As tourists and residents fled the Outer Banks of North Carolina, a step ahead of the potentially ruinous effect of Hurricane Earl on their Labor Day weekend, hundreds of beachgoers of a certain type were making a beeline in the opposite direction.

Storms following a path like Earl’s, running roughly parallel to the coast, can threaten outcroppings like Cape Hatteras, N.C., where a mandatory evacuation was in place on Wednesday. But they can also create a brief, rare season of world-class surfing on the northern Atlantic, particularly on beaches that face south or that, like Masonboro, are protected by a jetty.

“This is like, prime time,” said Evan Barton, 17, a competitive surfer who takes high school classes on the Internet, thus allowing him to begin his surfing day at 8 a.m. Evan, with sun-bleached hair and a complexion beyond the reach of sunscreen, piloted a boatload of friends to Masonboro from nearby Wrightsville Beach.

Others played a form of hooky for grown-ups, rising early to scan Web sites like Swellinfo.com and to compare notes with fellow enthusiasts. “When they name the storm, that’s when you start planning your schedule,” said Mark Mitchell, a 59-year-old real estate developer, standing on the hot sand with a friend, Douglas Sprunt, an architecture curator, each with a board under his arm.

Austin Nichols, 30, an actor on “One Tree Hill,” which is taped in Wilmington, said he had shot a scene in the morning but had gotten off in time to get some surfing in.

“I think hurricanes should have menacing names like, ‘Hurricane Edward Scissorhands,’ ” he said. “Hurricane Earl sounds like a guy drinking a beer on a porch. That’s not scary.”

Mr. Nichols was not impressed by Earl’s somewhat erratic effect on the waves, either. By late afternoon, in fact, the beach was dotted with surfers standing in perplexed clumps, scrutinizing the water and wondering what exactly had gone wrong. The waves were “closing out,” or cresting all at once instead of in a ripple. Or they were coming too fast. Or maybe it was the tide?

“For the storm to be right here, it should be a lot better,” said Richard Edwards, 33.

But surfers know that their sport depends on an ever-changing array of variables. Evan, who had gotten in a couple of dangerous-looking moves, emerged from the water. “It’s not as good as it was this morning. It’s closing out,” he said.

But he shrugged it off. Hurricane Earl would be driving the surf for a few days to come, followed by tropical storms Fiona and Gaston. Edward Scissorhands will have to wait.