- Flies, 8AM-10AM
- on my 9'2'', no leash
- With Larry. Nobody else out.
- Knee- to waist-high, semi-glassy, but extremely inconsistent due to the lack of swell and the somewhat high tide
- Caught 5 waves, including one left that had a little bit of punch while the other ones were just extremely high-tide-mushy.
- First session after a long time without surfing. totally out of shape, but great to be out there in the water after such a long time and with such unbelievable weather.
- Glassy, knee- to waist-high and not consistent with a few bigger sets coming through every 25 minutes or so.
- Threes, Fours, Kaiser's, Rockpile, 6:30AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2'', no leash
- By myself, 3 people at Fours, 5 at Kaiser's, 3 at Rockpile
- Ankle- to Knee-high. Glassy.
- Paddled out for the workout mostly. No waves at Threes, and I opted to paddle West for once. So I paddled to what I think is Fours, where there were two shortboarders. I continued on to what I am pretty sure was Kaiser's. Waves were lame but that place seemed to just generate waist-high waves on this completely flat day. It was completely owned by 5 shortboarders of course. Then I went on to the next spot where there were two longboarders. I am not sure whether that's Rockpile or not. It looked more like leftovers from Kaiser's, with only the left "working". I caught a nice knee-high left, and decided I was too tired and didn't have enough time to continue on to the next stop (Rockpile?). So I hung out there, caught an ankle-high left and paddled all the way back. Quite the workout but a stunning morning once again. One day I'll have to really get those spots straight.
- Threes, 6:15AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself, at first 1 other guy out, and then up to 3 other people including Ron and Mitch.
- Knee- to waist- with the occasional bigger wave, not consistent and rather long lulls, a bit windy but not bad.
- Caught about 15 rides, including a chest-high left. Nothing too exciting but fun. Getting in better shape already, although my surfing sort of sucks right now. Had a hard time making sections.
- As usual stunning sunrise although this morning was a bit cold.
- Flies, 8:30AM-9:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself, 2 other guys out.
- knee-high with a few waist-high waves, glassy, very inconsistent and weak.
- Caught 5-6 waves, with only 1 decent waist-high left. The tide was coming up fast. It really looked lame from the shore but I paddled out just because it was a great morning and besides I had to go get my board at UH.
- Flies, 9:00AM-10:00AM
- on my 9'2''
- With Larry, nobody out.
- knee-high, inconsistent, choppy, weak.
- Pretty much ridiculous to paddle out in these conditions, but it was such a beautiful day and it was a good workout.
- Caught about 5 waves, with only 2 real ones, which were lame anyway.
- At some point, this guy paddled out with a child and a bag on his long board. They went beyond the line-up to meet up with two canoes. After a while, the guy paddled back and had left his daughter on one of the canoes. He told us that he had just scattered hit mom's ashes in the ocean with his daughter and friends.
- Rainbows, 6:45AM-8:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- With Eric, 2 then 3 other people out
- chest-high, windier as time went on, not very consistent and shifty, but nice waves coming through regardless.
- Finally made it to Rainbows. Way back when I had surfed the inside there, which people called Kualoa (because it's next to Kualoa ranch). Rainbows is just the outside reef.
- Eric explained that the line-up is always shifty and indeed it is. No point in chasing waves. Just sit where you are in the general line-up area and wait. Waves are odd. Basically one must be on the peak to drop in, even on a longboard. The take-off is steep but the shoulder is soft and slow, so one must hug the white water. There is still a wall to work with though. Then, the inside walls up and gets pretty fast (nothing crazy though). Very long rides and the paddle back takes some time. The take-off is a bit difficult because one really has to take off in the most critical part of the wave. So it looks like it's going to be really sketchy, but in fact it's not that bad. On the first couple waves I pulled out because I thought it was going to close out, when in fact it was perfect.
- Caught 6-7 waves, with a couple of very good/long rights and one great left. On the rest I didn't stay close enough to he white and ended up losing the wave.
- It was a great experience out there, in turn glassy, sunny, rainy, windy, sunny again. The landscape is absolutely stunning, with Chinaman's hat on the left (when looking back to shore), a steep hill right in the back of the spot, and a beautiful valley to the right of that, bright green, with a few rainbows. The shore is lined up with coconut trees. Quite the tropical setting.
- So, overall, yes, the wave isn't great, but there was size and I had tons of fun. Besides today it was probably one of the few rideable spots on the island (North Shore: 30-40 feet, junky; West Shore: 15-20 feet, blown out; South Shore: dead AND blown out). Eric is definitely on top of the "let's pick a spot" thing on O`ahu. I owe him.
- Rainbows, 6:45AM-8:15AM
- on my 9'2''
- With Eric, nobody out
- Waist- to chest-high, _incredibly_ windy.
- Eric and I were probably the only two insane people out this morning on the island. I showed up and basically I couldn't open the car door because of a squall. Off-shore/side-shore mix, with clouds racing in the sky. I was early somehow and after 10 minutes I felt that this was just ridiculous and that Eric would never show up (he lives on the windward side and the winds must have been howling at his house as well). So I started driving back to town and after 1 mile I saw Eric's car coming this way. I u-turned and met up with him at the spot. We had coffee in the back of his jeep, and looked at the spot. I could tell he was willing to paddle out, and although it seemed completely insane I agreed.
- Made it to the line-up, which was basically a minefield. I have never been out in conditions even remotely close to being this windy. The wave plumes were 10ft in the air and were racing across the line-up for hundreds of feet, hitting us like a slap in the face. Incredibly we managed to drop in a few waves for very bumpy rides, some of them long, some on which we would literally be blown off to the back. A couple times I got picked up off the board by the wind. Another time I couldn't turn the board back up after turtling because of the wind and had to wait for the squall to pass. Watching Eric trying to catch wave was like a vision from some "lost at sea and about to die" movie. It was so insane that I actually giggled the whole session and had a great time. I still caught about 5 waves, with 2 long ones.
- The lefts were completely impossible because right into the side-shore wind. I ate it on every left. At some point I was right on the peak of a head-high left and just had to let it go. Eric paddled over and yelled in my ear that he had enough and was tired. I could barely hear him and thought that yes, it was a good idea to paddle back in or catch a last one as opposed to waiting for being completely exhausted. (Surprisingly I was doing fine and paddling like a maniac though.) And indeed, I was able to catch a small right that wasn't too bad (meaning it felt like skiing on a mogul field but I could stay on). I turned back and saw Eric try to catch a chest-high left (I though "is he insane?"). He dropped in, was bounced back up by huge chop, fell back down on his board, was bounced back up, fell to the side of his board which then was picked up 5ft in the air by the wind, and which fell back right on his head. It happened really fast but he was back on, paddling, and with his thumb up. I was already planning to tow him back to shore with broken ribs and skull and thinking ahead on what the best towing strategy would be like (which was attaching both leashes together and me dragging him on his board in the crazy chop). But no, turns out he didn't actually fall on his board but right next to it. We made it to shore, his head was fine, and he just had a pressure ding on his board.
- So in the end,this wasn't really surfing, more like some extreme water sport adventure, but I had a total blast laughing for the whole session. I just wish I had had a waterproof camera to take shots from the back of the waves, which looked like erupting geysers into which Eric would plunge. In retrospect it was probably stupid to go out, even though we didn't drift much and paddling back wasn't bad. What if there had been bad currents though? But I can always say that Eric was the one insisting upon going out and I just went along to make sure he didn't get hurt. Never again though.
- Threes, 6:30AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself, one other guy out, and then John and Clarence
- Waist-high, with chest-high peaks once in a while, very light winds, a bit all over the place and peaky though, not your typical Threes due to the wind swell
- Caught about 15 rides, with a few fun drops and a little bit of a short wall. The tide was coming in, and it got more and more difficult to catch waves. In spite of that I probably caught my best wave toward the end. One head-high wave came through. Everybody was on the inside but for that guy I had never seen before. Unfortunately he was clearly learning and afraid to drop into anything so in spite of being in the _perfect_ spot he backed off.
- Overall not as good as it could have been (after so much wind everybody expected huge waves), but still fun and probably among the best choices this morning.
- Threes, 6:45AM-8AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself, up to 6 other people out, Eric, Jim, Ron, Doug on his stand-up paddle board for a while.
- Knee- to waist-high, with a few slightly bigger sets, semi-glassy and organized, not super consistent.
- Caught about 15 rides, with a few fun ones actually
- Beautiful morning and nice to be in the water after a couple of weeks off
- Threes, 6:30AM-7:40AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself, up to 9 other people out at the peak, including Eric, Jim, Mitch, John, and a few others I had never seen before. About halfway through half of those guys paddled out to Paradise after a great set broke over there (a total fluke though)
- Waist-high is a couple of nice chest-high sets that surprised everybody. A tad windy, but not bad at all. Not super consistent but somewhat of a decent shape at times.
- Caught about 15 rides, with a couple of fun ones. Nothing to write home about, but so great to be back in the water after a 1-week interruption.
- Threes, Paradise 11:45AM-1:30PM
- on my 9'2''
- With Eric and Tracy, one other guy out at Threes, and up to 5 other people out at Paradise.
- Knee- to waist-high, very inconsistent, a bit windy.
- We started at Threes and not much was going on there. There was that guy out there who had never surfed before (how did he end up at Threes???) and he told us: "I am just hanging out here, catch whatever and I'll try to stay out of your way". We talked a bit, nice guy, who was driven out of Pops due to crowds.
- After catching about 5 waves at Threes we all paddled to the inside of Paradise. It was more consistent there, but of course super peaky and super shallow with sea urchins everywhere. Caught about 10 waves there, with a few steep take-offs. Other people started paddling out and we went in.
- Overall a pretty lame session with a few rides here and there, but a nice afternoon.
- Kammieland, 10AM-12PM
- on my 8'2''
- with Eric and Tracy, between 3 and 10 other people out
- Waist- to head-high, a bit choppy and windy, not very clean but fine, a few lulls. Overall pretty lame conditions for locals there, but pretty nice for me
- Caught 5-6 rides, with 2 decent rights with extremely fun take-offs. It was a bit of a struggle with the 8'2'' after not surfing it for so long, but I am happy I took that board out for my first North Shore session. Definitely something else here, with the great view of the shore, more powerful/steep waves (even on a small day like today). Most notable was the constant current/wind, which meant that I had to paddle the whole time to stay in place. Quite the workout. And on each take-off I felt like I wasn't going to make it, struggling to get into the wave and then feeling like I was going to eat it right after making it into the wave. But turns out I made all take-offs. I would have surfed better on my longboard I think, but riding the 8'2'' was a blast.
- One of the local guys there, older, very few teeth was doing head stand after head stand on shoulder-high waves. Very impressive.
- Overall a great feeling to finally have made it to the North Shore, and a clear realization of how insane it can be here when it's big. Definitely going there when it's small for a long time, possibly for ever.
- Threes, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- by myself, met Jim, Nathan, Ron in the line-up as well as 3-4 other guys out.
- Waist- to chest-high, pretty clean, organized, long lulls in between. Most sets were at waist-high with higher peaks, and a few bigger sets once in a while, in particular a beautiful head-high one with everybody inside.
- Caught about 15 rides, with one great right toward the end. Chest-high on the peak, very nice wall, and luckily I was the one sitting the deepest so everybody backed off. Made the drop and then did many turns all the way to the inside.
- Compared to the North Shore with my 8'2'', this was amazingly easy surfing. I felt like I had improved actually, but I was still tired from yesterday's session.
- Beautiful morning too.
- Flies, 6:30AM-8:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- with Eric. Nobody out.
- waist- to chest-high, sometimes walling up to be overhead on the inside, semi-glassy, not very consistent with long lulls between sets.
- The plan to go to Flies to score some waves without dealing with the crowd at Threes today worked perfectly. The waves weren't as nice as at Threes as expected, but in fact they're a bit rawer an a little bit more challenging, which makes it fun.
- The reef has a slightly raised part on the inside which causes a section on the right to close out ahead of the pocket, which is something that one has to negotiate somehow, whenever it's possible. Today somehow, there were a few perfectly lined-up waves that connected nicely to the inside with the bad section being short and easily avoidable.
- I caught about 15 rides, or so, with 2 great rights that were in the chest-high range and a bit bigger on the inside. Really exhilarating, especially because this wave at Flies just feels bigger than it really is (as noted by Eric).
- There were a few bigger sets, head-high peaks, but we were always stuck inside.
- On a wave both Eric and I paddled. He was closer to the peak but before the weird section, and for some reason I thought I'd paddle and get on a high line, zipping through the section, thus putting space in between us. Not sure why I went ahead with the plan, but it was just a little bit too sketchy and I actually fell sort of in front of him. No worries, but that was pretty lame...
- Eric pointed out a few land features to line up on, which is always very useful.
- Overall, a great session in an empty spot that worked and delivered good waves once in a while.
- Flies, 10:30AM-11:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- with Larry, Rob, and a friend of theirs. Nobody else out.
- knee-high, barely breaking, glassy
- Stood up 5 times (not that I am not using the term "rides").
- Was good to get wet, after missing out on a North Shore session due to the a run to the ER. inside, semi-glassy, not very consistent with long lulls between sets.
- Flies, 8AM-9:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- by myself, two other people out.
- waist- to head-high, not windy, peaky and not very clean or organized.
- Caught about 15 rides, with a few fun head-high drops, but not very long walls. Overall an odd session, but very nice to be in the water after a one-week interruption.
- Flies, 8:30AM-10:15AM
- on my 9'2''
- by myself, between 2 and 10 other people out, with Eric and Tracy paddling out about halfway through the session.
- Glassy at the beginning, and a bit windy at the end. waist- to head-high, with a few bigger sets. Clean and organized but many close outs. Not super consistent, but a very good 1h between 9 and 10.
- Caught about 20 rides, with three great ones, all rights.
- The first was was slightly overhead, with a super steep wall that was holding. The drop was easy, but then the wave walled up and I managed to stay close to the wall and zip through the section, hand in the water, with the beginning of a barrel forming (but not really, this being Flies and all). Short ride, about 20 yards, but really intense.
- The second was on a wave that doubled up and was easily 2ft overhead. I made a sketchy drop and then surfed the wall straight on a super high line. I don't think I ever surfed such a high line on a wave this size before, and watching the bottom of the wave to far below my feet was quite something. This ended with a big bottom turn at the end to kick out the board. Probably the wave of the day out there really. It was insane and I was oozing adrenaline after the ride. Tracy was on the inside and she said the wave was huge. I was really happy I had made it.
- The third wave was only shoulder high, but completely lined-up and I rode it all the way to the little jetty there, for a 100 yard ride. Today the channel was actually breaking for some reason, so the peaks were much closer to Diamond Head than usual. These three waves all occurred within the same 1/2 hour. I got very lucky I guess.
- Then the conditions completely crapped out pretty much from one minute to the next. No idea why. I paddled back in. Beautiful morning out there too with warm and turquoise water.
- Flies, 6:30AM-8:0AM
- on my 9'2''
- by myself, one other guy out.
- waist- to head-high, choppy and a bit windy, with almost all bigger waves closing out. What a difference a day makes.
- Met Eric in the parking lot. He decided not to paddle out because his shoulder was sore and the conditions weren't worth it, which they definitely weren't.
- I caught about 10 rides, all bumping and sort of lame. Didn't catch any of the bigger waves because there wasn't anywhere to go really. At some point I got stuck on the inside after surfing a left (surprise, surprise) and it literally took my 20 minutes of constant paddling to get back out. I ended the session on a pseudo-ride that took me to the stairs.
- Talked a little bit to the other guy who was also out yesterday, reflecting on how lame this was. We ended up surfing way over to the Diamond Head side of the spot, basically at the spot called Incinerators (I think). Very odd.
- Threes, 6:15AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- Paddled out with Mitch. Jim, Eric, Clarence and his daughter, Ron, Craig. Basically, the whole crew.
- knee- to waist-high, windy, not consistent.
- Caught about 10 rides, with two very fun/long waist-high rights, sort of unexpected really.
- Pretty much lame, but it was fun to be out with everybody and back in the water.
- Threes, 6:15AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met Jim, Clarence, Craig, and Ron in the line-up. Will paddled over from Pops at the end.
- knee- to waist-high, windy, not consistent. Basically a repeat from yesterday, with perhaps the best waves better than yesterday.
- Caught about 15 rides, with one fun right and a decent left. Nothing to write home about. That South swell is just being "delayed" every day.
- Threes, 6:15AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met Jim, Mitch, Eric, Clarence, Ron and some other guy.
- Waist-high with a few slightly bigger sets, pseudo-glassy, not consistent, a bit peaky, but a few fun take-offs and a few long rides.
- Caught about 15 rides, with only one on a set wave that was perhaps chest high at the peak. Also made sort of a sketchy take-off on an inside peak, which was pretty fun.
- There was a strong current taking us towards Diamond Head and requiring constant paddling. Quite the work out.
- It was fun being in the line-up, talking to everybody, etc. Very friendly atmosphere as usual. Eric was talking about his trip to Hilo where he saw 50+ surfers at one of the spots with knee-high waves. So I guess that we are lucky here in Waikiki!
- Threes, 6:15AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'2''
- Paddled out with Mitch and Eric. Met Jim, and later Nathan and Clarence in the line up. A couple of other people out, two older guys I've seen before.
- Waist-high with a few chest-high waves, messy, choppy, pretty much horrible, and windier as time went on.
- Somehow, it was still possible to catch waves and I caught about 15 rides. A couple were actually fun, especially a right that doubled up and was head-high on the peak. A couple of longish rights and lefts as well, but nothing like the normal Threes waves at all. Bumpy rides, multiple peaks, etc. The spot was pretty much unrecognizable due to the mixed-up wind swells. Same strong current as yesterday.
- At the end of the session this guy I had seen on the beach before paddled out. Baseball cap, sunglasses, wearing only shorts, and a lit cigar! To top it off he was quite the "ostentatious knee paddler", paddling over to the outside of the spot and staying on his knees on his massive board (which from the distance looked like a foamy, but I can't quite believe it was). He clearly wanted attention and his whole attitude was very condescending, paddling around like he was the rooster ruling the farm animals. After not catching anything on the outside he paddled inside, sat right next to me, and paddled for a lame small wave (not that I hadn't been paddling for those all morning though). He rode it and then fell on the inside, completely going under water and sadly ruining his cigar. He paddled in then, either disgusted by the conditions or embarrassed to have wet his cigar on his first wave, or both. Talked to Clarence about him. Clarence said his name is Kim (I think) but that he calls him Punchy! One day Clarence was by himself and Punchy paddled over and planted himself 1ft from him, which really freaked him out. As far as Clarence knows the guy's a photographer but paddles out sometimes, and is sort of crazy and wants some attention. I have to say that he provided amusement during this otherwise lame session. It was particularly amusing because we all knew each other in the line-up and he was sort of the freaky outsider. When he first paddled over actually, Jim said with this disgusted look on his face: "Who the fuck is that???" which totally encapsulated what we were all thinking at that exact moment.
- Sunset Cliffs, Chasm, 6:30AM-9:30AM
- on Kathy's 8'6''
- Paddled out with Travis and Dario. Nobody out.
- Waist-high with a few chest-high peaks, clean but several close-outs, light breeze but pretty glassy, not very consistent.
- Great California morning, with sun coming out halfway through the session. Caught 20+ rides, with a couple of very fun rights. Kathy's board worked pretty well, especially with Dario's fin on it.
- It was hard adjusting to wearing a wetsuit as the paddling was so much harder. The water temp was a bit of a shock as well after so many sessions in Hawai`i, but it really wasn't too bad after a few minutes.
- It was great being out with Dario and Travis. Travis was surfing his 5'8'' quad and he was on fire.
- 1 sea lion in the line-up, popping up super close to us for some reason and was sort of freaking us out. At some point apparently it was following me as I was paddling back out. Before that Dario said that it had jumped right next to his board. Travis' theory is that it was attracted by the smell of a powerbar I had brought to the line-up and whose wrapper was stuck in my wetsuit.
- Sunset Cliffs, Chasm, 7:00AM-9:30AM
- on Kathy's 8'6''
- Paddled out with Dario. Two longboarders out.
- Light breeze, Knee-high with a few slightly bigger waves.
- Conditions were definitely weaker than yesterday. We walked all the way to Chasm and then opted to walk way further South just for the hell of it. We passed 33s and went to what we think is the next spot (it was hard to tell due to the lack of waves). Nothing was happening there, besides a single seal ion checking us out (the same one as yesterday?). So after about 15 minutes we paddled back to 33s. There were a few waves breaking there, and we caught a few. The left was a bit sketchy as there were boils all over the water surface due to the shallow bottom. We caught a few rights (Dario had one that I'd say qualified as waist-high). After a while we paddled back all the way to Chasm.
- Chasm was a bit better and I caught perhaps 10 rides. My first wave was pathetic as I fell back due to exhaustion. This paddling with a wetsuit on is just so much more work. But then I had a few fun rights. Botched a sketchy take-off I should have made, made it on a sketchier take-off.
- The highlight of the session were the dolphins. At some point we had about 6 of them in front of us paddling out. As the wave stood up they turned around and surfed towards us, barely below the surface. Three of them were within 1ft of my board, going under it.
- Cherry Hill, 7:00AM-9:30AM
- on Kathy's 8'6''
- with Dario and Travis
- Glassy, knee- to waist-high, not consistent, closing out often.
- It was very cold in the morning and as we were going down the cliff there were very little waves to be seen. The water temperature had dropped over the week to a supposed 56 degrees. It just didn't look good or worth it. We walked down towards the pointe and it looked to be a slightly better shape there but smaller. The air was so cold it actually hurt my hands. We walked back, and then, somehow Travis and Dario got pumped up to paddled out. I just followed.
- The water wasn't as cold as we expected actually but still pretty cold. We had a blast though, being totally goofy in the water. And in the end we all caught a few fun waves though, which was sort of surprising. I caught 3 decent rights, with a face for a few maneuvers. T got a very good last wave, with a little floater to cap it off.
- Dario went in a bit early, and T and I stayed out longer. This guy paddled out to right where we were at the end, which was pretty annoying given that the whole beach was empty.
- Overall a surprisingly fun session in spite of the bad conditions and the cold.
- One duck in the line-up! That was very weird.
- Sunset Cliffs, New Break and Chasm, 11:30AM-1:30PM
- on Kathy's 8'6''
- with Dario, nobody out at New Break, 3 guys on the outside a Chasm at the end of the session.
- Glassy, knee-high, not consistent.
- We really paddled out for the sake of getting wet on a beautiful sunny day. First went to New Break because there were about 4-5 people out at Ab. Caught a few waves there, knee-high trying to get to waist-high. We then paddled to Chasm because it looked better. Once at Chasm, the outside just wasn't breaking at all. So we were sort of on our way in when we realized that the inside was breaking, with fun waist-high+ peaks an a little wave all the way to the evil ledge. So we surfed that for a while. I had a take off super close to the ledge and had to bail because I was getting in 2 feet of water. Later Dario caught that wave and basically got all the way to the ledge. He had to somersault backward and his board went over the ledge (he had no leash)! That could've been pretty bad. I paddled back to the outside twice, but although we could definitely see that the swell was filling in, not much was going on. We ended the session pretty exhausted. I must have caught about 15 waves.
- Threes, 6:30AM-9:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- with Scott, Yves, and Olivia. Met Ron, Jim and his friend JJ, Doug and his two girls. Initially the three old guys from Pops were out as well. 10 people out at most.
- Super glassy, ankle- to waist-high, not very consistent but "sets" coming through. Probably one of the most gorgeous mornings out there.
- During the first part of the session I caught about 20 rides, with a couple of very fun waist+ right handers. Surprisingly fun. It was so great to be in warm water with no wetsuit. My paddling was so incredibly strong without the fighting against the wetsuit. I paddled for waves I didn't really think I could catch and all of a sudden found myself standing. It was Scott's first time at Threes and in spite of the tiny conditions he was very impressed.
- At about 7:40 I paddled back in to meet Yves and Olivia, his 13-year old daughter, for their first surfing session ever. We rented boards and paddled out to Threes (Pops wasn't breaking). After about 30 yards I started towing Olivia. After about 50 more yards Yves grabbed Olivia's leash and I towed both of them to the spot. Quite the workout. After giving them some directions I started looking for waves to push Olivia into. We did that on two knee-high waves. On the first one she pearled, on the second one she rode the white on her stomach all the way in and was quite pleased. On her way out the most amazing thing happened. She paddled right next to me (I have to say that she was very good at sticking to being close to me... she would totally pick up this surfing thing after 10 sessions I think) and we saw beautiful fish swim right under our boards in amazingly clear water. As we raised our eyes to look for incoming waves we saw two whales that were about 25 yards away, rolling on their sides and stretching their side fins, showing us their tails, singing. The water was completely still, and the 10 of us out there were completely mesmerized. That was a totally magical, silent moment and Olivia was completely flipping out. After that we were on the inside and a small outside set came with people taking off left and right. I grabbed her board and paddled with one arm trying to get out of the way. That worked really well and as she was facing towards the beach and I was basically pulling her to the outside she got to see people taking off right next to her several times, which was pretty cool (those people probably where wondering what the hell we were doing at Threes though). I am just glad I did that otherwise she would have been completely in the way. Finally I pushed her into a wave on which she stood up a little before falling off, which made her day. Towed her back in for most of the way to end a pretty amazing first surf session for her and a great work out for me. While "teaching" her I caught 3 absolutely perfect knee-high right handers, in water so clear it felt like it was in 1 inch deep.
- Threes, 6AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met Eric, Clarence, Jim, Craig in the lineup. 3 other guys paddled out, no idea who they were.
- Light breeze, knee-high with a few waist-high sets, not very consistent with long lulls. The waves weren't breaking as usual, but definitely rideable.
- Caught about 20 waves, with a couple of fun rights. Beautiful morning. I paddled super early because I had to drop off Yves, Sylvie, and Olivia at the airport at 5:15.
- Eric cut his foot on coral after a long ride he took way too far in. He was quite aggressive with the 3 other guys out today, sort of dropping in and paddling right on them. Not sure why actually but it was kind of funny.
- Threes, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met Eric, Clarence, Jim, Craig, Ron, Doug and his daughter. Up to 10 people out.
- light breeze at first and quite breezy later. knee- to waist- with a few bigger sets. not very consistent an some waves to be had. The swell is still filling in and today was definitely a letdown compared to everybody's expectations.
- Caught about 20 rides, with a couple of good rights. I sort of missed the wave of the day though as I thought that other guy was definitely paddling for it closer to the inside but he sort of bailed at the end. For some reason I wasn't paddling for it at all and my "turn and burn" at that point was just too little to late.
- Craig and I talked about the 3 guys from yesterday, a father and his two sons as it turns out. Basically, as the sons couldn't get waves yesterday (due to crappy conditions and to the fact that we didn't let them get too many I guess, although I can't recall taking waves from them myself), the father started to play what Craig called "team surfing". Basically he would not even try to surf but just paddle around trying to block other people who might try to paddle for the same wave as his sons! Craig was blocked twice in this way and couldn't believe it. It happened to Clarence too a first time, and then on the second time Clarence just paddled right over the guy's board. That pretty much ended it. Part of me wishes I had been there to see that, part of me is happy that I missed it.
- Flies, 5:40AM-6:40AM
- on my 8'2''
- By myself. Alone for about 1/2 hour, then 2 people out.
- waist- to head-high, junky and bumpy, not very consistent, breaking a little bit all over the place, a it choppy, lots of doubles, etc.
- I only had 1 hour to surf this morning because I was supposed to take Norm to the hospital at 8AM. So I opted for Flies because it was close and since there was a swell it should show some waves. Turns out it wasn't really a good choice as it was pretty much a mess, and to make it worse I took my 8'2'' out. It would have been much better with my 9'2'' to make it down bumpy lumpy waves.
- I got there so early that Kakahako Park was closed and I had to wait for them to open it up at 5:30AM. I pretty paddled out in the dark. Sort of eerie, cool, and perhaps a bit stupid.
- I essentially caught 2 waves. The first one was a head-high, I made the drop after much bumping up and down and rode it for a little bit before it closed out. The second was the last wave of the session, a small waist-high left that took me close to the rocks.
- On an aborted left I got caught inside for about 20 minutes, which was a huge workout but sort of fun actually. Somehow Flies seems to have these periods of outside close outs on big sets that keeps you stuck inside for a while while you make your long way around back to the channel.
- Threes, 5:45AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. About 10 people out at the peak, including Ron, Jim, Clarence, Steve, Doug on his paddleboard at the end, Dr. Kevorkian (that old guy who looks like he's about the croak, nicknamed by the guys out there).
- Super glassy, waist-high with a few bigger sets, clean and organized, pretty consistent. Beautiful morning.
- Caught about 20 rides, with several fun ones. Really nice to have clean waves after yesterday's mess. The inside was small but hollow and I fell several time while trying to get to the nose. On one fall I slightly scratched my back on the coral as it was super shallow.
- Great conversations in the water. Jim was telling us about his wave of the day yesterday, about 9ft face. Doug had a better story though. A dead guy was found in Waikiki two days ago, drowned and weighted down (either suicide or crossed the mob). Turns out that Doug and his friends are the ones who found him and called the police! They were paddling on stand-up paddle boards and were able to see the body straight down right by a stone jetty.
- Threes, 7:30AM-9:00AM
- on my 9'2''
- With Larry. Met Ron in the line-up. A few longboarders out, 5-6 friendly shortboarders on the inside.
- After checking Flies which was completely flat, we went to Waikiki. Conditions were knee- to waist-, choppy, windy, inconsistent, junky. Pretty much a mess, but I had to get wet before going to DC.
- Caught perhaps 10 waves, with one somewhat decent left, and one somewhat decent right.
- Towards the end of the session there was a collision on the inside between a shortboarder and that guy who was surfing that crazy quad 9' fish.
- Threes, 6:20AM-7:40AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met Ron, Jim, and 3 other guys out.
- waist-high+, windy and choppy, breaking a little bit all over the place due to the wind swell, but still a few waves to be caught once in a while.
- Caught about 15 waves, with a couple of very fun rights somehow, with a pretty nice wall if sectiony.
- So great to be back in Hawaii after 4 days in Washington DC in below-40 temperatures. Even if the conditions pretty much sucked it felt like heaven. Great conversation with Jim about fruit trees to put in a garden.
- Threes, 6:20AM-7:40AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met Ron, Jim and Doug on his SUP out. About 10 longboarders out and 5 people on SUPs!!
- waist- to chest-high, much cleaner than yesterday, not as windy, more consistent.
- Caught about 15 waves, including a nice right early on and a phenomenal right toward the end of the session. I managed to be in the right spot, a tad inside of the outside longboarders, but outside of the longboarders and SUPs owning the inside. I dropped in on this chest-high wave to the left of the peak and zipped through back to the right. There were two guys there who thought better than dropping in. It was just a perfect wave, very high line, in the perfect spot in the pocket. Nice off-the-lip turn towards the end. I kicked out close to Doug who was sitting on his board and taking pictures. He said that my ride was great but that I was too far for him to take a picture. Too bad because that one must have looked good.
- After that I pretty much waited for a last wave in. A couple of chest-high sets came again but I was never in the right spot and the left was closing out. Made it back to the beach on a waist-high wave.
- Really beautiful morning, clean conditions, quite a few waves, one outstanding wave. Couldn't ask for much more really.
- Flies, 8:30AM-9:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. About 10 people out.
- waist- to chest-high, not very clean, a bit windy, but very inconsistent with super long lulls.
- Probably not worth paddling out in spite of the occasional good sets. After debating for about 20 minutes I decided to paddle out with other doubtful surf observers. Caught 5 waves or so, with a decent left and a decent right. Beautiful day out, so never completely wrong to get in the water.
- Threes, 5:50AM-6:50AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met Doug, Clarence, Ron, Nathan out. Started off with 4 people out and by the time I paddled back in there were about 30!
- waist-high, not very clean and more sectiony than usual, with a few bigger sets once in a while.
- Woke up early and thought I'd try Threes on a weekend when there were supposed to be waves. Although it was nice being in the water and it was good talking with my friends out there, the crowd was just way too big considering the amount of waves. Caught about 6-7 waves, with a couple of decent rights with fun drops but with sections closing out in front of me. Eventually caught a small inside wave in.
- Threes, 6AM-7:15AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met Jim, Ron, that guy Steve, and somebody else out.
- knee- to thigh-high, glassy, clean, not very consistent.
- Pretty lame overall, but beautiful morning and a few peaceful glides over the coral. Caught about 15 rides or so, all rights.
- waist-high, not very clean and more sectiony than usual, with a few bigger sets once in a while.
- 1 sea turtle in the line-up
- Threes, 6AM-7:15AM
- on my 9'2'', no leash
- Paddled out with Jim. 6-7 other guys out, some I had seen before, some I hadn't.
- knee- to waist-high, glassy, not very consistent or clean, but a few small waves to be had. A bit windy at the end of the session..
- Caught about 15 waves, including a couple of fun rights. One bigger set came and I was inside. I could have done a turn and burn on the second wave of the set, but without a leash it was just too sketchy. I didn't intend to padded out without a leash actually, I just locked my trunk with the leash in it and was too lazy to go back.
- My last wave was really fun. It was a right, waist-high+. This guy was deeper than I was but he was a beginner and had been going straight to the beach all morning. So I dropped in (and yes, he went straight and fell), and locked in a high line. That wave had a surprising amount of juice. During the most critical section I zipped right in front of that shortboarder who was on the inside, and who must have feared for his life when he saw I didn't have a leash on. At the end of the ride I saw 4 more people paddling out and I thought it was time to end on a high note.
- Threes, 5:45AM-7:35AM
- on my 9'2''.
- By myself, met Jim and Ron out there, Bianca briefly, and 3 other people out, including Dr. Kervorkian.
- knee-high with the very occasional waist-high sets. One nice chest-high set came through. Windy and windier as time went on. Not consistent and pretty much lame.
- Caught about 15 rides, paddling like a maniac for tiny knee-high insiders. Quite the workout.
- Everybody was talking about the swell that's supposed to hit later today, half-heartedly hoping that it would hit earlier than planned. Tomorrow may be a complete zoo at Threes.
- Threes, 5:30AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2''.
- By myself, about 10 people out, including Jim, and other people like Ron and Clarence who just paddled straight to Paradise after seeing that Threes wasn't really working.
- knee- to waist-high, with a few bigger sets early on, windy and choppy, not clear or consistent.
- This swell generated so much hype it was absolutely ridiculous. It was supposed to hit yesterday and I was all ready to go when my car battery went dead at 5AM and I had to spend the morning fixing it. Turns out Jim told me that yesterday was bigger than today but really junky, so I didn't miss anything.
- Caught about 15 rides, with a couple of fun ones early on when there were only 1 other guy out. We only saw a single set of that size during the whole rest of the session. The other rides weren't anything special and were kind of short, mostly catching waves on the inside.
- Toward the end I caught a cool inside right, that walled up nicely. I was in the critical section of the wave the whole time, constantly barely making it by keeping a high line. Towards the end of the ride I had a major wipe out, with the tail of the board being caught in the wave and flipped over. I slammed into the water really hard in the shallows, but no harm done. One of the worst wipe-out on a waist-high wave in a long time.
- James Jones, pioneer of performance Waimea surfing, was in the water, riding a longboard.
- Flies, 7:15AM-8:30AM
- on my 8'2''.
- With Larry, 4 longboarders out.
- waist- to shoulder-high, with one head-high set that came through. Not very clean, consistent, or organized. Many fake waves that would disappear, almost impossible to catch inside waves. Light winds.
- Caught around 7 rides, with one great shoulder-high right. Had a lot of issues adjusting to the 8'2'', somehow. I botched a critical take off on a head-high wave that was a semi closeout, and in retrospect should have taken off on a couple waves that I passed on. But whatever, beautiful day out, and always a good experience changing board.
- Flies, 8:30AM-10AM
- on my 9'2''.
- With Larry and Peter, 3-5 other people out.
- waist-high with a few chest-high sets, not consistent, light winds getting stronger at the end, so a bit bumpy. Sort of a repeat of yesterday.
- Caught about 15 rides, with one great chest-high right that had a nice wall and allowed for many turns. Several other decent rides, even though the shoulders were soft and the rides short.
- Towards the end I dropped in on Larry. I thought I was being nice taking the left, but it turns out he was trying to be nice to that other by taking the left also. On top of that his take-off was sketchy and so he fell. Pretty sad really.
- Threes, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2''.
- By myself. Met Mitch, Clarence, Jim, Craig, and Steve out there. Three girls paddled out later.
- waist-high, not super consistent but decent shape. Light winds.
- Caught about 15 rides, with a couple of fun rights. Was out of position on some of the bigger waves. Amazing rainbows toward the end of the session. Great conversations in the water. Quite the Aloha session.
- Threes, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2'', no leash
- By myself. Met Steve, Jim, Bianca in the line-up. 8 people out at the peak. 2 of them paddled in from a boat!
- knee- to waist-high, with a few bigger sets (perhaps inklings of the swell to come), glassy, organized.
- Caught about 15 rides, with a few fun ones. Didn't feel great on the board after 10 days without surfing, and a bit numb, but ok.
- Jim had his new 7'6'' fish out. 3'' thick. 22'5/8'' wide. He was really happy and ripped on it. I am starting to wonder whether a big fat fish wouldn't be cool to have as well. He's getting a monster 8' fish in the mail next week.
- Gorgeous morning, 1 sea turtle in the line-up.
- Threes, 5:30AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2''.
- By myself. Met Jim, Bianca, Nathan, and later Clarence in the line-up. One other guy out and then the same 3 Japanese tourists as yesterday.
- knee-high, smaller and not as glassy or clean as yesterday.
- Caught about 15 rides, with nothing special, besides the beautiful water and morning.
- The highlight of the morning was trying Jim's new 7'6'' fish. It's epoxy, 3 1/4'' thick, 17'' at the nose and tail, twin fin set up. I caught 3 waves with it and I was blown away by how easy it was to catch even these measly knee-high waves. Absolutely incredible paddling power. While on the wave, my first 2 rides where quite an adjustment, but on the third one I could see how loose it was and fun to ride. I am definitely thinking of getting one, perhaps even a 7'4''.
- A few dolphins jumping out way on the outside, and 1 sea turtle in the line-up.
- Flies, 6:30AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2''.
- By myself. 4-5 other guys out.
- Pretty glassy, waist- to chest high, nice clean sets coming through once and again but long lulls.
- The first legitimate South swell is hitting this weekend, and today we could see clear foreshadowing of what tomorrow may be like.
- Unfortunately there was a longboarding paddleboarding contest today. So I had to get out of the water when the first heat started.
- Caught 6-7 waves, with a very nice chest-high right. On my last wave, in front of the whole crowd waiting for the heat to start I was totally out of position and attempted a sketchy take-off on a head-high left and totally blew it. Paddled in after that.
- The contest seemed kind of dull due to the long lulls. I watched one heat. Some of those guys were really good, but there were so few waves...
- Flies, 7:15AM-8:45AM
- on my 9'2''.
- With Larry. 10 people out.
- waist- to head-high, mixed up, not consistent, long lulls with high-frequency non-waves, glassy but bumpy faces.
- Caught about 10 rides, with a couple of fun rights, and a couple of take-offs on bigger lefts that pretty much closed out.
- Larry had his camera with him so we took pictures, which was really difficult. Not clear any of them will turn out good..
- There was a girl in the line-up who must have been sea sick as she threw up a couple of times.
- Threes, 5:30AM-7:30AM
- on my 8'2''.
- By myself. Met Jim, Ron, Doug, Steve, Clarence, Craig, etc. in the line-up. About 30 people out at the peak.
- waist- to head-high, glassy, not very consistent and not 100% clean, but really nice waves coming through.
- Caught 8 rides, including one nice completely line-up shoulder high right, a couple of rather intense short rights with vertical walls but holding, and a couple of very fun long lefts.
- On my first left I was on a high line, did a bottom turn and then wanted to do a smooth cut back, but this board is _so_ much more responsive than my 9'2'' that I put way too much pressure on my back foot and ended up making a super quick and sharp cut back, falling head-first into the wave. It just felt like the board simply did a 180 in place. Pretty funny. Clarence laughed his ass off as he was paddling over the wave while that happened. After that incident I was much more in control of the board.
- My next to last wave was actually a somewhat scary inside right, with a super intense head-high drop and a surprising amount of juice. Super short ride, basically a drop and hold on for dear life on the first section.
- My last wave was an in-between wave which the outside longboarding patrollers couldn't go for, but that was not breaking in the typical inside place. I paddled like crazy and made the shoulder-high drop pretty deep. Some shortboarder backed off as I was deeper and he hooted while I was dropping. I zipped through the peak and barely escaped the exploding white water to make it right in the pocket all the way down the line. I was partially submerged in white water at times just to make it out again and again. Although it was only 7:15AM at that point I was getting tired and decided to end on a high note.
- Great morning out there, great vibe in the water with a lot of hooting and laughing. Absolutely wonderful way to start the day. I felt really good on the 8'2''. That board was basically perfect for these conditions I think.
- Flies, 8AM-9AM
- on my 8'2''.
- By myself. 2 people out at first, and then 1, and then by myself for the last 15 minutes.
- waist- to shoulder-high, junky and not consistent, a bit windy.
- I was completely surfed out yesterday, and this morning I felt lazy so I opted for a late session at Flies.
- Caught 4-5 waves including one semi-decent right. In spite of the very lame conditions this was actually good practice on my 8'2''. Still I will definitely go to Threes tomorrow morning.
- Threes, 5:30AM-7:30AM
- on my 8'2''.
- By myself. 15 people out including Jim, Nathan, and Steve. Doug got in as I was paddling out!
- waist- to shoulder-high, light winds, not consistent with super long lulls in between the bigger sets. Not much happening out there most of the time.
- Felt really sleepy today and surfed the inside, somewhat half-heartedly. Just wasn't into it. Caught about 6-7 rights, and 3-4 lefts, with a couple of fun ones. My take-offs on the 8'2'' are definitely getting much better.
- At some point I was paddling for a wave and my hand hit something hard. I stopped and found a thick 1l beer bottle floating in the line-up. This was so dangerous. I can't imagine hitting it at full speed with the board and getting a beer-bottle-ding! Or even falling on it could actually hurt.
- 1 turtle in the line-up.
- Flies, 7:30AM-9:30AM
- on my 9'2''.
- With Larry. 3 to 5 other people out.
- waist- to head-high, moderate winds, typical Flies with a lot of waves closing out after the first section, but a few very nice rights.
- Caught about 15 rides, including one phenomenal right on which I totally hit the lip for once, followed by a series of bottom-turns, pretty much pumping all the way down to the inside on a rare lined-up wave. It was pretty amazing actually to have such a nice wave and and some guy out commented about it afterwards.
- Had a few very fun take-offs on big waves. Overall a very fun session with some size and energy in the water and very few people out.
- Flies, 7:30AM-9:30AM
- on my 9'2''.
- by myself. Up to 10 other people out. Larry and Jane showed up at the end of the session.
- waist- to shoulder-high, moderate winds, sort of a repeat of yesterday with less size.
- Caught about 15 rides, with a couple of really fun rights, and a couple of sketchy take-offs on bigger waves that ended up closing out.
- Threes, 5:45AM-7:15AM
- on my 8'2''.
- by myself. 10-12 people out, including Jim, Eric, Clarence, Doug briefly on his paddleboard. It seems that there is a new batch of local people who've adopted Threes as their spot. Sort of sucks.
- knee- to waist-high with the very occasional chest-high set initially, then pretty much dead for the second half of the session.
- Caught about 5 rides, all on small waves, but it was good to feel comfortable on my 8'2''. I guess this was the tail end of a pseudo swell or something. halfway into the sessions waves basically stopped coming, and I paddled back in.
- Threes, 5:30AM-7:15AM
- on my 8'2''.
- Paddled out with Jim. About 20 other people out, including Doug, Clarence, Ron later, Steve, etc. WAY too many people for the number of waves.
- waist- to chest-high, with only rare chest-high sets. Glassy but not very clean most of the time. Very occasional beautiful sets.
- Caught about 10 rides, including a nice chest-high left and a nice chest-high right, and all the others on rather weak waves.
- There was a swell forecast and I guess people just showed up. It was quite crazy to see the spot that crowded on such lame conditions. I still managed to get quite a few waves, but tomorrow I'll probably go to Flies.
- On one of the best waves of the day Clarence was doing a super critical take-off (rail grabbing, pseudo-vertical) when that total kook dropped in on him about 3ft from him. They both went down crashing. Clarence told him off (with Aloha though) but it was such a painful thing to see. I got dropped in on a left by that girl (who yelled "Sorry" as she tumbled though), but it was a semi-closeout, so it wasn't a big deal.
- I paddled back in kind of early and when I got to the shower there were two workers from the Hale Koa fixing one of the showers (no clue why the Hale Koa guys are fixing what I thought was a public shower, but whatever). They were hilarious. We talked a bit and they were full-on local. And then they started making fun on tourists walking by: "Hey Brah, see dat guy, plaid shirt, shorts, sandals with socks pulled up to the knee... I don't care if I am old, brah, if I dress like dat on vacation I shit myself". And so on. It was great. It brought me back to afternoons back home with my cousin, who owned a snack bar on the beach, spent his entire day making fun of tourists. There is something pathetic but so necessary about making fun of the tourists that provide your livelihood.
- Flies, 6:30AM-8:30AM
- on my 9'2'', no leash.
- By myself. Alone in the line-up for about 40 minutes, then 7 other people out including Jim (the "other" Jim) and Eric. 3 military guys who had no clue what they were doing at all, which was pretty annoying.
- waist- to chest-high, with a few head-high+ sets. A bit choppy but fine, typical Flies waves. Somewhat consistent.
- When I checked it before going out it seemed only waist-high and nobody was out. I knew the swell was supposed to back down so I had opted for my 9'2'' in the morning after whimsically considering taking my 7'6'' out. So I went out without a leash, which is always good practice. Waves kept getting bigger and people were coming out, so towards the end of the session I sort of wished I had a leash, but all in all I lost my board only twice, right at the end of rides in crazy white water, never on the take-off, so it was all good.
- Caught about 20 rides, with quite a few fun rights, although not completely lined up. I chickened out of a sketchy take-off on a head-high wave because everybody was inside and I was about 50% sure of losing my board on that one and thus 10% sure of beheading somebody..
- I probably rode the biggest ridden wave of the day. I was somewhat on the outside and this set came. I caught the first wave, which was a couple feet overhead (Eric said "that thing was huge" after the fact). It was probably among of the 10 sketchiest take-offs I ever did, but this one was without a leash! I barely made it down the face and sort of free fell into it. But somehow I made it. The wave sort of closed out though, but I rode it to the inside where it reformed. With quite a bit of adrenaline I think that every fiber of my body was just focused on not losing the board. The next two waves in the set were smaller, but actually nicer, and Eric got a pretty nice ride.
- Nice conversations in the line-up with Jim and Eric, but mostly about sharks! Get this. Four days ago Eric was at Flies and everybody got out because a shark was swimming on the outside. Yesterday Jim was out and when he paddled out people in the line-up told him that a shark had just swam through the line-up, but somehow they stayed out and weren't too fazed by it. Two weeks ago, a friend of Jim had a shark come up to him and, he said, "look at him", while he was by himself sitting in the line-up, which caused him to paddle back in immediately. All this at Flies. And to think I was by myself out there, for 40 minutes, with no leash, at 6:30AM, under overcast skies... Eric was like "I guess you just have guts". He was sort of joking because there has never been an attack and people are kind of a bit blase about the whole thing. But still. I found it mostly amusing actually, until my new nickname becomes "stumpy" I guess.
- Flies, 7:15AM-9AM
- on my 9'2''.
- By myself. Between 5 and 8 other people out.
- knee- to waist-high+, glassy, nicely shaped, but not consistent with very long lulls.
- Caught about 10 rides, with a couple fun ones, but waves really lacked power as we are in between swell.
- During the lulls it was fun listening to the conversations of the older guys out there. Talking about sessions on the North Shore, about sharks, etc. A very aloha session all in all.
- Flies, 10:15AM-11:30AM
- on my 8'2''.
- By myself. Nobody out for the whole session.
- knee- to waist-high+, a bit choppy, not very clean and/or consistent.
- I drove all the way from Waimanalo this morning and opted to go to Flies because a swell is supposedly coming and parking in Waikiki for a late session is never easy. After checking the spot it seemed clear that my 9'2'' would have been a better choice for the conditions though, but I was too lazy to go home and switch board.
- The first 1/2 hour of the session was sort of sad, with knee- to waist-high waves. I have a really hard time surfing well on this board on small waves.
- After this, there were much bigger sets coming and I caught one very nice shoulder-high right and a couple of almost chest-high really lined up waves. It's pretty amazing how as soon as waves get bigger all of a sudden I surf this board so much better, with my feet in the right place and a decent flow. The board is so fast that a couple time I was a little bit off balance leaning backward during the accelerations.
- At some point, this freak set came. I was inside after surfing a rather lame left, and I paddled out when I saw these shadows on the horizon. I barely made it past the first one, then scrambled like mad to make it past the second one (we're talking only chest-high at that point), and so on. It was an 8-wave set, and each wave was a little bit bigger than the previous one. On the next to last I actually had to turtle, but I got back on super fast and barely punched through the lip of the last wave, which was a little bit overhead. It wasn't a big deal of course, but it just sort of gave me an appreciation for nightmare scenarios like this on the North shore with waves twice as big or more, more wing, more current.
- Toward the end things slowed down and I caught a couple of waist-high waves, with the second one taking me to the jetty to conclude the session.
- I caught about 15 rides total. At the top of the hill I met Tracy who was checking the conditions. All in all a surprisingly fun session in spite of a dismal beginning. And nobody out. What are the odds of surfing a lined-up shoulder-high wave in Town under a beautiful weather with the closest surfed around about 800 yards away?
- Flies, 10:15AM-11:30AM
- on my 8'2''.
- By myself. 5-6 people out including a few boogie boarders and Tracy and her sister towards the end.
- waist- to head-high, moderate offshore winds, not consistent.
- It was so difficult to sit in the right spot today. There were big head-high sets that I was never in position for, there were fake waves, doubles. Very strange.
- Caught about 10 rides, with 2 fun rights, an the rest on semi close-outs. nothing to write home about. A great work out though.
- Flies, 8AM-9AM
- on my 8'2''.
- By myself. 6-8 people out.
- waist- to shoulder-high+, choppy, not clean, odd, a lot of close-outs and a lot of fake waves.
- Caught about 5 waves, including two drops on shoulder-high waves, but closing out.
- This session was just not good. I didn't feel into it from the get go, I felt sluggish and not really into it for some reason. And then these conditions really highlighted the difficulties I have with this board on not nicely shaped waves. I botched three take-offs, which hasn't happened in a long time and overall my surfing really sucked. After 1h I called it quit. Towards the end I was surfing better, but it was so hard to make the best out of these conditions today, in spite of there being size. I think it's time I go to Threes on my 9'2'' for a couple of sessions.
- Rockpiles, 5:30PM-7PM
- on my 9'2''.
- By myself. between 4 and 6 other people out.
- knee- to waist-high, weak, not consistent, but decent little longboardable waves once in a while.
- Late session just to unwind a little bit. Caught about 20 waves, with 2-3 really nicely shaped tiny waves right above the coral (with TONS of sea urchins).
- Nice sunset on Waianae.
- Threes, 5:30AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2''.
- By myself. Met Jim, Clarence, Doug and his daughter, Ron, Steve, and a few other guys I knew out there. Up to 15 people out at the peak of the session.
- knee- to shoulder-high, glassy, very weak and inconsistent most of the time, but 3 good sets came, shoulder-high and super clean. There is a swell coming (when isn't there?) and people were sort of hoping for a little bump today. Tomorrow's supposed to be big.
- I caught about 20 waves, with many tiny weak ones on the inside, and a few fun waist-high rights. Luckily I was in perfect position when what was probably the best wave of the day came in, in a 2-wave set. I caught the first wave, super smooth take-off, and then pumping up and down the line for about 30 yards before I had to kick the board out before a close-out section. If that wave had been lined up all the way to the inside it would have ranked among the best waves I ever rode at Threes. I could tell people were sort of jealous out there after that ride. Ron got the second wave of the set but that one was a tad bigger and more of a close-out.
- I feel that I surfed pretty well today. It's amazing what nicely shaped waves a longboard can do sometimes.
- Flies, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 8'2''.
- With Eric. Carl and (the other) Jim out there, and two girls later on.
- Glassy, knee- to waist-high+, very inconsistent with incredibly long lulls. Pretty clean.
- Clearly the swell's late (imagine that). Amazingly calm morning today with absolutely no wind. Caught about 10 waves, with a few fun ones in spite of the conditions. My last was was pretty decent, almost a chest-high drop. On one of my best waves one of the two girls, who was clearly a beginner, dropped in on me and did "the works": on all fours on the board, tip over, board goes flying by my head. I had to do a major cutback and of course found myself in the white. That was pretty lame. I almost said something later on, but she was so oblivious and it was really her friend's role (who could surf decently) to tell her about these things. Whatever.
- Today was actually a great day for me because I really felt comfortable on the 8'2''. All my take-offs were good, my feet were always in the right spot. I really felt one with the board like I perhaps haven't before. Not sure why it happened, but I was really pleased.
- Talk in the line-up of a shark seen at the bottom of the stairs!!
- Flies, 6:45AM-8:30AM
- on my 8'2''.
- By myself. 10 people out, including Eric, Carl, and Jim. 2 SUPs for the second half of the session.
- waist- to chest-high, not consistent, a bit choppy, not clean, moderate winds.
- Pretty disappointing conditions after the hype, but perhaps other spots were better (given how crowded Flies was, I don't even want to know what Threes looked like).
- Caught about 10 waves, with nothing special. Definitely harder to ride this board well in choppy conditions, but I did ok. I had one left that was decent actually.
- Although SUPs are annoying, I have to say that today I saw for the best SUP rider I have ever seen. The guy was completely amazing, nose riding, 360, hitting the lip, doing all types of juggling with his paddle while riding, tail slides, absolutely unreal. It was quite something to watch. He had this way of turning by sinking the tail and pivoting with so much control he could do fast "turn-and-burns". He was by far the best wave rider out there.
- Update: 2 weeks after this session I found out that this SUP rider was Leleo Kinimaka, a pretty well-known local rider who won several contests, including one at Flies recently.
- 2 monk seals on the inside. Everybody talked about them but somehow I didn't see them.
- Flies, 5:30PM-6:45PM
- on my 9'2'', no leash.
- By myself. between 1 and 3 other people out.
- Waist- to chest-high, sort of consistent, bumpy and choppy, windy.
- Paddled out without a leash because when I looked at the spot it seemed small, and of course as soon as I paddle out this chest-high semi-close-out set came. But overall I lost my board only once, falling in the white at the end of a ride on a close out.
- Caught about 15 waves, with a couple of nice ones. It was really difficult to drop in on the wave due to the bumps, so definitely a huge workout. I surfed pretty well considering the conditions I think.
- Some of the people out there really sucked, which was a bit odd. At the end there was a guy with his kid on his board.
- Beautiful sunset. Toward the end of the session I started thinking a little bit about all the shark sighting, about the dimming light, and about that school of fish that kept jumping out of the water all around the line-up. So I scrambled to catch a wave in and watched the sunset from the hill.
- Flies, 7:30AM-9:30AM
- on my 9'2''.
- With Larry. 1 other guy out at the peak.
- Waist- to chest-high, long lulls, less bumpy than yesterday but a little bit less size, pretty difficult to get into the waves, windy.
- Caught about 15 waves, with 3 or 4 really fun rights that allowed racing up and down the line. Many waves were really a lot of work to get into, and then walled up on the inside pretty fast.
- Overall a very mellow and nice session, as often at Flies surprisingly fun, followed by a nice cup of coffee at Larry's house.
- Threes, 5:30AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2''.
- With Jim and Eric, nobody else out.
- knee- to waist-high with a few bigger sets, choppy and a bit windy, somewhat consistent but not clean
- Caught about 20 waves, with 4-5 fun rights. In particular, I caught what ended up being the wave of the day, an almost chest-high right that had a perfect shape. I was able to pump up and down the face and end by actually hitting the lip before a close-out section. Really nice, as Eric commented later. I totally lost my focus after that ride, and sort of goofed on other waves later. It was such a mellow session with great conversations in the line-up.
- Jim told us about an incident that happened to him at Threes last week on Thursday, which was a big day (couple feet overhead and more on some sets). He took off on a wave and was racing down the line when he saw that local older guy on an 11ft board about to drop in on him. He yelled at him to not drop in, but the guy did anyway, and at that point he was only a few feet ahead of Jim. So Jim had to straighten up to the beach, at which point he realized there was a guy on the inside who had just wiped out on the previous wave. He was going for the guys head and barely avoid it, sticking his skegs into the guys board instead. After checking that that guy was ok, he paddled back to the local guy and basically told him that he just couldn't do things like this, and that he nearly caused a really bad accident. The local guy just dismissed the whole thing with "I didn't see you". When Jim called his bullshit, the other guy started talking down to him, telling him that he's "home", and that Jim should get a license to surf here, etc. The stereotypical local-haole thing, which I've actually not really seen before. The day after, the guy was still there, and he started talking shit about Jim to other people in the line-up, but since everyone knows Jim they all sort of told the guy that if Jim yelled at him that's because he had done something wrong, etc. At any rate, Jim was quite rattled by the experience, especially because he said it's the first time in his life he's run somebody over like that. Not much Aloha a Threes during a swell in June.
- Flies, 7:45AM-9:30AM
- on my 9'2'', no leash
- With Larry and Tom, 4-5 people out, Eric and Tracy towards the end of the session
- Waist- to chest-high, choppy, not very clean, strong winds at time, not much of a wall after the take-off on most waves.
- As usual, conditions looked pretty lame from the hill, but the session was surprisingly fun
- Caught about 20 waves, with a couple fun rights. Lost my board on my first two waves and then never again.
- Great conversation in the line-up, very mellow.
- Flies, 5:30PM-6:30PM
- on my 9'2'', no leash
- By myself, nobody out.
- knee- to waist-high, light winds, barely breaking.
- Went for a late picnic at the Kakahako state park and just took the board for the hell of it. After eating a sandwich, decided to paddle out just to get wet.
- Stood up on about 10 waves, with only two real waves. I was actually amazed that I stood up at all, but somehow a few "sets" came. One of the waist-high waves were actually pseudo-decent and had a wall. Who knew?
- Amazing sunset, rainbow, sunlit Diamond Head, light breeze in the palm trees, a bunch of local kids jumping off rocks. Great vibe.
- Probably my last session before a 1-month break while I am in Europe.
- Threes/Paradise, 5:40PM-7:45PM
- on my 9'2''.
- By myself, Mitch, Bianca, and some shortboarder at Threes. Mitch, Clarence at Paradise, and later some guy on these board/kayak things whose names I can never remember, and some people on the inside. Doug on his SUP at both spots on and off, catching pretty decent waves.
- Waist- to shoulder-high, head-high on the peak, reasonably smooth and consistent.
- Started off at Threes, which was odd. The pseudo swell wasn't really hitting it right. Caught 3-4 waves, with one decent one, but the wave was nothing like what it typically is. I followed Mitch who had paddled over to Paradise pretty much as soon as I got to Threes.
- Paradise was sort of typical but also sort of atypical. What was typical was that it was really hard to read the waves. Some loomed really big on the outside and dissolved to nothing right before getting to the line-up. Some looked like nothing and then generated head-high peaks right in front of us. It was consistent in that waves were rolling through almost continuously, but only a few were breaking. Also typical was the fact that the take-off had to be on the peak and not on the shoulder. But very atypical was the fact that there was a nice wall! Paradise is known as a peak and nothing much after a nice drop. Well, today rides were long. The wall wasn't comparable to nice Threes, but it was pretty nice nonetheless. It just required a little bit of stalling along the way to not get to ahead of oneself.
- I caught about 10 waves, including 2 very nice rights with head-high drops and long shoulder-high walls that kept reforming.
- A lot of laughs in the water with Clarence yelling like a mad mad "outside!!", "go left!!!", etc. Three of us. Sizeable waves. Beautiful sunrise. Can't ask for much more for my last session before I take off for more than a month.
- Beacons, 8:30AM-9:30AM
- on Dario's 9'
- With Dario, about 15 other people out.
- knee- to waist-high, semi-glassy, not very consistent and rather weak.
- First session after more than a month without any surfing, during a weekend in San Diego on my way back to Hawai`i from Europe.
- Caught about 5 waves, pretty weak, but good to be in the water paddling around. Not in very good shape and jetlagged as expected, but still fairly nice. Quite a few people out with one guy who was telling inane stories super loud in the line-up. Aaaahhh... California.
- Dario was surfing his new Egg, which looks pretty phenomenal.
- Threes, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself, met Jim, Doug and Ann on paddle boards, Mitch, and a couple of other people I knew in the line-up.
- knee-high with a few waist-high waves, glassy, very weak and inconsistent. Only one good wave came through, right after I paddled out.
- Caught about 8 waves, with only 2 real rides.
- Beautiful weather and great conversations in the line-up. Just great to be back in the warm waters of Hawai`i.
- Flies, 7:30AM-9AM
- on my 9'2''
- With Larry and Rob. 5 people out at first, but by ourselves for about 45 minutes at the end of the session.
- waist-high with a few bigger (semi closing out) sets once in a while, not very consistent, moderate winds. Pretty typical.
- Caught about 15 waves, with 3-4 on decently sized waves with above waist-high drops and a bit of a wall. All in all a mellow nice session to get back into things. Still not in very good surfing physical shape, but getting better.
- Sunset Cliffs, Sub, 7:30AM-8:30AM
- on Dario's 9'
- With Dario. 4-5 other people out.
- knee-high with a few waist-high waves. Glassy, very weak.
- Caught about 10 waves, with nothing special at all. Pretty hard to get into waves.
- The highlight of the session was my trying Dario's new 6'8'' Shro's egg. I actually caught two waves and one of them was halfway decent in spite of these weak wave conditions. Sort of thinking this shortboarding thing should perhaps happen.
- Mission Beach, 4PM-5PM
- on my new 9'6'' noserider, which I bought from Jeff today, no leash.
- With Dario. 10 other people out, spongers and swimmers on the inside.
- waist-high, getting a tad hollow as the tide dropped.
- We paddled out for the hell of it to get a little bit of water time before driving up to Ocean side for the screening of Super Sessions. Foolishly we went without leashes, sort of forgetting about the crowd factor, about all the kids on the inside, and about the dropping tide. This resulted in a super intense session with 100% of the focus on not losing the board. Also not a great idea when riding a new board for the first time.
- Caught about 5-6 rides, with a few fun ones actually. Eventually we paddled back in because this session was just too stressful. Losing one's board (and riding longboards in the increasingly hollow sessions was just getting more and more challenging) meant 99% chance of hitting someone, most likely some old lady or a toddler on the inside. (Who have no business being there, on the wrong side of the flag in the first place.)
- Overall Jeff's board will be great for small or crowded days at Threes. I am hoping that it will serve as a "guest" board and also as a way to practice and improve my almost-non-existing noseriding abilities. I am writing this report in the plane back to Hawai`i and it remains to be seen how the board will survive the trip back. Dario helped with the packing, putting plastic bottles around the glassed-in side fins, and we used tons of bubble wrap. We'll see.
- Threes, Paradise, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met Jim, Guy, and Ann at Threes, and then Eric, Clarence at Paradise. 5-6 other people out at Paradise.
- waist- to sometimes chest-high, pretty smooth, but slow and weak due to the high tide.
- Started off at Threes. Waves had a very nice shape and were coming in somewhat regularly, but after the take off rides would be rather slow and waves would stop breaking prematurely. Still, it was nice to see such beautiful lines. After catching about 10 waves, we all paddled out to Paradise.
- Paradise was breaking a bit all over the place, many fake waves, occasional bigger waves breaking on the outside. Some waves had a wall, but otherwise it was pretty typical. Caught 4-5 waves, some on the inside, and paddled back in.
- Great full rainbow halfway through the session. Nice conversations in the water.
- Threes, Paradise, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met Jim, Guy, Ann, Doug and his posse of young girls, Ron, and about 4-5 other people out there. Then Eric showed up and we followed to Paradise where there were 4-5 other people out.
- knee-high, glassy, not consistent and weak.
- After everybody expecting better conditions than yesterday, they were actually worse. Caught about 3-4 waves at Threes, and then about 10 at Paradise, but nothing exciting at all with very weak rides. Waves were better at Paradise, but from there we saw probably the best wave of the day breaking at Threes. A few good ones breaking at Pops too, occasionally, but owned by the older crew on their massive tankers.
- A shortboarder paddled out to Paradise and was actually catching some inside waves. At some point he made some weird noise and then started cursing in French and yelling "help". I paddled over. Apparently something was pulling on his leash and he got really freaked out. Conversing in French I told him that perhaps it was the coral, but he was adamant it wasn't. Probably a sea turtle getting snagged on the leash or something. Anyway, it was quite odd and he just couldn't get over the fact that he was right next to a fellow countryman.
- Paddled back in with Eric after catching a lame left. Beautiful morning, and perhaps a swell tomorrow.
- Flies, 5:45AM-8:30AM
- on my 8'2''
- By myself. Alone for 1/2 hour, then Eric and I alone for about 1/2 hour, then Carl who stayed on the outside only and came back in quickly. Finally the other Jim at the end.
- waist- to chest-high with a few shoulder-high peaks, glassy, typical Flies with the wave never quite lined up all the way to the inside, not super consistent but very nice waves coming through.
- Caught about 25 waves, with several very fun ones. I was doing ok on my 8'2'' actually. Sort of need to get back into it as this board is so much faster. But the take-offs were good, and I did a few nice turns.
- One a chest-high wave I rode the section really well I thought and at the end of it I went over the back, since the second section was (as usual) closing out in front of me. I didn't have quite enough speed and although my body went up in the air off the back the board was sort of behind on the wave. Eric was next to me and basically told me that the next time he sees me not conclude such a great ride by hitting the close out white water to snap a turn he'll send me back to shore. That was hilarious. And he totally have a good point. I should totally end the ride with a snap off the white water and try to see if I can make it, rather than just bailing off the back each time.
- I had a couple of pseudo-sketchy take-offs on shoulder-high peaks, but made them all surprisingly. I really love this board.
- Quite exhausted at the end of this long session on this board. I can sense that this is not going to be a productive day.
- Overall a great session with essentially nobody out, very nice conditions, calm winds, and beautiful sunrise. The "nobody out" part was almost baffling.
- Flies, 5:45AM-8AM
- on my 8'2''
- By myself. Eric showed up after a while. 1 other person out.
- waist-high with a few shoulder-high or higher peaks, glassy, cleaner than yesterday, but less consistent.
- Caught about 20 waves, with a few nice waist-high ones lined up perfectly, a few chest-high ones that were also lined up with a very nice wall that held or with very makable sections, and a couple of take-offs on more rare head-high waves that sort of closed out after 10 yards or so.
- I realized that on this board I have a hard time taking off on the lefts. Today I had to readjust my feet quite a bit on the take offs to, unlike yesterday. Not sure why.
- It's amazing how spoiled we are. Eric and I were talking a lot in the line-up, and because it was less consistent than yesterday and seemed to have a little less size, at least during the first half of the session, we were saying that we should just go back in early. 5 minutes later Eric caught a fantastic head-high waves that was clearly the wave of the day as it held all the way in. I myself caught a chest-high wave right after that that also held and that allowed me many maneuvers.... Right.... Let's go back in because it's such a lame session and according to Eric's terminology it's not "Classic Flies". And to think he started surfing on the East Coast where people would kill for a session like this. But yeah, overall it wasn't as nice as yesterday and as Eric said "more crowded" (yesterday was only us, today there was somebody else who was surfing another peak actually and going only left because goofy footed...the nerve!). I feel like we're losing touch with reality a bit here, especially thinking that we're in Town during the summer, a 5 minute drive from where I live and essentially alone out there.
- Picked up my 9'6'' and I'll take it out tomorrow most likely. The Ding repair job was superb.
- Flies, 5PM-6:15PM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. Alone for the most part and then two guys, each on another peak.
- waist-high with a few chest-high waves, glassy, high tide making most waves not break in the usual way and making the ones that broke (the bigger one) a tad slow.
- Right as I paddled out this great outside wave broke, but I never saw the like of it later on during the session.
- Caught about 20 waves, with 2 really nice lined up ones that brought me all the way in.
- Very easy to catch waves on this board, but it was hard to see how the board works because waves were pretty slow.
- Stunning sunset.
- Flies, 7:45AM-9AM
- on my 7'6''
- By myself. Met Larry in the line-up. between 3 and 6 other people out, including two older kneeboarders and one SUPer.
- waist- to head-high waves, glassy, not super consistent but really nice waves coming through if a bit fat and slow.
- That's right, a session on the 7'6'', for no good reason. It was sort of a struggle in terms of paddling, especially that one time when I stubbornly decided to paddle back to the line-up from the left after surfing a head-high left all the way in. But a great workout. In terms of take-offs, basically each time I was already in a good position it was fine, but when I had to struggle to get into the wave or when I had to take off at a steep angle it was no good, taking off with feet off the board at one time!
- Caught about 15 waves, including 1 screaming overhead right, 1 great overhead left, and a couple of head-high rights. These were great rides, but I didn't surf the board even close to its potential. I know it's capable of going much much faster and my maneuvers were sort of timid when they could have been much more radical. Still, it was great to take off on these waves. Early on in the session though I totally botched a critical take-off, and I fell down a head-high face with the board sort of in between my legs. My back foot basically slipped off to the side of the board. That was pretty lame.
- Overall a great session and a huge workout with a lot of paddling.
- Flies, 7:15AM-8:15AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. 3 other people out at first, and up to 10 at the end.
- waist- to chest-high, with a few head-high waves once in a while, glassy, pseudo consistent.
- Caught about 10 waves, all rights. Somehow, during the beginning of the session, the 3 guys out were a bit inside and a bit down the line from peak on the right. So I positioned myself further out, and I scored 2 amazing head-high rights. Such beautiful shape that I thought Flies was channeling the spirit of Threes. Easy take-off, and then head-high wall for about 30 yards, followed by sections all the way to the inside. Really exhilarating and after both rides my teeth were actually chattering due to adrenaline I guess. Everybody in the line-up was like "fantastic wave man!" and I was repositioning myself in my spot, with them staying further down the line. Very odd.
- Toward the end it became crowded an the tide got higher leading to softer and slower waves, so I just paddled back in on a knee-high insider. There were actually about 5 beginners surfing the inside, which I had never seen before.
- Threes, 5:45AM-6:45AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. 15 other people out by the time I got to the break and about 30 when I left. Clarence, Jim and a few other people I know out there.
- waist- to occasional chest-high, not very consistent, super glassy.
- Clearly way too many people and not enough waves. The incoming swell is completely hyped and everybody paddled out. Once in a while a nicely shaped chest-high wave would come through, but only rarely.
- Caught about 5-6 waves on the inside, waist-high, and then opted to paddle back in and go check out Flies.
- Flies, 7:15AM-8:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met Eric and then Jim out there. Between 1 and 5 other people out, including some total beginners
- waist-high, glassy, very inconsistent and weak with the extremely occasional waist-high+ wave.
- Caught about 10 waves. What a huge contrast with Threes, so peaceful in the water, mellow conversations with Eric and Jim. Not enough waves, but at least not stressful. Once again, the forecasted swell is late... who knew?
- Flies, 5:45AM-7:45AM
- on my 8'2''
- By myself. Met Eric and then Jim out there. Up to 15 other people out at the end.
- Glassy, very inconsistent with a 1/2 hour lull at some point, waist-high with a few chest-high sets.
- Caught about 10 waves, mostly rights, with nothing special. It felt good surfing the 8'2''.
- This is the typical lame session, when there is a big swell in the forecast, so everybody comes out, and the swell doesn't deliver. The atmosphere out there was friendly enough, but in spite of one 10-wave set that came through, it was more of a zen meditation and exercise in patience than surfing really. Beautiful morning though. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
- Flies, 5:45AM-7:45AM
- on my 8'2''
- By myself. 3-4 other people out, but no competition for waves to speak of.
- Glassy, waist- to head-high, inconsistent mostly due to the high tide that caused many waves not to break. Getting better as the tide started to drop.
- Caught about 15 waves. Several waist-high insiders that were fun with a decent wall. Nothing too fantastic, but it felt good on my 8'2''.
- I was in position for only a couple of the bigger waves. On the first one I made the drop but didn't keep a high enough line, so at the bottom of the bottom turn I had lost too much speed and the head high wall in front of me closed out. I could perhaps have made that section. On the second one, which was sort of a gnarly close out, I fell backward at the start of the bottom turn, not being used to the speed generated by that board.
- Beautiful glassy morning, but the tide really messed it up. My surfing on the 8'2'' wasn't great. Tomorrow, with even a higher tide, I'll probably take out my 9'6'' or my 9'2'' out.
- Flies, 5:30PM-6:30PM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. 3 other people out.
- Some texture in the water with light winds, waist- to head-high, somewhat consistent but a few 10-minute lulls.
- The tide was high, but the swell was hitting the spot a little bit an so there were several surfable waves. A bit slow, but definitely some size with several slightly overhead peaks. The waves were mostly clean, but with the usual two peaks, making it hard to take of deep and make it to the inside section.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 3-4 really fun head-high rights. A few more mellow inside waves too, all rights.
- I fell on a somewhat critical take-off on a weird twisted head-high wave, but other than that surfing this board was easy. Kind of like surfing a barge at times, but pretty responsive (I put the fin pretty far forward too).
- Beautiful sunset with rainbows. Really nice way to end the day.
- Flies, 5:30AM-8AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. 3-4 other people out, including Eric and Jim, and these guys Garry and Greg whom I had seen before.
- Light winds, waist- to head-high+, not consistent with at some point a 20-minute lull, an somewhat slow waves due to the high tide.
- Caught about 15 waves, including 2-3 _great_ head-high waves that were perfectly lined-up, with clearly overhead peaks on the take-off. On one of them I really had a wonderful ride, with a great bottom turn and then coming back up super close to the lip on a very high line, and then zipping across the face barely making it to the next section. Some guy who was paddling back out saw the whole ride and was going on about it afterwards.
- Overall an odd session, with some great waves coming through but with very long lulls. Eric actually got a phenomenal left unlike any left I'd seen at Flies. Eventually I caught a waist-high+ wave all the way to the stairs. Feeling a bit surfed out at the moment.
- Flies, 6:45AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. 12-15 other people out, including that guy I recently met out there, Justin, and a few of the usual older guys out. Will and Meiko were out there as well.
- waist- to shoulder-high, slow because of the tide, light winds, not consistent.
- This is the tail end of a swell at high tide, so not a recipe for a great session, but still nice waves once in a while. Caught 6-7 waves, with nothing too special for the most part. I felt really low on energy out there though, after really overdoing it last week.
- At some point I passed up on two shoulder-high waves. I was sort of outside, but just felt too tired to struggle to catch them. Besides, everybody else on the inside was already paddling. Turns out nobody caught them because they were just too fat and slow. Finding myself alone in the line-up, this freak head-high single wave just materialized itself right in front of me out of nowhere. I dropped in and had a great ride on a steep wall that held about halfway to the inside. That sealed it and I ended the session, feeling totally exhausted, 10 minutes after that on a nice waist-high right (on which I was dropped in on by this older local guy who was also looking for a last wave in.. no biggy).
- Flies, 4PM-5:30PM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met John, this shortboarder friend of Larry's who comes out to Flies on a SUP, and 3 other people out but not on the peak.
- Glassy at first and then moderately windy later on. Knee- to waist-high, with a few bigger waves. Sort of working for 1/2 hour, and then nothing rideable or close to it.
- Sort of paddled out during an afternoon picnic just to get wet. Although there were no waves for 1h, I paddled out when I started seeing some coming in, and they were on for about 1/2 hour, so it was well-timed. Caught about 10 rides, with 2-3 fun rights that were a bit higher than waist-high and that connected almost all the way to the inside.
- Nice conversation in the water with John about surfing in SD county. Paddled back in after a long lull on a knee-high mushy wave. Beautiful day out there. Tons of kids on the stairs, so pretty difficult to get in and out of the water with the board.
- 1 sea turtle on the outside.
- Threes, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. 10 to 15 people out, including Jim, Doug, his daughter, Steve, Clarence.
- Opted for Threes after checking Flies. Glassy, waist-high+, not super consistent and a bit oddly shaped, but nice waves once in a while, with a couple of shoulder-high ones.
- Caught about 10 rides, nothing fantastic. One left was good though, definitely closer to chest-high than waist-high, really well lined up. Others were right, but I didn't catch any of the few better ones.
- 1 sea turtle in the line-up.
- Files, 6AM-7:15AM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- By myself. Alone for the first 1/2 of the session, and then one shortboarder surfing the inside on a super-vintage, thick, pintail, single-fin, 6'6'' or so.
- Extremely glassy, not consistent, knee-high, one rogue waist-high wave, weak.
- Caught about 15 rides, with most of them really weak on barely-breaking waves. But it was so insanely glassy and beautiful this morning that the whole session was sort of a zen meditative experience. Too bad I felt queasy because I slept very poorly last night. The 9'6'' was _so_ the right choice of board this morning.
- At some point, a darker line appeared on the horizon and as I paddled out this solid waist-high wave rose in front of me. I dropped in and it was just nice and completely lined-up, allowing many turns. Definitely the wave of the day, although last week that would have been a wave I wouldn't even have paddled for.
- The shortboarder on the inside, perhaps 40-something, was completely amazing. Really stylish even in these crappy inside waves. On one take-off he actually got covered briefly, and his turns were just beautiful. Watching him surf in real waves would be quite something. This is really what separates great surfers from the rest, the ability to look great and effortless even in lame conditions. For instance, I tried some cross-stepping today, but the waves were just a bit too weak and I had a hard time. He, on the other hand, started riding waves backwards on the board, switching stance, all that on crappy insiders, taking off in the white water.
- Flies, 5:30PM-6:30PM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- By myself. Alone out there.
- knee- to waist-high, really, really inconsistent and weak with about 10% of waves breaking. I just paddled out for the hell of it since I was on the shore hanging out anyway.
- Caught 5 waves, with only one really one, waist-high on the peak and somewhat lined up. There were only 3 such waves during the whole session.
- Completely magical sunset.
- Flies, 8:30AM-10:30AM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- With Eric and Tracy, who had to leave early to go to work.
- knee- to waist-high, really inconsistent and weak, but beautiful morning. I was going to paddle just for 1/2 hour but since Eric was there we stayed out quite a bit, just talking in the line-up.
- Caught about 20 waves, with only a couple of decent rights. On this board I was able to ride quite a few waves that never actually broke.
- Rode on all the way to the inside by the rocks and realized there is a weird coral head, or perhaps piece of a boat, about 10 yards from the rocks that is just under the surface at low tide. Good thing one almost never rides all the way there and that by then the wave is pretty weak.
- A very pleasant session overall, with more talking than surfing.
- Flies, 5:30PM-6:30PM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- By myself. Nobody out.
- knee-high, not consistent, light winds.
- I was just on the beach to re-wax my 9'6'' whose wax dates from when Jeff owned the board and surfed it, so probably 3 years old.
- So, since I was there I paddled out into the sunset.
- Caught about 7-8 waves, including a nice thigh-high lined-up wave right at the beginning of the "session". Amazing vibe and sunset.
- As I was getting out of the water, some local Hawaiian guy was like "No waves brah. just got wet?" to which I said "yeah. just a paddle". To which he replied "Aloha". Total local moment.
- Flies, 8AM-9:15AM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- By myself, alone initially, and then up to 8 other people out including Rob and Larry.
- knee- to shoulder-high, very inconsistent, glassy, then windy, then rainy, then glassy again.
- Very odd session. I paddled out when it seemed very small and there was nobody out, so I opted for no leash. Then of course it got bigger and people came out.
- Caught about 5-6 waves, with 3 really fun above waist-high waves, especially one caught under a pretty heavy rain.
- Right when Larry and Rob paddled out we had a 25-minute lull.
- Caught a shoulder-high close-out to end the session and stupidly lost the board in the white. Larry caught it on the inside and I paddled in.
- The session was odd due to the conditions, but also because there were low-flying fighter jets constantly over our heads, practicing for tonight's air show in Waikiki. Apparently some police jetski had come in the line-up at Flies earlier to chase surfers away.
- Flies, 5:30PM-6:30PM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself, 10-15 other people out including Justin.
- shoulder- to head-high, somewhat consistent, light winds, not super well lined-up but super fun take-offs.
- Sort of a surprise late session in pretty good conditions in spite of the high tide. I had taken my 9'6'' but the 9'2'' would've been a better choice.
- Caught about 8 waves, with 4 or 5 head-high rights with great take-offs on overhead peaks, then a short ride. I never caught one of the few that lined up well with a makable inside section, but still super fun short rides to be had.
- Another beautiful sunset.
- Flies, 6:30AM-8AM
- on my 8'2''
- By myself, 3-4 other people out including Larry and Rob for a short while and Eric.
- waist- to head-high, very inconsistent, pseudo-glassy.
- I was expecting much better based on last night's session, and I took my 8'2'', which turned out to not be a good choice as a longer board would have been better.
- Caught about 10 waves, most of the bigger ones not well lined up and closing out, waist- to shoulder-high. I had one screaming take-off on a peak that was easily 1ft overhead, but I had no place to go so after the drop and a 10-yard ride I had to bail.
- All-in-all not an unpleasant session, but quite anti-climactic compared to expectations. I've been surfing longer boards lately, so some of my take-offs on my 8'2'' were a bit shaky, getting better and better toward the end of the session. In particular, that take-off on that bigger wave was actually nice and smooth.
- Flies, 6:30AM-8AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself, 2-3 other people out at first, and up to 10 at the end, including Carl, and Justin and Garry at the end.
- chest-high drops and waist-high walls most of the time, but infrequent head-high sets coming in, long lulls at times, high tide and so a bit fat and slow, glassy.
- Great choice to take a longboard and surf the high tide conditions given how it was clear that crowds were showing up for the lower tides.
- Caught about 15 waves, including many pretty fun take-offs. Not many lined up well, but at least the inside reform was very makable and allowed a safe return to the channel.
- Took off on a couple of bigger head-high waves, which was nice. My best ride was probably on a lined-up waist-high wave that I rode all the way to the rocks.
- I was showering after the session and looking at the line-up when that 2-feet overhead outside broke, with everybody in the impact zone. On the next set, that older kneeboarder guy dropped in pretty outrageously on a shortboarder on the inside. They almost collided, then hit the soup, and the kneeboard flew up in the shortboarder's face. He was able to block it with his arms but it was pretty horrid.
- Flies, 5:30PM-6:30PM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself, nobody out.
- waist-high, light winds, sort of junky and weird, but some waves to catch on a longboard.
- Caught about 15 waves, we 2 fun really lined up ones with a nice reform on the inside.
- Many of the waves sort of closed out, whenever they were bigger than the average waist-high ones, but it was still fun to take off and see what would happen.
- Sort of an impromptu session, on the spur of the moment. Pretty pleasant sunset, although it took a while for me to catch the last wave in and I was starting to be a bit concerned shark-wise. ha. ha. ha?
- Flies, 6:30AM-8AM
- on my 9'2''
- With Eric. Jim and 2 other people out, and later on Patrick.
- waist-high to head-high, windy, not consistent, odd and junky but a few nice ones coming.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a few nice ones all the way to the channel. Eric caught the wave of the day, a perfect right, overhead, peeling perfectly all the way to the channel. He ended up basically at the stairs.
- I ate it on a couple of late take-offs on head-high peaks mostly due to my board being blown off the wave by the howling winds toward the end of the session.
- I was super tired and stressed out by all the house buying insanity, all the excitement at work with my visitor from France, and all the hospital visits. So it was great to get wet finally, but my thoughts were a bit elsewhere for the whole session. My last wave was very good, with a nice wall and makable sections. I decided to end this session on a high note.
- Flies, 7AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. From 4 to 1 other person out.
- knee-high, kind of choppy, high frequency, pretty terrible.
- Caught 10 "waves" and paddled in after that.
- It was good to get wet but there were expectations of a swell, which obviously didn't deliver. I think that the angle was wrong for Flies, but I can't imagine it being that good at the other spots. Perhaps Diamond Head, but it must have been very messy there.
- Flies, 7AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. Essentially alone.
- waist-high, light winds, extremely inconsistent
- Just paddled out after a completely exhausting week. Lulls of 20 minutes at a time, and then 3-wave sets in the waist-high range.
- Caught 4-5 waves, with the last two sort of decent I guess.
- Nothing to write home about, but stunning sunset and so great to be back in the water.
- At the end some shortboarder paddled out just to get wet. We talked a bit about the spot, whose name he didn't even know.
- Flies, 9:30AM-11:15AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Eric and Tracy, and then Larry and Rob
- Waist-high, light winds, really inconsistent with pretty long lulls.
- Caught about 10 waves, with nothing really good at all. I had one chance on a nice wave but I got too ahead of myself with excitement and fell off for no good reason at all.
- The session was rather social, it was sunny, rainy, sunny, cloudy, rainy, etc. Beautiful clear water.
- Flies, 8AM-9:15AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. Met Eric, Jim, that guy Molokai out there. 2 other people out.
- waist- to head-high, extremely inconsistent, light winds.
- Right when I paddled out after almost 2 weeks without surfing, this nice head-high set came. I dropped in very late on a semi-close-out, which in retrospect wasn't the best way to get back in surfing after being sick for a while. Ate it. That was by far the best set of the session, which was sort of too bad. Then I caught 3 waist-high waves that were actually sort of decent. But longs were lasting forever, and everybody expected a repeat of that first set. But it never came.
- At the end I was joking with Molokai that we'd have to paddle in, and he looked at me like I was insane: "Paddle in??? NO WAY!". Eventually I caught a nice insider that I rode all the way in. Almost didn't make it as I was arching on the board forever before I could actually get up. By the time I was done with my shower, Molokai was still bobbing out there.
- Completely exhausted and out of shape after this session. It's going to be a while before I recover...
- Threes and Paradise, 6AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. Met Jim, Will, Eric, and Ron in the line-up. 4-5 other people out at Paradise.
- waist-high with a few chest-high peaks at Paradise, glassy.
- First paddled out to Threes (which is a long paddle after a month with very little surfing). Caught a few waves there but the rising tide was killing it, so we all moved over to Paradise.
- Paradise was typical. Mostly a peak and a few lined-up waves, some big sets on the outside that became nothing on the inside, an tiny bumps that jack up on the inside. Jim, Eric, and I were surfing the inside, while Ron was outside with a few other guys.
- Caught about 15 waves, with 2-3 surprisingly fun insiders with a fun take-off and some wall. Did quite a bit of cross-stepping today somehow.
- It was great to be back in the water on such a beautiful glassy morning. As Eric said: "It was really fun for a no-wave-day".
- Rainbows, 8AM-9:45AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met Eric and Jim in the line-up. from 2 to 10 other people out.
- Glassy, waist- to chest-high, very peaky and inconsistent as expected at Rainbows
- Caught about 25 waves, with a few fun ones, mostly short rides though.
- I was amazingly out of shape and I really need to get back into a decent work out regimen.
- Amazingly beautiful morning, with great views of the coast and crystal clear waters. One of those rare windless morning on the Windward side.
- Flies, 8AM-9AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. Met Eric, and these two guys Ron and Mike out. Nobody else out.
- Glassy at first and moderate winds at the end, waist- to chest-high peaks, getting less and less consistent as the session went on.
- Caught about 15 waves, with 2 or 3 super fun ones with bigger than average peaks and a nice lined-up wall.
- Overall a pretty nice session, although the conditions kept deteriorating. By the time Eric and I got out of the water, it was pretty much over. Just glad I caught it at the right time.
- Pops, Threes, 6AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. Met Eric, Jim, and Ron at Threes. Doug was paddling around on his SUP.
- waist-high at Pops, knee-high at Threes, pseudo-glassy, not very consistent but a beautiful morning.
- Caught about 8 waves at Pops, with a couple of fun ones, and then paddled all the way over to Threes, where I caught about 10 much smaller waves.
- Canoes, 10:30PM-11:30PM
- on my 9'6''
- With Larry and Jane. At first about 5 other people out at our peak, and then nobody.
- Glassy, knee- to waist-high, clean, not very consistent.
- First night session in Waikiki, and it was a blast. Caught about 20 waves, with 5 very fun rights.
- Such a peaceful, soulful experience. Fro now own I am definitely going to do one night session every full moon. Tonight Pops looked like it was very consistent... I am wondering how sketchy it would be to paddle out all the way there at night.
- There were about 10 people at Queens, and 10 people at the main Canoes break. Night Waikiki surfing is clearly popular.
- Larry was on fire, catching all the best waves somehow. Good night vision?
- Flies, 8:30AM-10:00AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. Nobody out but for the last 15 minutes.
- Bumpy, not consistent, sort of windy, waist- to shoulder-high.
- Caught about 25 waves, with 2 or 3 fun shoulder-high walls that were semi lined up.
- Overall a pretty good call, with the dropping tide and nobody out. Surprisingly nice waves coming once in a while, but also many short rides on waves that would dissolve into a twisted mess.
- Flies, 9:30AM-11:30AM
- on my 8'2''
- With Larry. 4-5 people out at first, including a 8-9 year old kid on a tiny 4 foot something board.
- waist- to shoulder-high, windy and choppy, not very consistent. Getting better as the tide went out, but nothing much for the last 1/2 hour.
- Caught about 20 waves, with 2-3 fun ones. It was good to surf my 8'2'' and experience the difference with the long(er) boards. I also tried Larry's 8' board which paddles really well and is more of an egg-like thing. Very different from my 8'2'' which felt like a short board by comparison.
- Some of my take-offs on my 8'2'' were really good, and some were really lame. I still have a hard time taking off in the pocket, but overall I was pretty pleased with the way I went from the huge 9'6'' to the much smaller 8'2'' in one day.
- Overall a slightly disappointing session because I had higher expectations based on yesterday session, but overall a good time. We stayed out quite a bit and were quite exhausted afterwards.
- Flies, 7:30AM-9:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. 1-2 other people out, including that guy from South Africa I have talked to several times in the past.
- waist- to shoulder-high, a bit choppy and windy, very inconsistent and often not breaking due to the super high tide.
- I knew the tide was way too high but I decided to paddle out this morning after waking up much later than I intended. I met Eric in the parking lot who told me that the tide was killing it, but I paddled out anyway.
- Caught about 15 waves, with all of them ending with a whimper due to the tide and sort of tough to get into.
- Only 3 bigger sets came, and I was never in position, which got kind of annoying; still nice to see the waves though.
- At the end I decided to wait for a big nice one to end the session, and it never came. It was a super long wait and I ended up catching a semi-decent right in the end. I should definitely have paddled in, but I am told that's terrible karma.
- Threes, 7AM-8:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met both Jims out there, later one 2 SUPers and 1 shortboarder.
- waist-high, pseudo glassy, kind of inconsistent and slow with the rising tide.
- Caught about 20 waves, including 3 very nicely lined-up waist-high ones that were typical Threes perfection. Had the tide been a tad lower they would really have been great in spite of being only in the waist-high range.
- Although at first it seems like it was going to be knee-high at best, after Jim paddled in, every 15 minutes a nice waist-high set would come through.
- These two SUPers paddled out, one very loud haole guy but very good, teaching that other local-looking guy. They didn't really take any waves, but the super loud teaching got for of annoying. Still a pretty good vibe out there.
- I felt a tad bad because I cherry picked all the best waves. The other Jim is quite old and was never in position on the outside, and that Japanese tourist on his potato chip was just not at the right spot, especially given the tide. So I basically sat on the outside and caught the best waves. Oh well.
- I did one nice noseride.
- Overall a pretty nice session with a great vibe and little perfect waves once in a while. Beautiful weather with a full double rainbow for 1/2 hour.
- Threes, 6:15AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. Met both Jims, Mitch, and later Clarence in the line-up. 2-3 other people out on and off.
- waist- to chest-high, pseudo glassy, perfect shape, not super consistent but a nice set every 10 minutes.
- Caught about 15 waves, including 3-4 very, very nice rights with a beautiful wall allowing many maneuvers and accelerations down the line. Even did some nice cross-stepping, but my leash got stuck in between my toes and wrapped around my ankles, preventing me from reaching the nose.
- It was a great vibe in the water, with everybody knowing each other and plenty of waves, beautiful weather although initially there was a horrible squall with heavy rain.
- My last wave was probably the best of the bunch, I can't really say it was phenomenal because it was only chest-high, but it was just plain great Three's perfection, with a smooth vertical wall hat held for about 80 yards. What a nice session to begin the month of November.
- Tomorrow the swell should get bigger and I'll probably opt for Flies on my 8'2''.
- Flies, 6:15AM-7:30AM
- on my 8'2''
- By myself. Met Eric in the line-up. Nobody else out.
- Glassy, waist-high with a few bigger sets, extremely inconsistent with very long lulls without any white water in sight anywhere.
- I guess everybody's expectations were shattered today as the swell didn't show, and if anything size dropped since yesterday. This and the high tide made for a session at the beginning of which I though I would perhaps not catch a single wave on this board.
- In the end I caught about 10 waves, with nothing really good, but at least I was far from shut out. As usual, some of my take-offs were good, and some really sucked.
- It was a gorgeous sunny morning, and for the first time I was wearing a hat, which I bought last night. Sort of dorky, but it felt really comfortable and I think I'm sold on that idea. Now, on a couple of take-offs the hat sort of hindered my vision and on one of them I fell clearly because of the hat. So it's going to take some getting used to. But it's worth it given how killer the sun is even early in the morning. Eric was cracking jokes about the fact that I looked like Gilligan, but I ignored him and later berated him for not having a "hat of power" like mine.
- Flies, 6:15AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Alone for 20 minutes, 5 other people out by the time I called it quit.
- Glassy, waist-high with a few bigger sets, a tad more consistent than yesterday, a tad more size than yesterday, therefore nothing to write home about.
- Caught about 7-8 waves, with a couple of semi-decent short rights, but mostly waves were slow and hardly breaking.
- I guess this swell's never hitting. When I showed up in the morning I saw surfers leaving the parking lot in droves, which wasn't a good sign. I went to check it and it looked inconsistent but I saw one rideable set and I figured that I'd be almost alone so it was worth it.
- As I paddled out a nice chest-high set showed up. I managed to hop on the shoulder of the last wave of the set halfway down the line, which turned out to be the best set/wave of the day. It went downhill from there.
- I lost my hat on a couple waves due to the speed, showing that I really need to tie it down at all times. Good thing it floats.
- We'll see what tomorrow holds, but so far this swell has been all hype. Today was supposed to be a high surf advisory. right.
- Flies, 6:45AM-8AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Nobody out. Eric was there but didn't dare paddle out and some other guy apparently was there but didn't make it to the line-up!
- Waist-high to a couple feet overhead, all over the place and messy, but no wind this early in the morning.
- I showed up and saw Eric's car but no sign of him. I paddled out figuring out it'd be a good workout.
- The conditions were so strange all over (amazingly there were overhead waves closing out over the entire area from Kewalo to Point Panic, even in the channel!), that the paddling out route was completely changed. You had to go around the spot close to the harbor and then paddle all the way back to the line-up. It took about 15 minutes to get out, which wasn't so bad.
- I caught a left immediately, and paddled back out. It was a bit sketchy, but I felt fine. I caught a right that was a major close-out and made it almost back to the jetty. I saw Eric at the top of the stairs and got out of the water to talk to him. Basically he didn't want to face the paddle out and the sketchy conditions out there, and after talking to him for 5 minutes I paddled back out.
- This last paddle out was quite something, I'd say more than 20 minutes, but nothing too horrible I guess. It just felt like I was out in the middle of the ocean. After paddling all the way from from the harbor mouth almost (I don't think I ever paddled that far West at Flies, I actually had trouble getting my bearings using the landmarks on the shore for 1 second) I attempted two sketchy take-offs on two overhead waves. On the first one I ate it due to some horrible step in the wave that sent me flying up in the air. I went down and deep, but luckily emerged pretty much where I had been as opposed to in the impact zone. On the second take-off, which was on a bigger wave (clearly 2ft overhead, but perhaps more), I _almost_ made it, but after zipping down the face for 10 yards the wave completely close-out on me and I had to dive off the board. I went super deep and both my feet got entangled in the leash. I had to dolphin kick my way back up and was fine, but all of a sudden very drained.
- At that point, I decided to call it quit and I caught a smaller shoulder-high wave all the way in. This is where I saw those two guys on top of the stairs. One of them had tried to paddled out at Point Panic, but a clean-up set basically picked him up and carried him 50 yards into the rocks, where his board was dinged. He had to climb up the rocks with his board, which can't have been fun, and came to Flies to check out on his buddy. His buddy, according to Eric, tried to make it out to the line-up at Flies, but just had to give up after 20 minutes of efforts. I was outside the whole time but I never saw him. All of a sudden I felt pretty good about paddling out 3 times in a row and catching 3 waves.
- It was quite an extreme session, but really, I never felt in danger at all. It wasn't that bad, just a lot of paddling. Eric was like: "dude, you're fucking nuts", but I totally disagree. Besides, he was referring to the insane paddling, which I handled well while he's not a super strong paddler. There were no currents either, and no wind. I think what prompted him to say that also was my insanely intense take-off on the 2ft-overhead close-out. I have to say, when I made the drop I felt like I was jumping off a building. I am really happy I made it to my feet though and made that drop. On a day of close-outs like this, you just have to throw yourself over the ledge and eat it, rather than wait for a good corner for 1 hour.
- And yes, I guess it was an extreme session because when I got home, I lied on the bed and slept for 1 hour like a rock, and woke up in a total daze.
- I lost the hat twice after wiping out, but got it right back. Very good thing it floats.
- Flies, 6:30AM-8:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met Eric, Jay, later Jim and Patrick. Two other people out, whose name I don't know, but basically we all knew each other.
- Chest- to head-high, glassy, clean, not super consistent but waves for everybody. About 1/2 the waves were really well-lined up.
- Caught about 20 waves, with 5-6 great rights. Early on in the session I caught a nice head-high one that lined-up all the way in. Then later on I caught another screaming right that barely held but in the end had a vertical wall all the way in. I was hugging that wall on a mid-face line the whole time...quite a rush. On another good wave, only in the chest-high range, I was able to do two very nice high turns and two nice bottom turns. I was quite pleased with myself. I only ate it on one late take-off on a close-out wave.
- I hadn't seen Flies this clean in a long time and of course it was nothing like Monday morning.
- The session had a great vibe. Everybody got waves, everybody laughed and talked. After my screaming right, as I was paddling back, I saw Patrick and Eric split a perfect A-frame, both of them having and outstanding ride. What a day. Beautiful weather an not an ounce of wind on top of it.
- Flies, 7:15AM-8:45AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met Eric in the parking lot as he was on his way out. Met Jim and Patrick out there, plus a couple of shortboarders. Then for most of the session it was just Patrick and I, with the 2 shortboarders not a factor. Later on just me an Kevin out.
- Waist- to chest-high, glassy, clean, less consistent than yesterday and softer, but still good waves to be had.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 2 or 3 really fun rights, all lined up to the inside, with a nice wall.
- Toward the end of the session I was fiddling with my hat on the outside. I am still having some trouble adjusting to surfing with a hat, but the sun is so intense these days that I really don't want to go back to being hatless. Anyway, I look on the horizon and there is this head-high wave that looks like it may hold. I put my hat back on my head and scrambled over that wave as I had seen the shadow of another wave behind it. That one looked better and I dropped in, on a semi-sketchy take-off. At that point, my hat fell in front of my face and got stuck right in front of my eyes as I am taking-off, because I had had no time to latch it on. The hat then gets stuck there due to the speed and I have to reach with my hand to remove it. I basically did the whole head-high take-off completely blind. By the time I removed the hat, I had gone too low on the bottom-turn and the wave was heaving above my head. I had to bail because everything came crashing down. I think it was a makable wave that could have been the wave of the day. Damn you hat. Damn you!
- 1 see turtle on the outside
- Threes, 6:45AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. Met Jim and Eric in the line-up. Nobody else out.
- Waist-high+, messy, light winds, not consistent, some current.
- The session started out really poorly, but around 6:45AM conditions started to clean up a bit and waves started showing more size. Before then I had caught perhaps 4-5 waves that were all twisted and pretty lame but for one. But after this change in conditions I caught about 6 waves that were more than decent. Especially one doubled-up head-high wave that lined up nicely, and my last ride which was about chest-high and lined-up all the way.
- It was really odd to witness the conditions improve so dramatically in the space of 10 minutes, and I was really please with my surfing today too, with nice turns and nice mid-face lines.
- For a session that started with such low expectations, it turned out to be great. I think that also I was pretty lucky wave-wise, as I really seemed to be in position for the best ones out there.
- Flies, 8AM-9:30AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. Met Patrick out there, nobody else out.
- A tad windy, waist-high, very inconsistent but getting a little bit better as the tide dropped.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple fun ones. At one point a shoulder-high set came, and Patrick got a pretty good ride on the first wave while I caught the third one. That was the highlight.
- Overall more fun than expected. On the paddle out there was that pitbull-looking dog in the water, with his owner who was swimming. That dog was on fire, barking his head off and swimming after me as I was paddling out for quite a while. I think he just wanted to play, but it was a bit odd.
- Flies, 7:30AM-9AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Met Eric and later Jim in the line-up.
- Glassy, waist- to head-high, inconsistent and slow due to the high tide, glassy.
- Caught 4-5 waves throughout most of the session with nothing special. My first wave was an outstanding wave but I had just gotten to the line-up and I was too far inside and I ate it on a super-late take-off.
- It wasn't a good session in the sense that I had woken up late after a week without surfing because my sleeping schedule was off all week. I felt super sluggish in the water and by the time I got to the water the tide was too high.
- At the end of the sessions there was a super long lull and I couldn't wait for a last wave to get out of there. Jim was the only one left at that point and he caught a nice but slow waist-high wave. I then turned around as a beautiful head-high slow wave had started forming on the outside. I dropped in. The wave then hacked up and barely held but was lined-up all the way to the inside. I didn't have any options for maneuvers so I just locked in in a super high line and flew all the way in. It made this pretty pitiful session into a great one in the end and I walked away feeling great.
- 1 dolphin on the outside
- Flies, 6:45AM-8:45AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself for 1/2 hour. Met Larry and Rob, and later Eric and his future son-in-law John. Two other people out.
- A bit bumpy, waist- to shoulder-high, not consistent and slow/odd due to the high time.
- Caught about 20 waves, with a couple of fun ones, but I was never in position for the best ones. Many waves sort of petered out due to too much water moving around.
- The first 1/2 hour by myself was really lame, but waves started showing up after Larry and Rob paddled out.
- Nice conversations in the line-up, waves for everybody, nothing great but quite pleasant. A few nice head-high sets but I was never in the right spot for those.
- The 2 "other" people out were there with their entire families watching from the shore. Sort of funny. They didn't catch too many waves.
- Tongs, 8:30AM-10AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Larry and his friend, 4 to 10 other people out
- waist-high+, choppy, windy and not very consistent
- Caught about 5 waves, with a couple decent lefts
- It was nice getting wet at least once before taking off for Europe and after not surfing for almost a month due to too much stuff happening and to lack of waves on the South Shore
- I was definitely out of shape of off my game and fell a couple of times.
- About 10 dolphins on the outside going from Waikiki to DH