For the Ocean City Surf Club, Hurricane Erin could prove to be the perfect storm.

Maryland’s resort town doesn’t typically get big waves unless a storm brings them, Tommy Vach, the president of the surf club, explained.

So with Erin out to sea — churning in the Atlantic Ocean but not battering the coast — “this is a very exciting time for surfers,” Vach said.

“We don’t want the destruction and the property damage and injury and death that comes along with these [storms],” he said. “But we do love the fact they send us these swells that come from way out at sea.”

Surfers in Ocean City aren’t the only ones excited for the storm-fueled waves. Up and down the East Coast, surfers are out enjoying the rare waves that will last for just a handful of days, thanks to Erin.

Along the Long Island coast in New York, more than 50 surfers crowded the waters off Long Beach on Thursday morning, reported The New York Times. In South Carolina, surfers flocked to Folly Beach near Charleston as the storm moved by, local media reported, despite the risk of rough waters because “the waves are just awesome.”

A surf forecast from the National Weather Service says waves could be as high as 7 feet for Maryland beaches Friday and up to 5 feet on Saturday.

Ocean City isn’t known as a surfing destination, but that hasn’t stopped the surf club from making the most of the waves they do get. The Ocean City Surf Club, which hosts an annual “Surf Fest,“ was established in 2014 and has hundreds of members.

Rusty Ruszin, the club’s vice president, said it’s the work the group does out of the water —scholarships, beach cleanups and after-school programs — that’s the most meaningful for him.

“It’s really rewarding, not only for me spiritually and physically, but also, thinking that we’re setting the youth on a good course for their future,” he said.

While Ocean City officials said surfers are allowed back in the water, the ocean remains closed to swimmers. There’s a moderate or high risk of rip currents up and down the coastline today and tomorrow, according to the National Weather Service, and the hurricane could still cause coastal flooding across the mid-Atlantic and New England.

The Ocean City Beach Patrol is on duty seven days a week until after Labor Day. And though the sun is shining today, the patrol said the ocean is still “extremely dangerous.”

Rip currents, the patrol said on social media, account for about 95% of total water rescues. Officials with the beach patrol did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Despite the warnings, surfers with the club are still excited to get into the water — when it’s safe this weekend.

“The word is still ”stoked," we get stoked when we get these swells,” Vach said.

Ruszin, however, doesn’t plan to be out in the water after Erin. Storm waves, Ruszin said, are “way out of my league.”

“I’ll go out to watch,” he added.

Allen G. Breed and John Seewer of the Associated Press contributed to this article.