The world's longest continuously-running surfing competition is in the water and on the beach. The ECSC end-of-the-summer beach party is fired up

When folks along the Atlantic coast start hearing about the chance of cyclonic activity heading their way, the conversation typically turns to supplies and preparation.

When the surfing community hears such things from national forecasters, they start thinking about things on the swell side of the sea.

The surf along the Virginia Beach during the dog days of summer has come to be known as Lake Atlantic.

But something magical has been known to happen during the week of the East Coast Surfing Championships - currently taking place along the southern-most part of the beach.

But history shows that shorelines sometimes grow.

Two-foot beach breaks have been known to turn into shoulder to over-head conditions the kind of which have drawn the best in the world to our little neck of the woods.

All it has taken has been a passing cold front that results in northeast winds, or potential tropical rotations or even hurricanes - they’ve all been known to skirt the Virginia Beach coast and quickly transform the contest conditions.

Think back to a year when a hurricane was expected to make a too-close-for-comfort pass along the beach. Because of the potential threat Virginia Beach officials ordered contest officials to shut down for a day. The professional side balked - setting up judges in four-wheel-drive trucks along the sand and going ahead with the first leg of a contest that was producing 8- to 12-foot swells.

Despite conditions on land, it was arguably the best swell the contest had ever seen.

So now we find ourselves in the beginnings of the 64th annual ECSC - the longest, continuously running surfing competition in the world that is owned by the Virginia Beach Jaycees and sponsored by Coastal Edge.

The action concludes Sunday.

During the week, amateurs and pros will battle for titles, trophies and recognition.

The pros will compete in the World Surfing League’s World Qualifying Series in hopes of earning enough points to get bumped up to the big leagues.

All the while, surfers will be watching a system to the northeast of Bermuda that could push in a ground swell.

Another potential system - its beginnings a few hundred miles of the Cape Verde Islands just west of African - has been pushing to the west and it’s possible in minor scales that it also could push in a slight swell by the weekend.

So while we watch for the surfing at the First Street Jetty area of the Oceanfront, a world of beach-mentality events will be taking place.

There will be a 5K run along the Boardwalk, beach volleyball, beach lacrosse, skateboard contests and exhibitions, and a game area including Cornhole and Connect 4 contests sponsored by the Jaycees.

Surfing and beach-related companies will push their goods, while attendees can spend time in the beer tent or in front of the stage listening to live music and watching the Miss ECSC contests.

But at the heart of the matter is the surfing.

One of its most important aspects will be a paddle out ceremony at noon Saturday to honor the life of Pete Smith - one of the surfing faithful who made Virginia Beach one of the biggest hotspots in the country - with or without the swells.

So we watch as National Hurricane Center forecasters are watching a pair potential systems.

All of the land-based events are in place, leaving the conditions in the water as the last remaining piece of the puzzle.

Will this be another ECSC blessed by the wave gods?

As in so many years past, the only way to answer is to wait and see.

But if you know your ECSC history, and have a tendency to place a bet or two, put your money on the sea.

It has a history of being blessed.