If he comes back out, I’ll see if we can get in the water together."
