- Chasm, 4PM-5:30PM
- on Kathy's 8'2''
- With Dario, about 20 people out
- waist-high with a few chest-high sets, not breaking as usual. Caught 3 waves, with a couple of sort of fun rights. We were sitting a little bit South of the main peak, but it was very difficult to see where to position oneself today.
- Completely out of shape. On the first paddle for a wave I thought I actually had tweaked something in my neck.
- Overall a nice little session to get back into surfing, with decent weather although it looked incredibly foggy from the road.
- There was a huge seal on the beach, alive but barely moving. Not sure if it was sick or just sleeping.
- Getting to the parking lot in the dark, cold evening wasn't the most pleasant experience.
- Chasm, 6:30AM-8:30AM
- on Kathy's 8'2''
- With Dario, Travis, Art and Allister, only 1 other guy out at our peak
- chest- to head-high, but oddly shaped and difficult to get into, with the occasional head-high+ outside set that nobody was ever even close to.
- Caught 4-5 waves, with a decent left. Nothing too special, except my being totally out of shape of course. Really amazing. Toward the end of the session I was basically exhausted, and so was Travis who hadn't surfed in many months. Dario wasn't in the best shape either. It was a bit pathetic.
- The walk back to the trail was interesting with the tide a bit high. We had to put our leashes back on and paddle around that pointe in a mix of backwash and incoming waves. It brought me back to that session with Travis on May 21 2005.
- Paradise, 6AM-7:15AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself, nobody out.
- ankle- to knee-high, very weak and inconsistent. Glassy at first and rather windy at the end.
- I had to paddle out after coming back to Hawai`i, in spite of almost no waves and a slightly high tide. Not surprisingly there was almost nobody out, but for 2 guys at Pops. The water was much colder than I've ever really seen it and I was glad that I was wearing my neoprene tank top under my rashguard!
- Caught 5-6 waves, with only one waist-high wave that resembled a wave. Great workout though, with quite a bit of paddling around.
- Paradise, 6:30AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- By myself, nobody out. 10 people at Pops including 2-3 SUPs that were catching rides all the way to the beach. One paddleboarder paddled through.
- knee-high, weak and inconsistent but a bit better than yesterday. Glassy and then windier, but less so than yesterday.
- Caught about 15 waves. There was a 1/2 hours when waves were coming in rather regularly. Pops had better shape and longer rides, but had the usual crew of older guys on 12ft boards, so I just hung out at Paradise. Initially I thought it would be completely flat and I was going to paddle around for the workout in an effort to get back in shape. But given that there was something out there I ended up spending the whole session at Paradise.
- Not sure what's going on but it's definitely colder than usual in Hawai`i this winter. Walking back to the car an feeling cold is definitely a new experience.
- Threes, 6:15AM-7:15AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself, up to 15 people out at the end including Jim, Eric, Clarence, Doug, etc.
- waist- to chest-high, glassy, not very consistent but nice sets coming in once in a while. Oddly the inside section was sort of closing out a bit.
- Caught about 10 waves, with nothing great. I missed two great sets. One because it was too dark to see it coming, the other one because I was just paddling back from a crappy ride.
- I didn't surf well at all today but still had fun. It was good to see everybody again and all.
- 1 sea turtle 20ft from the beach.
- Flies, 7:45AM-9:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- With Tom. 2-3 people out, including Jay and then Patrick.
- Waist-high with a few higher sets coming in. Not very consistent and quite a bit of texture in the water.
- Caught about 20 waves, with 3-4 fun rights that lined up nicely.
- Overall a fun session. One of those when you leave the session feeling like the conditions weren't good but surprised at how fun it was. Amazing full double rainbow as well.
- Flies, 11AM-12PM
- on my 9'2'', no leash
- By myself. Nobody out (1 guy paddling in as I was paddling out, and 2 girls paddling out while I was paddling in)
- Knee- to waist-high, really inconsistent and windy.
- Pretty much terrible conditions but I paddled out just for the workout. Only 3 nice sets came in and I caught only one of them for a decent ride. I caught perhaps 10 waves total. It was a great workout because the wind was consistently blowing me towards Ewa and I pretty much paddled non-stop for 1 hour.
- Tongs, 8AM-9AM
- on my 9'2''
- With Tom, 2-3 other people out.
- Knee- to waist-high, inconsistent and windy, even rainy at times.
- Caught about 10 waves with only 2 sort of fun.
- Tom was totally gung-ho to go surfing this morning, so I abided. There was a guy paddling back in as I was setting up and we talked a bit about my Stewart. He said it was better than it looked out there, but it sort of wasn't :)
- Sort of a ridiculous session, but oddly fun once again.
- Haleiwa, 7:30AM-9:30AM
- on my 8'2''
- With Patrick, 10 to 20 other people out.
- waist- to head-high, moderate winds, not consistent, fat and very difficult to get into waves.
- This first North Shore session of the year (and only 2nd overall!) really was sort of a letdown (although it's always fun to be out in the water, etc.). Waves were very odd and very difficult to get into. The only guy who had a decent session was an old crusty on his 11ft board. I would have been much better off with my 9'6''. Initially during the session a great head-high set came through, but that was pretty much the only nice set.
- Caught 3 waves, with really nothing good. A fast right that closed out almost immediately, a bumpy waist-high left, and my last right to come in but that also closed out.
- Never have I paddled for waves so much in a session and ridden so few. I was shut out for an hour, but so was pretty much everybody else. Many guys paddled out, stayed for 45 minutes, didn't ride a wave, and just went in. Furthermore, there were reports of other spots that didn't look good either. I guess just a bad morning to be out there. Oh well. next time.
- Several turtles in the line-up.
- Canoes, 9:30PM-10:45PM
- on my 9'2''
- with Larry, nobody out but for a guy with a head light for 5 minutes.
- knee to almost waist-high, not super consistent but better towards the end of the session.
- Caught about 8-10 waves, with 3 nice lefts that kept going forever. Larry got a lot of those. At the beginning of the session, right as we paddled out, a nice set cam along, but then almost nothing for 1/2 hour before it started working again.
- As usual, the night surfing experience is quite magical and tonight the skies were clear with a full moon, which made it all the better.
- Flies, 11AM-12:30PM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- with Larry, nobody out but for one guy for 10 minutes and one guy at the end as we were paddling in.
- waist- to occasional chest-high, with sometimes even slightly bigger on the peak, not very nicely shaped and a bit windy, but definitely fun waves coming through.
- Really serendipitous session. Larry came down to the lanai and told me that he was going to check out Flies just to get wet. The expectation was that there would be absolutely no waves. It was such a great surprise to show up there to see white water and sets coming in!
- Caught about 15 waves, with a few really fun rights. Pretty out of shape after a long time without surfing and right after a yoga lesson, but really fun. I blew a couple of nicely shaped waves and took a little bit more time than usual to get back to the line up. Leashes wouldn't have been such a bad idea actually.
- Queens, 6:15AM-7:15AM
- on my 9'2''
- with Larry, nobody out at first in the dark, and at the end about 15 other people out.
- waist-high, glassy, not very consistent but nice waves coming through once in a while.
- Caught 4 waves, with 2 nice one. The first one was my first wave, caught in the dark, and I ended up losing it after a couple of turns because I just couldn't see it. The second one was toward the end of the session, and I caught it while being outside of the pack. A nicely shaped waist-high wave with a long nice wall. Pretty lucky.
- I had never surfed Queens before, and the wave is really nice. The problem is that the take-off area is pretty small and the crowd becomes a problem. Although the vibe was mellow, I had to back off quite a few times to give people the right-of-way.
- Paradise, 6:15AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'6''
- paddled out with Eric. Later showed up Jim, Clarence, Ron, Yvette and her friend
- waist- to chest-high, glassy, a bit weak with only a few waves having a wall (only the rights were working).
- Caught about 15 waves, with 5 outstanding walled up chest-high waves. I don't know what was going on but I had amazing good wave karma today. Everybody was complaining that I always seemed to find myself right on the peak for the best set waves, again and again. Two of these rights especially were outstanding (for a day with supposedly no swell!!), with a nice wall to get on high lines, then setup for a bottom turn, and again, all the way to the inside. The others were weakening after the first couple of sections. I can't remember a session with all those guys out during which I caught so many more nice waves than they did. They were jokingly pissed off and kept asking me to go home. Eric was telling me it was because I wasn't wearing the hat! It just seemed that they would always all scramble to catch the last wave of the set, but there was always another much better a little bit after the set, for which I was just perfectly positioned and alone, with everybody watching me ride it as they were paddling back.
- Amazing how Paradise delivered on a day when Threes was basically not working as far as we could tell (Mitch and Nathan were out there though).
- A lot of talking and laughing in the line-up, beautiful rainbow while paddling back in. Nice way to start the day.
- Flies, 5PM-6PM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself, 4 other people out.
- knee- to waist-high+, not very consistent and sort of weak.
- Caught about 15 waves, with a couple of fun ones that were clearly above waist-high. Felt exhausted in the line-up, after 5 days being sick with that stomach flu that has been going around. But I felt pretty good after getting out of the water.
- Nice sunset at the end.
- Flies, 7AM-8AM
- on my 9'2'', no leash
- With Eric, nobody else out.
- knee- to waist-high, weak and very inconsistent, glassy.
- Caught about 10 waves, with nothing special and most of them simply dying on the inside. A couple of decent sets came through, but this swell is definitely over.
- 1 Seal toward the harbor
- Threes, 6:30AM-7:20AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Alone for 1/2 hour, then 8 people out including Doug and his daughter and friends, and Paula who moved back to Hawai`i after 1.5 years in Germany! Clarence as well.
- knee- to waist- with the very occasional higher peak, glassy, pseudo-consistent, but sort of weird and weak.
- Caught about 20 waves, with one very fun lined-up right above waist-high, and a couple of others.
- Nice talking to Doug and Paula as I hadn't seen him in a while and her in over a year obviously.
- Paddled in early to go to class, and put quarters in Doug's park-meter so that he could stay out until 9. He leaves quarters on the roof of his car and that way any time somebody goes in he just asks them to feed the meter.
- Canoes, 9:45PM-11PM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- With Larry, and 5 of his friends with 2 of them on bodyboards. 3 other guys out. Many people with glowsticks.
- waist-high, glassy, sort of consistent with just a 15-minute lull halfway through the session.
- Caught about 15 waves with 2 or 3 really nice solid waist-high rights
- Really nice session, with a beautiful moon out. The inside was a bit of an obstacle course with Larry's friends there, but nothing too bad.
- I felt sort of bad for the 3 guys out who were in the line-up before we paddled out. As we were showing up they were lighting up a joint out there and we sort of killed their vibe.
- At the end of the session Larry and his posse went out for a beer while I went home directly bringing both our boards back to the house.
- Flies, 11:30PM-12:30PM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- By myself. One other guy out for 1/2 hour.
- Ankle- to knee-high, very weak and at times hardly breaking. Super glassy and amazingly clear water.
- Decided to go at low tide just in case the swell that's supposed to hit this morning started to show an figuring out that at low tide there would be something anyway. Turned out that there were a few occasional waves, but nothing to really write about. Stood up 10 times with only a couple of real waves. Enjoyed the beautiful day and afterwards went for a bagel to the bakery on Cooke.
- Rainbows, 11:30PM-1:45PM
- on my 9'2'', no leash
- With Eric. Nobody out but one SUP beginner for 1/2 hour.
- Ankle- to knee-high, with the very occasional waist-high wave. Pretty weak but breaking. At times glassy, at times choppy.
- I started the morning checking Flies which had size but was completely blown out by Kona winds. I called Eric to find out about Rainbows and turns out I had just missed him by 5 minutes at Flies and he was headed to the North Shore. I went back home super fast, packed a bunch of stuff, and engaged pursuit. Met him and Tracy at Left Overs, which was terrible. Sunset was even worse. So we went to Rainbows. It was tiny but we just felt like paddling out. Tracy opted out, so it was only Eric and I.
- I must have caught 40 waves. It was a huge workout actually as always when trying to ride everything that moves. Absolutely stunning views from the line-up with Chinaman's Hat, the valley in the back. Really soulful session.
- Paddled in and then I took Eric to his house under heavy rain. I ended up staying there for lunch eating Saimin that his wife made and some sandwiches on his deck looking out to the ocean as the weather had cleared up. After that I went to visit Jen and Red, and finally dinner at Guylaine's, back at home at 11PM. A pretty long day overall.
- Flies, 6:40AM-7:40AM
- on my 9'2''
- With Eric. Justin was out and one other guy. A third guy paddled out as Justin went in.
- Glassy, waist- to head-high, a bit odd and quite a few closeouts, but also some very nice waves coming through. Conditions deteriorated throughout the session.
- Caught about 6 waves, with a couple of very nice head-high peaks and shoulder high walls that held until the usual close-out section. That section was actually easy to go around and it was possible on most waves to reconnect to the shoulder on the inside reform. My surfing wasn't great today, but it was overall a pretty fun session. Not sure how long this swell's going to last, but it looked like it was fading pretty fast.
- On one head-high+ close-out I was hugging the wall and ended up diving through the wall right before it closed out on me. Eric on the inside was jokingly saying afterward: dude, you got almost barreled.
- Flies, 6:30AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'2''
- With Eric and Justin. up to 9 people out at some point including Carl, Patrick, and that guy from South Africa whose name I can never recall.
- waist- to shoulder-high, glassy, bigger waves coming in but closing out.
- Caught about 15 waves, including 3-4 outstanding chest-high waves that were perfectly lined up with series of fast sections. I surfed much better than yesterday and had a great time.
- Threes, 6:30AM-7:40AM
- on my 9'2''
- With Larry, Eric, and Steve. Up to about 15 other people out including Nathan and Clarence.
- solid waist-high with a few bigger waves in the chest-high range, glassy, really clean and organized if not super consistent.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of a very, very nice lined-up rights. Tried a left but as often it was closing out pretty fast.
- The swell definitely backed down throughout the session, and tomorrow may be really small. But today was really fun and it was nice to witness some Threes perfection. Amazingly beautiful day today with not a cloud in the sky.
- Kammies, 12PM-2PM
- on my 8'2''
- With Larry. 5-8 other people out.
- waist-high with a few bigger waves, very inconsistent with extremely long lulls, light winds.
- Caught about 8 waves, with a couple of fun ones.
- Once again, off to the North Shore and pretty lame conditions. Still had fun thought. A couple of waves were fun. On one wave Larry and I were paddling for it and although it looked like it was going to be a mellow ride, the wave jacked up suddenly and we both completely ate it (I even lost my hat). On the last nice wave that I attempted, after a pretty decent take off, I simply wasn't ready for the speed and I fell backward in the wall. Pretty lame. It was kind of amazing how even on a day that was sort of day, knee-high ripples would jack up an create pretty steep and powerful peaks.
- Rainbows, 8AM-9:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- with Tom. Nobody out.
- ankle- to knee-high, super glassy.
- Caught about 10 waves. Nothing to write home about.
- Super mellow soulful session, with amazing weather and views of the coast. Chilled on the beach for a little bit afterwards.
- Threes, 6:15AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. Up to 20 people out including Eric, Jim, Nathan, Mitch, Steve.
- Glassy, knee- to waist-, sort of weak and inconsistent, but fun insiders and a few (very rare) nice outsiders.
- Due to yet another "swell hype", many people paddled out today and there were clearly not enough wave. But it was very social, with groups of people talking on the outside.
- Caught about 15 waves, all small insiders, but with a few of them sort of hollow and fun somehow.
- Just a mellow, if very social session really.
- Flies, 5PM-6:30PM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- With Geoff, nobody else out
- waist-high+, a bit choppy and windy, bumpy, not very consistent but definite sets coming in.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of really fun ones in spite of the bumps.
- Beautiful sunset. Geoff was just off the plane and it was good simply being in the water.
- Flies, 4:45PM-6:30PM
- on my 9'6''
- with Geoff. 5-6 other people out.
- waist-high+, extremely inconsistent and choppy, quite a bit of wind, overall quite lame.
- Caught about 10 waves, with the first one by far the best one. Very bumpy faces.
- At least there was a rainbow and a nice sunset.
- Queens, Canoes, 9:30PM-10:30PM
- on my 9'2''
- with Larry, 9-10 people out
- knee- to waist-high, glassy, not super consistent.
- Another moonlight surfing session. We started at Queens and I caught about 5 waves there, but very quickly the crowd began becoming way too much, with about 15 people out, some of them very loud. On our last waves there we had to swerve between so many people that we called it quit and paddled over to Canoes.
- Initially at Canoes there we only a few people out, but we soon were about 10, with several from Queens who had paddled over. Caught about 5-6 waves there, including a very nice left.
- Overall, still pretty fun. Mental note though: no moonlight surfing before a day off.
- Flies, 9:30AM-11AM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- By myself, 6 other people out. A Japanese couple taking pictures, and 4 people who could barely surf and who were taking picture too.
- Knee-high, inconsistent and a bit bumpy.
- Caught about 15 waves, with nothing worth talking about really.
- Just decided to get wet. I took my goggles with me and did a bit of swimming as well.
- Threes, 6:15AM-7:40AM
- on my 9'6'' and 9'2''
- With Dario. Only old Jim out at first, and then 4-5 people including Ron.
- Knee-high, choppy, inconsistent, and overall pretty lame.
- Dario and I switched boards halfway through the session.
- Caught maybe 10 waves, with nothing to report. Pretty short rides.
- Not the best session for the first day of Dario's visit, but nice to get wet and see the sun rise.
- Threes, 11AM-1:15PM
- on my 9'6''
- With Dario (on my 8'2''). between 4 and 8 people out.
- knee- to waist-, windy, very inconsistent and not very organized.
- Another pretty lame session in terms of wave quality, since the supposed South swell hasn't arrived yet. Only 2-3 waves looked remotely like Threes.
- Caught about 15 waves, with 2 that were fun and smooth.
- Some guy paddled out on a longboard wearing a snorkel and surfing with it. He wanted to check out the fish and surf. He was pretty good actually and caught the wave of the day.
- Threes, 6AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'2''
- With Dario (on my 8'2''). Jim out, and later 2 other guys.
- Knee- to waist-high, choppy, disorganized, pretty weird, but getting cleaner and bigger as time went on, with one of two nice waist-high+ that, at last, looked like Threes.
- Caught about 15 waves, with a few bumpy ones at first. I caught a great one at the end, with a nice smooth wall. Dario caught a couple of decent ones, especially toward the end.
- Great conversation in the line-up with Jim. We had to get in around 8 and we went to check Flies, but it wasn't breaking yet. Hopefully tomorrow when that swell finally arrives.
- Right Overs, 7AM-8:45AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Dario (on my 8'2''). From 5 to 20 other people out, including SUPs
- Head-high to 2ft-overhead, glassy, super clean and smooth
- We opted for a North Shore session and it completely paid off. We ended up surfing Right Overs because Left Overs was sort of owned by shortboarders. Had never surfed Right Overs before. That wave is slow, but with this size it was super fun and amazingly clean. The take-offs were so smooth it was incredible. I can't remember gliding into such big waves with such ease. It sort of blew our minds. Besides, the morning was glorious with the view of the mountains and the beach. Quite the experience.
- Caught 10+ waves, with incredible long smooth rights. It had been a long time since I had dropped on such big waves and the feeling was incredible.
- Both Dario and I were completely stoked and ecstatic. The vibe in the crowd was super friendly, with SUP riders hooting us into waves (?!?@#). We talked a bit to a lady there who seemed to be a regular fixture in the line-up. At some point some guy on an SUP complimented me on my board. After I told him I had bought it for very cheap he gave me a double shaka and said "Scooooore". It was so friendly out there is was crazy. At the end of the session I asked him the best way to get back in actually.
- It was an absolutely amazing session. I was so calm and relaxed through the whole thing it was weird. I don't know. One would think that after surfing waist-high South shore for a while I'd be sketched out by 8ft faces... odd.
- 1 big turtle on the inside.
- Flies, 12PM-1PM
- on my 9'6''
- With Dario (on my 8'2''). One lady out with her nephew.
- Waist-high, not very clean or consistent and getting windier by the minute.
- Caught about 10 waves, with nothing special. We tried to score two nice sessions in the same day, but it didn't quite happen. A few waves were sort of more lined up and one bigger set came, perhaps foreshadowing the South swell to come.
- That lady was surfing pretty well, but the amusing thing is that although she was supposed to teach her nephew, she was just saying: "yeah, he's on the inside, I can't see what he's doing, it's so hard to teach people", and she kept riding wave after wave. It was pretty hilarious really. And I am totally with her on this.
- Left Overs, 6:30AM-8AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Dario (on my 8'2''). Started with nobody out and about 15 people out toward the end
- waist- to head-high, super clean and glassy.
- We paddled out the first ones to the spot. Due to the decrease in size Right Over wasn't working.
- Caught about 10 waves, mostly lefts, with none of the bigger ones but a few fun shoulder-high ones. Dario, on his first wave, got a screaming left that blew his mind, which was pretty cool. He however noted that the inside was super shallow and sketchy.
- The vibe was pretty friendly out there. The lady from yesterday paddled out. Turns out her name's Debbie. She's really friendly and gave us tons of information regarding the spot. We talked to her again once by the cars and she explained us how to paddled to and handle Alligators, which was really nice. She actually built one of the houses on the shore right by Left Overs, but now she lives across the street. Quite amazing.
- A local shortboarder paddled out at some point, with an incredibly mean expression on his face. He looked like a total serial killer. We were a bit sketched out. I mean, if people told me to try to look like I wanted to murder somebody I couldn't muster a face one tenth as scary as his. Everybody else was super mellow though.
- A whale was rolling around outside the line-up, which was pretty cool. Saw another sea turtle as well while paddling out.
- On my last wave, I caught that shoulder-high left that was pretty fun, and, somehow, I rode it too far in. I had sort of forgotten Dario's warning about the inside, and I suddenly found myself in 2ft of water. I kicked out, but the board didn't make it over the wave (luckily I did). I was then in white water, with my feet on the coral bottom. Not too cool but no harm done. When I got back on my board I saw a ding on the nose. Quite severe but highly fixable. After struggling to paddle back out for 5 minutes I realized I was tired and that it was time to go in. I was sort of stuck by the shelf on the inside anyway, so I simply got in right by the shelf in deep water. I took pictures from the car until Dario showed up. He was a bit concerned because he never saw me go in, but all was well.
- Flies, 12:30PM-2PM
- on my 9'2''
- With Dario (on my 8'2'') and Larry. About 10 people out.
- Waist-high, higher on the peak with a few walls approaching chest-high once in a while. A bit windy and choppy, somewhat consistent.
- The session started in pretty lame conditions, but things picked up instantly and a few good sets came. The waves weren't really breaking as usual. Dario initially was complaining that it made little sense to be her given how lame it was, and in the space of 5 minutes he got completely giddy because he caught two fantastic waves after the conditions turned for the better.
- Caught 20+ waves, with a couple of fun rights. On one of them Larry was on the inside and was able to take a picture of me, which was cool.
- A really, really surprisingly fun session out there. Quite a nice day of surfing.
- After the session we went to pick up my new table and then completely CRASHED. This Spring Break is turning into a crazy surfathon.
- Threes, 6:15AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'2''
- With Dario (on my 8'2''). About 10 other people out including all the usual suspects.
- Waist-high with the occasional bigger wave, glassy (although the wind started toward the end), not very clean or consistent but decent.
- Caught about 15 waves, with a couple of fun rights.
- My right arm was very tired today after the surfing insanity of the past few days, and today's definitely a one-session day.
- At the beginning of the session, when only 4 of us were out, there was a seal right in the line-up. It caught a fish and seemed to have lost it. Then it caught a morey eel and was eating it halfway out of water. It was quite impressive. One one wave Jim pulled out because he was going to drop in on the seal! It was really close to us and only swam away when a few other people showed up.
- Flies, 6:15AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'2''
- With Dario (on my 8'2''). 3 other people out and a bodyboarder.
- Waist-high, inconsistent and very weak, light winds.
- Once again conditions on the South Shore (or at least at Flies) were quite disappointing. Very weak also it got marginally better as the session went on.
- Caught about 15 waves, with 3 or 4 of them surprisingly fun in spite of it all. Beautiful sunset.
- Flies, 7:45AM-9AM
- on my 9'2''
- With Dario (on my 8'2''). 2 other guys out for 3/4 of the session.
- Waist-high+ with shoulder- to head-high peaks, not super consistent or organized, especially as the wind increased in strength throughout the session, but definitely waves coming through.
- After driving all the way to the North Shore and finding it rather ugly, we drove back to Flies in desperation.
- Caught about 20 waves, with 3-4 ones fun and lined up. There were still more close-outs than usual, but we manage to drop in quite a few fun ones. In particular, our last waves in were pretty good, Dario's being his best South Shore wave so far. Toward the end of the session, I caught a very clean waist-high wave that was completely glassed out. It's always odd how in the middle of wind and mixed up conditions, there are always a few waves that manage to reach to quality level.
- Threes, 6:15AM-8:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- With Dario (on my 8'2''), 4-6 other people out including Jim, Ron, and old Jim.
- Waist-high, not consistent, windy at times and glassy at times, with the very occasional super clean chest-high 2-wave sets coming in
- Caught about 20 waves, including 3 or 4 clean right-handers that worked very nicely, but overall not a very remarkable session. Great conversation with Jim in the water though.
- Last session of Dario's Hawaiian vacation!
- Rainbows, 8:30AM-9:30AM
- on my 9'2''
- By myself. Nobody else out.
- Waist- to head-high, a total mess, victory at sea, and high winds at the end.
- Got up too late this morning and the forecast said that the winds would be light in the morning. So I drove to rainbows. When I got there the conditions looked messy but the winds were indeed very light. So I paddled out for the experience and the workout. The conditions were very much victory at sea, with tons of peaks everywhere.
- Caught 5 waves, with a couple of fun and sketchy drops. But of course the wall was a complete mess. There was no way to line up on anything. Just wait, and when a peak show up 5 yards in front of you, just turn and drop in. There were no currents though, which was good because I was completely alone out there.
- After about 40 minutes the wind started howling, pretty much all of a sudden. The sky got all dark and it was time to go in. I caught some white water in. By the time I got to the beach the wind had become a gale. I had a very hard time putting my board back into the bag and putting the whole thing on my car. I had to hang on to everything at all times. Part of me always likes these ridiculous sessions. Afterwards, drove to Down to Earth in Kailua for breakfast and 2 hours of Italian study.
- Flies, 4:30PM-6PM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- By myself. Two guys out, a shortboarder and a guy on a 12ft tandem board.
- Waist- to chest-high, not very consistent or very clean, and pretty weak due to the tide, but a few bigger sets cam through.
- Caught about 20 waves, with 3 or 4 nice ones with fun and at times sketchy take-offs. Lost my board twice.
- I just had to get in the water in these times of crappy waves before being off to Miami for a week tomorrow.
- Flies, 2:30PM-4PM
- on my 9'6''
- With Larry. Started with 2 people out and about 8 out the end.
- Waist- to chest-high, not super consistent but getting better and bigger as time went on. Moderate winds.
- Caught about 15 waves, with 2 or 3 fun rights. Especially one toward the end of the session when I happened to be outside in the right spot to catch a nicely lined-up right.
- Nice to be able to get wet one last time just before flying out to Miami.
- Flies, 7:30AM-9AM
- on my 9'6''
- by myself, from 5 to 10 people out, including Molokai and Justin.
- waist- to chest-high, pretty consistent but for a 20-minute lull at the tide change, light winds.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 2 really nice, really lined-up, juicy rights with a nice wall. Pretty much the two waves of the day out there. After the second one I just went in because I really felt I had gotten my share of waves for the morning. I missed a very nice one that I just couldn't get into. Really great to be back in the water after being stuck in downtown Miami for a week.
- When I got back to the car Eric had left a note on my windshield telling me they were off to Left-Overs. But I just couldn't make due to other things I had to do today. Perhaps I'll go there Tuesday morning.
- Flies, 6AM-7:15AM
- on my 9'6''
- by myself, alone but for one other guy in the last 10 minutes.
- waist-high+ with a few chest-high waves coming through. Not very consistent, light winds, sort of a weird cross swell.
- Caught about 20 waves, with 4-5 really, really fun ones. Those were barely holding, in the chest-high range, with fast but makable sessions provided I kept a high line. Since I was by myself I basically could ride all the best waves, which was nice. A couple of these waves I was able to make only because I know the spot pretty well I think.
- Threes, 5:45AM-7:15AM
- on my 9'6''
- with Jim and his friend from the Big Island, Chuck. Up to 4-5 other people out including Mitch and Ron.
- Knee- to waist-high, weak, glassy, not very consistent and sort of dropping in size as the session went on
- Caught about 20 waves, with nothing really exciting although the super glassy conditions made it a bit magical.
- Great conversations in the line-up with Jim and Chuck. Chuck's a musician on the Big Island and he actually won a Grammy. We talked about how surfing's different on the Big Island, which was quite interesting.
- One spinner dolphin on the outside.
- waist-high+ with a few chest-high waves coming through. Not very
- Flies, 7:30AM-9AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. Starting with 4-5 people out, only 1 other guy out for 1/2 hour, and then by myself for 1/2 hour.
- waist-high, glassy, a bit weak, but very nicely shaped.
- Caught about 20 waves. Nothing to write home about, but just very beautiful our there. Should probably have gone to the North Shore, but I woke up too late after hanging out in Kaneohe last night.
- Flies, 6:30AM-8AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Larry. Between 4 and 6 other people out.
- waist-high, glassy, a bit weaker than yesterday and not as clean.
- Caught about 15 waves. Nothing special but a couple of fun ones that had a little bit of punch on the inside. A pretty beautiful morning.
- A spinner dolphin on the outside.
- Flies, 6AM-8AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Eric. up to 7 other people out including Justin, Jim and Molokai later on.
- Waist- to head-high, a bit oddly shaped due to the angle of the swell, with waves getting harder to catch as the session went on. Many close outs but the occasionally nicely holding ones.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 2 really fun and pretty intense head-high rights. On the first one the wall was very steep but held almost all the way in. Justin was right on the shoulder on that one. The second one closed out after the second section and swallowed me whole. I was held down quite a bit and came back up right in the impact zone of two head-high waves. Clearly a bit drained of energy after that.
- After the first 45 minutes the conditions changed and made it harder to catch waves. A couple of head-high+ sets came in though. Caught a semi-closing out small one in and called it a day. Tomorrow's supposed to be bigger.
- Flies, 6AM-8AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Justin. Met Rick and Eric in the line-up, and a shortboarder at the end. Jim paddled out as I was paddling in.
- Chest- to a couple of feet overhead, with a few bigger clean up sets coming through. Glassy at first, then windy, then glassy again.
- Better conditions than yesterday I'd say, although there were still many close-outs. Caught a total of perhaps 10 waves. The paddle back was pretty long due to waves closing out in the head-high range in the channel during sets, but nothing too terrible.
- On my first wave I struggled to make it down the face (it was perhaps 1ft overhead) and I ended up taking off too late. My bottom turn was just too fast and I did a face plant into the face, thus going over the falls. I was held down quite a bit and got another one on the head. Not a great start for the session. But in the end I had about 3-4 waves that were great, with quite a rush on the take off, and a nice fast section before the close-out.
- Toward the end of the session Eric shouted me into a wave that turned out to be probably the best one of the session.
- Overall a pretty good session, which was quite a workout. It wasn't as sketchy as I had thought it would be given the surf forecast. Spots like Threes were probably on fire, but probably crowded as hell. May go there tomorrow though... we'll see.
- Flies, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Eric. Met Rick, Justin, and later Jim. 2-3 other people out.
- Waist- to shoulder-high with a few bigger sets once in a while that mostly closed out. Light winds. Not very consistent, especially when compared to yesterday.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 2 or 3 fun small ones that held a nice shape almost to the inside. Made a few fun drops into close-outs, especially right as the beginning of the session when there seemed to be more size. On one of those I pulled off a late take-off that I couldn't have pulled off a year ago I think. Nothing special in terms of the wave, but still very pleasant. I am really getting to liking that 9'6''.
- I felt pretty tired today, in spite of the paddle back not being too bad. I paddled in kind of early and probably will skip tomorrow, but we'll see.
- Flies, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 8'2''
- With Eric. Met Justin, Jay and 4-5 other people out.
- Waist- to head-high with a few bigger clean-up sets once in a while. Light winds. Not very consistent.
- Caught 8 waves, with a couple of fun ones. It was a bit of a challenge today with my 8'2'', also because I felt a bit surfed out. But I really enjoy several of my take-offs and I don't think I did too badly on that board.
- I had a pretty spectacular wipe-out. A head-high+ wave sort of jacked up right in front of me and since the guys on the outside didn't go for it and tried the famous "turn and burn". I think it was makable, but I was just a bit out of my league and I fell in front of the board. The board then went over the falls, and then I did. I ended up pretty deep, with the leash tangled around my legs. I eventually came up and was fine. Justin saw the whole thing from the inside and he was impressed.
- Today in fact, since I was sitting further inside, I took a few waves on the head in the impact zone of the bigger sets. Clearly would've caught more waves on my 9'6'', but still a good experience being there on the 8'2''. The paddles back out were sort of grueling at times, or I guess just long waiting for multi-set waves to pass.
- I got out of the water sort of early to make it to my Italian class, but also because I was simply exhausted.
- There was a boat stranded on the reef at Kewalo. Pretty big fishing boat actually. Quite amazing.
- Flies, 2PM-3PM
- on my 9'6''
- with Larry, 2-3 people out and 5 bodyboarders, all involved in a contest.
- waist-high, pretty inconsistent and weak due in part to the rising tide, pretty windy and more so toward the end of the session.
- It was pretty funny. Larry and I paddled out there wondering what was up with the bodyboarders. We each caught a wave right in the middle of them, and at some point heard a horn. In retrospect, the rashguards all of different colors should have tipped us off! Anyway, there was that bodyboarding contest going on, with a tent on the shore, etc. So we stayed at a reasonable distance. That contest was pretty sad due to the poor conditions. It could have been better in the morning with the low tide though (there was a longboarding part to the contest as well).
- Caught only 4-5 waves, but including 2 fun ones that held decently well and were above waist-high with somewhat of a wall. Those were far in between though due to the tide.
- After another heat ended (the conditions were so poor it was actually difficult to keep track of when heats were going on or not), and we paddled in, making our way through the crowd of kids playing on the stairs as usual.
- Flies, 8AM-10AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. from 1 to 3 other people out, including Larry and Jane.
- Knee- to waist-high, with a few bigger waves once in a while. Sort of junky and weak, but still some waves to ride. Weather all over the place, from light winds, to strong winds, to rain, the sunny and glassy.
- Caught about 20 waves, with a few fun ones but rather short rides. Nice to be back in the water after a week. Didn't surf all last week mostly because I was off my sleeping schedule.
- Saw a 1.5ft shark in a wave right in front of me.
- Paradise, 6:15AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. Met Jim and Eric out, plus one other guy on a kayak-board hybrid.
- Waist-high, clean, peaky of course, glassy or light winds.
- Pretty fun out there in spite of the lack of size. Threes wasn't breaking at all, so I opted to join Eric and Jim at Paradise as I showed up a bit late. Nice conversations in the water, small fun waves lefts and rights.
- I came in a bit early and walked all the way back to the Ala Wai where I had parked my car.
- Paradise, 5:55AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. Joined later by Eric. Nobody else out.
- Knee-high, extremely glassy and weak.
- Not as fun as yesterday by a large margin, with tiny waves. But beautiful morning with rare glassiness.
- Caught about 20 waves, with a couple of tiny but beautiful ones. Short rides though.
- It was very shallow on the inside and after a ride I felt my fin hitting the bottom. And in fact, after a long ride to the inside, Eric snapped his fin pin and had to take his fin off. Luckily it was at the end of the session and we just paddled in. Eric actually stood up on a wave finless, but I missed it.
- Left Overs, 6:15AM-8AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Eric. Up to 8 other people out.
- chest- to head-high, glassy, not very clean, long lulls, but some nice waves coming through.
- Caught 3-4 very lame fading waves and then a decent one at the end. It really wasn't my day today as I felt slow and sluggish. Probably not enough sleep. I kept not being able to make it down the face of the wave while Eric was catching quite a few good ones. On my last wave, which was a tad overhead, I finally made the drop. I sort of faltered a bit midface and recovered. Not a great ride but a decent wave, and it was getting crowded, so I just called it quit. Had a nice breakfast at the coffee gallery and went back to town.
- Flies, 6:15AM-8AM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- With Larry and later Conrad.
- Waist-high at best, inconsistent, light winds.
- Caught 10 waves, with only one or two real rides.
- Extremely nice to get back in the water after nearly 3 months off. Not terribly out of shape but definitely not surfing well, constantly off a little bit. It's almost nice that the waves weren't good because this morning I'd definitely have wasted good waves. So a pretty good way to get back into it. And yes, as expected, my return to Hawaii coincides with the end of the swell. Should be picking up in a few days.
- Threes, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. Met Jim in the line-up and later Sam, that guy from the UK who comes to Hawaii once in a while.
- Knee- to waist-high, inconsistent, choppy, windy, and getting much worse as the tide came in
- Caught about 10 'waves"
- Pretty terrible out there although it was nice chatting with Jim after so many weeks off island. Not too out of shape actually, which is really good.
- Flies, 6:15AM-8AM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- With Larry and later Conrad.
- Waist-high at best, inconsistent, light winds.
- Flies, 6AM-7:15AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Larry and Rob. Up to 4 other people out.
- Waist-high with bigger peaks at times, long lulls, sort of windy especially halfway through the session with a squall (that created a nice rainbow for the second half of the session).
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of decent ones. Unfortunately the tide was getting too high too quickly and sort of killed it. One very niche chest-high wave came through but we were all too far inside to catch it.
- Flies, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself, met Jay and Rob out, plus 2 other guys.
- waist-high with occasional chest-high waves, not very consistent, not very clean on average, light to medium winds.
- Caught about 15 waves, with a couple of very fun ones in the chest-high range. Today was a bit odd, but every 10 minutes or so there would be a decent wave coming through. In particular I had a really well lined-up one that went all the way in and on which I was constantly in the pocket. Rob, who was on the inside, after the fact was like: "wow, you were smoking on that one".
- At the end of his session Jay got the wave of the day, and I went in about 20 minutes after that, on a measly wave, completely exhausted. By that time the tide was killing it and hardly anything worthwhile was breaking. Overall a pseudo-decent day out there.
- Flies, 10AM-11:30AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Larry, up to 8 other people out including Molokai.
- chest-high, coming down in size as the tide came in, windy, but some nice sets coming through.
- Caught 2 nice chest-high+ rights, and then conditions starting deteriorating, with only 5-6 waves that were either not well lined-up or weaker.
- A pretty nice session to get back into things after being sick for one week. Felt pretty sluggish out there. Should be better tomorrow.
- Flies, 7:15AM-8:45AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Larry, Eddy, and Benjamin. Only Eric out there.
- waist- to chest-high, light to moderate winds, not very consistent, especially toward the end of the session, but nice sets coming through with many waves lined-up to the inside.
- Caught perhaps 15 waves, with 2 or 3 very good rights. Toward the end of the session I blew a take-off on a very nice wave, but luckily I managed to catch another good one to end the session on a high note.
- It was Eddy's third time out on the surfboard and Benjamin's first! After spending a little bit of time in the line-up they ended up toward the left on the inside. Both seemed to have had a great time.
- It was nice seeing Eric after all this time off the islands.
- Threes, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. 7-8 other people out, including Jim, Clarence, Ron, Eric, Doug, Ann, a guy on an SUP.
- waist-high with a few bigger sets, light winds, not very consistent and a bit oddly shaped, but as usual a few nice looking sets coming through.
- Caught about 15 waves, with 2-3 decent rights and a couple of lefts.
- Nice conversations in the water. Talked to Doug about my book that just got published an for which he helped me with the art for the cover.
- Flies, 1PM-2:30PM
- on my 9'6''
- With Larry. Nobody else out but 3 guys at the very end of the session.
- knee- to waist-high with a few bigger waves, almost completely killed by the tide, light winds.
- Very hard to get into waves as many were hardly breaking. Got to my feet perhaps 20 times, but only 3-4 times were on real waves. A couple of bigger nicer waves cam through but Larry and I were almost always too far inside.
- Pretty lame conditions but still nice to be out. If the tide had been a foot lower it could really have been decent.
- Flies, 10:30AM-11:45AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. up to 7 other people out, but 5 of them were pretty much total beginners hanging out on the left.
- waist-high, very inconsistent, light to moderate winds.
- Pretty lame out there really. Caught 2 waves in the first 1/2 hour and really nothing to write home about. However, at one point, there were some shadows on the horizon and I paddled a bit further out. Lo and behold, that beautiful chest-high wave came in. I dropped in and the wall was absolutely perfect, completely open. I had a great ride, series of bottom-turns and going up to a high line to make the faster sections. Some guy on the inside after the fact told me he'd been here all morning and this was only the 2nd time such a wave came through. Nobody caught the one before, I could tell he was jealous telling me I caught the wave of the day. I should really have gone home after this. Instead I spent 1/2 hour waiting for another wave, and another chest-high one came in, but this time a close out. I made the drop, and then rode the white water all the way in.
- So, overall very lame condition, but hard to be displeased after such a good wave. Felt pretty sluggish out there after so long without surfing due to that pesky sinus infection I've been dragging for weeks.
- Flies, 6:15AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- With Larry and Eric, nobody out for a long time, then 2 guys out and Carl at the end.
- waist-high, with a few chest-high peaks coming through. Glassy. Definitely a swell, but expectedly killed by the very high tide.
- It was very slow today but with some waves. Caught about 10 waves, with several that sort of petered out quickly. But there were a couple of good ones. In particular there was a chest-high set that came through, I did a classic turn-and-burn and made a rather dicey takeoff. Pretty happy about that one, especially giving the no leash situation.
- Larry was surfing his shortboard, and in spite of the high tide caught quite a few waves really.
- Absolutely great being back in the water and in decent shape, nice conversations, good vibe. May paddle back out today when the tide's lower.
- Flies, 5PM-6:30PM
- on my 9'6''
- With Eric. About 30 people out, including Molokai and Justin.
- chest- to waist-high, with a few head-high sets, glassy, very inconsistent, with bigger sets only occasional.
- Never seen it this crowded, but that's what a great swell forecast (of course completely optimistic) will do to an afternoon session. Luckily people were quite spread out, so it wasn't as bad as it sounds.
- Caught 5-6 waves, with nothing really to write about. The bigger sets were hard to get and often closing out. Made a couple of take-offs on bigger waves, but they were close-outs. Otherwise surfed smaller waist-high waves further inside.
- No matter what, it was good getting in the water at the end of a long day.
- Flies, 5:30AM-7:15AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Justin. From 10 to 15 people out, including Eric, Jay, and Larry.
- waist- to overhead, not consistent, not particularly well shaped with quite a bit of texture in the water, but a few impressive sets coming in.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of nicely holding above waist-high ones, a couple of semi-close out overhead ones. In particular, during one of the 2 or 3 overhead sets (each set had 5-6 waves), I dropped in on a clearly overhead steep semi-close out one. I made the first super fast section, and eventually had to bail through the wall. It was quite a rush. Apparently Justin and Eric on the inside where hooting their asses off and said afterward it was quite something to behold, giving me points for grit. They couldn't believe I dropped in on that thing. That wave sort of took it out of me a little bit, it was really intense. After that I took it easy and ended the session early to go in, get into work quickly before flying out to Maui for that team-marathon thing.
- So the conditions weren't as good as they could've been, and it was a bit crowded, but overall a really fun session. I feel really tired and drained off energy as I type this, which is probably a good sign.
- Flies, 6AM-7AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Larry. Up to 10 people out at the end, including Eric, Justin, Conrad.
- waist- to chest-high+, a couple of bigger sets. Very glassy, but an odd angle, with several close-outs after a first very fun section.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of very fun ones that took me all the way in to the jetty, in particular my last wave. Took the biggest set on the head early on in the session. Overall a very fun session with fun take-offs and a few really good sections.
- Apparently the weekend was huge but a bit stormy. Flies wasn't holding it at all though, expectedly. Justin went to Tongs, and he said that it was pretty big and getting better when some guy yelled "shark!". It was mass hysteria, as everybody paddled in. Apparently there was a boogie-boarder trailing everybody who was freaking out. Then a few old timers showed up and paddled out anyway, saying that they see the shark all the time. Justin was kicking himself for going in given how nice it was.
- Flies, 5:45AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Eric and Justin. Up to 10 people out including Carl and Patrick.
- waist- to chest-high. Glassy. Not very consistent.
- The swell had backed off compared to yesterday and wasn't as consistent, with less size. But the waves were more lined up and there were some very clean sets coming through once in a while.
- Caught about 15 waves, including 2 or 3 long lined up chest-high rights that were really fun, if perhaps a tad slow.
- At one point, paddling back, one of those eel-looking fish got stuck between me and my board. Sort of freaked me out when I felt it wiggle, but it was able to swim away quite fast.
- Beautiful rainbow
- Threes, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Eric. Up to 10 people out, including Clarence, Jim, Ron, Terry.
- waist-high with a few chest-high sets coming in. Very glassy and clean. Not super consistent with long waits at times.
- Caught about 15 waves, including 2 or 3 absolutely perfect chest-high, or a little bit less, with nice open walls, and many smaller insiders.
- At some point, after a long lull, I spotted a shadow on the horizon. I turned around and I only saw Clarence trying to gingerly make his way outside. I paddled out and it turned out that the wave was really coming my way. Dropped in, looked behind and saw Clarence in the white, had a beautiful ride with such a nice wall. Turns out Clarence had tried to go left, but some guy was also going left, so he opted for the right too late. He was trying to be nice and let me have it I guess, although I was in the better spot to begin with. Definitely the wave of the day. Eric said that from the inside it looked just fantastic. Even on the tail end of the swell I guess there are still some good waves to be had.
- Nice conversation in the water. There was a very old guy out there, didn't quite catch his name (Greg?), and everybody said you had to give him a wide berth because he'll just drop in, wipe out, no matter where, no matter how big. Ron calls him Mr. McGoo.
- Seemed like there was a boat on fire on the horizon.
- Flies, 6:15AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- With Larry and Rob. Nobody out.
- Knee- to waist-high, glassy, very weak and inconsistent.
- Caught about 7 waves, nothing to write home about really; beautiful morning though.
- It was good being in the water after 2 weeks off due to illness, too much work, and my dad and mom both being in the hospital.
- Flies, 6:15AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- With Larry and Conrad.
- Knee- to waist-high, glassy, very weak and even more inconsistent than yesterday.
- Caught 6-7 waves, with most of them weaker than yesterday. But, one solitary waist-high+ lined-up all the way to the inside came through, and luckily I was on it. Pretty good ride really, and very odd given the morning's lameness.
- I tried Larry's new (second-hand) 6'6'' fish for a bit. Of course given the wave situation it didn't make much sense at all, but at least I got a feel for what it would feel like. Interesting. Still thinking about getting one on and off... we'll see.
- Flies, 6:30AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself, about 6-7 other people out.
- Waist-high+, not very consistent, glassy with light winds at times.
- Still a bit weak but better than yesterday, with a few solid waist-high+ waves coming through.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 3 very fun waist-high+ ones with a nice wall. Others were pretty weak. Still a pretty fun session overall in spite of long lulls.
- Flies, 6:30AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Larry, 6-7 other people out.
- Waist-high, very inconsistent, glassy.
- Surprisingly weaker than yesterday, with no waves for the first 20 minutes whatsoever. Then it sort of picked up with a few decent insiders and the very occasional outside sets. One chest-high set came through but nobody rode any wave. I was outside and almost got into the second wave but it was just a little bit too slow.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 2 decent rights, and 1 fun take-off on an insider that closed out after a steep section.
- Will have to go to Threes this week and see if anything's happening there.
- Threes, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. 6-7 other people out including both Jims, Doug and Dave on SUPs, Ron, Eric.
- Waist-high, not consistent, nicely shaped, with a few bigger sets once in a while including a great one.
- Caught about 15 waves, with a nice chest-high left on one of the few bigger sets, and a couple of smooth rights.
- Great conversation in the water, lots of laughs, definitely making up for the conditions that were nothing to write home about. At some point some girl paddled over, and after talking to (old) Jim paddled over toward Pops. Eric made us all believe that Jim had told her that Threes was over there to clear the line-up. That was hilarious.
- Threes, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- Paddled out with Jim and (younger) Jim. Two of the old guy crew at Pops out at Threes this morning on their humongous boards, and on later, plus that guy who as it turns out bought Jim's old board from a surfshop.
- knee- to waist-high, clean, not consistent at all, light winds.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of very fun solid waist-high+ rights that had very, very nice walls. A bit surprising because overall the conditions weren't anything special.
- Once again great conversations in the water.
- Flies, 10:45AM-12:15AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Larry, one other guy out.
- waist- to chest-high, with a couple of head-high peaks, not very consistent, light winds, and a mix of close-outs and lined-up waves.
- Caught about 15 waves, with one great head-high right that lined up perfectly and brought me all the way in. I was in the pocket the whole time, barely staying ahead of the white water. Made a few fun take-offs on close-outs, taking a high line before bailing or riding the white in. It was an odd session, with long lulls between sets. My last wave as also pretty good and I was able to ride it all the way to inside the little jetty. I don't think I've ever done that before.
- Beautiful weather out there. Overall a fun session with a couple very fun waves.
- Flies, 10AM-11:30AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself, up to 6 other people out, including that nice South African guy with the hat whose name I can never remember.
- waist- to head-high, light winds, long lulls, many close-outs.
- Not the best day out there but some size definitely. Caught about 15 waves, with a couple of lined-up waist-high ones. Almost everything bigger was closing out due to the angle of the swell. Still a few very fun take-offs.
- Flies, 9AM-10:30AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself, up to 7 other people out including Molokai.
- waist- to shoulder-high, with a couple of bigger sets, not very consistent, light to moderate winds.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of nice rights, a couple of exciting take-offs on shoulder-high peaks. It was pretty difficult finding the lined-up ones today.
- At some point this much bigger set (2ft overhead at least) came through. I barely made it past it and everybody behind was annihilated. After that one, it seems that the swell died and there was nothing for 20 minutes with stronger and stronger winds. Eventually I caught a tiny insider back to the stairs.
- As I was showering I was looking at the line-up. A chest-high set came through. Molokai's friend took off deep and starting coming down the line fast toward a close-out section, on a shortboard. Beyond that section that guy dropped in on his massive red longboard. I had seen the guy two days ago. About 50 years old, not surfing well at all, with many botched take-offs. Clearly a beginner. That day I felt a little bit bad because I had perhaps caught too many waves. On the other hand he never seemed in position to catch anything, and when by chance he was he botched the take-offs. Yesterday he was there too, and told me something that I didn't completely understand, something about me catching lots of waves. So I figured he was pissed that I had been a wave hog the day before, which I guess one could say I was. Anyway, today he padded over and started apologizing for being in the way, telling that he'd stay out of the way today, etc. Very odd, but nice. I told him to chill, that the spot was sort of mellow. Anyway, as I am showering I watch him drop on that wave, which is not a problem because he's in front of a close-out section with a nice wall ahead of him on the right. No way he's going to even get close to that other guy, right? Well, he did a very lame take-off, halfway on his knees, and then proceeded to go left, toward the close-out instead of the wall. That's when the collision happened. Basically he got hit in the ankles by the shortboard, both boards T-boned each other. It was a mess. Clearly board damage, and perhaps some injury as well. After a moment of confusion the shortboarder paddled back out. On the one hand I feel that that guy's sort of a menace on a day when the waves are of decent sizes. On the other hand, I felt bad for him that after trying to be nice to "the crew" he causes a major accident. Not sure if we'll see him again. I'd definitely stay away for a while.
- One turtle outside of the line-up.
- Flies, 6AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself, 7-8 other people out, the usual morning weekend crew.
- waist-high+, not consistent, weak and killed by the rising tide, glassy.
- I knew that the tide would be a problem, but given my program today I opted to go out early and try to beat it. Unfortunately it didn't quite work out. I caught 5-6 waves, with nothing special. Although a few bigger sets came through, they were weak and very difficult to get into. I went in pretty early after catching a lame insider.
- Amazing rainbow out.
- Threes, 6AM-7:15AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself, up to 10-12 people out including Jim, old Jim, Ron, Clarence, Mitch, Steve.
- waist- to at times chest-high, not very consistent, pseudo-glassy
- Definitely a case of "too many people out given the conditions". I caught about 5-6 waves, with nothing great at all given that there were many people per waves. Caught a few insiders. I sort of knew it was going to be sort of crowded given the forecast, and I checked Flies in the morning. since Flies looked dead I opted for Threes. Flies it is tomorrow.
- waist-high+, not consistent, weak and killed by the rising tide,
- Flies, 6AM-7:15AM
- on my 9'6''
- By myself. Met Rob and his friend Jim out there. They went in early and I was left with one other guy.
- Knee-high, inconsistent, glassy, killed by the rising tide
- I really thought this was going to ok due to the forecast, what I saw yesterday in Waikiki, and the tide that wasn't supposed to be _too_ high this early. Turns out I was wrong.
- Caught 6 "waves", with only one real ride to the inside. Really, really lame. But somehow, I still think that tomorrow could be good, with a lower tide in the morning. We'll see.
- Flies, 9:30AM-11AM
- on my 9'6''
- With Larry. About 10 people out, quite spread out.
- Waist- to head-high, not consistent, moderate wind.
- Not very nice conditions today, but it was good that I dragged myself out thanks to Larry as I was in need of sinus decongestion.
- Caught about 5 waves, with a couple of decent ones. The bigger ones today would definitely close out. A few fat ones rolled through, and although I was outside I was just too out of shape to catch them.
- All in all a pretty lame session although it was good being back in the water with some size out there. I slept for 3 hours right after the session. That's what a sinus infection will do to you I guess.
- Larry, who surfed the inside mostly, wiped out at the end of a pretty nice wave and his back collided with the fins of his fish, leaving a pretty impressive looking but not deep gash.
- Flies, 6:45AM-8AM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- With Larry. Nobody else out.
- Waist-high, very oddly shaped, with waves backing off, others jacking up. Very hard to say what the actual size was. Glassy at first then light winds. Sometimes flat, sometimes high frequency.
- Caught about 10 waves, including one lined-up one that turned out to be chest-high and pretty nice. Others were pretty short rides, some with fun take-offs.
- First session after coming back from France. First session after the death of my father. Nice to be back in the water especially with such glorious weather.
- Threes, 6:30AM-7:15AM
- on my 9'6''
- Paddled out with Ron. Jim out. Nobody else but Doug paddling through.
- knee-high, super glassy, not consistent.
- Could definitely feel the lack of surfing for the last month as I paddled out all the way to Threes. Beautiful morning, with few waves, sort of odd conditions, but with the occasional nicely shaped waist-high peak.
- The three of us talked a lot because we weren't surfing that much, and at some point we heard a big splash. Ron and I were facing toward the splash and we instantly and clearly saw a big black shape, with a big fin, going down in the water, on its way to the outside, perhaps 25 yards from us. Ron also saw the tail moving sideways with a big wake. 99% sure it was a shark. On the moment I said it looked about 6ft in length, and Ron agreed that it was big. That was perhaps overestimating things a bit. But I would say definitely more than 5 ft. The back of that thing looked quite massive. Ron immediately wanted to paddled in. Jim wasn't too fazed, but of course he hadn't seen it. I was sort of in between. We ended up laughing it off, sort of, and hanging out for another 20 minutes. Doug came by on his SUP and we envied his paddle that can be used as a weapon. At some point I caught a decent wave, and as I was paddling back out I saw that both Jim and Ron had caught one behind mine and were going in. Ron was like "bye bye" as he surfed by, and I thought there was no way I was going to stay by myself. Would be pretty stupid: "yeah, after seeing a big shark, I stayed out alone to catch knee-high waves". So I paddled in, with Jim and Ron waiting for me in the inside laughing at my clear determination for not staying out by myself.
- Beautiful morning though.
- Flies, 3:30PM-5PM
- on my 9'6''
- with Larry, Rob, Jane and later Conrad. Nobody else out.
- waist-high, a bit choppy, but some waves coming through in spite of the pretty strong winds. Getting a bit better with the tide dropping.
- Caught about 20 waves, with a couple of fun ones given how bad the conditions looked initially. Tried Rob's humongous board (4'' thick), and caught a waist-high+ wave with it. Pretty insane. I felt like I was on a runaway train on that thing. Sort of exhilarating but impossible to turn. Especially difficult to turn while sitting on it. No "turn and burn" on that thing that's for sure.
- Flies, 8:30PM-10:30PM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- with Laetitia and Catherine, Fredo's wife and sister. Nobody out.
- waist-high, with a few bigger sets. Pretty choppy but still decently shaped waves. Not too consistent. Moderate winds.
- Caught about 20 waves, with a couple of fun rights, and in particular one that was in the chest-high range and that stayed nicely open. Lost my board once after a failed cross-step on a smaller wave.
- It was Catherine's and Laetitia's first session. Catherine had a difficult time, lacking the upper body strength to truly paddle and fight the current. After about 1 hour she was hopelessly drifting on the inside toward the harbor. So I went over and towed her back to the jetty. I then paddled back out to meet Laetitia who was handling things better in terms of the paddling. Both of them found that swimming and just let the board drag behind them was much less tiring and more efficient than paddling... pretty common for beginners I guess. Laetitia got into some waves but was pretty much always toppled upside down. I believe they both had a decent time.
- Flies, 4:30PM-5:30PM
- on my 9'6'', no leash
- with Larry. Nobody out.
- knee- to waist-high, very weak, a bit choppy.
- Just to get wet. Caught about 10 waves, with very short rides.
- Beautiful afternoon and sunset. A very zen and dreamy session.
- Threes, 6:30AM-7:30AM
- on my 9'6''.
- with Larry. Mitch out, who went to Paradise halfway through the session.
- Knee-high, very weak due the high tide, inconsistent, glassy.
- Caught about 5-6 waves, very short rides. Botched a couple of late take-offs on surprise waves that came through.
- Beautiful sunrise, one turtle on the outside.
- Flies, 3PM-4PM
- on my 9'6'', no leash.
- By myself, nobody out.
- knee-high, mild winds, barely breaking.
- Just felt like going out in the water in spite of the lame conditions.
- Caught 4-5 tiny waves, and other than that just sat on the board watching Diamond Head, paddled around, and relaxed.
- One turtle right by the jetty.
- In Betweens, 4:30PM-5:30PM
- on my 9'6'', no leash.
- By myself, 15-20 people out.
- knee-high to sometimes waist-high, glassy, not consistent.
- After checking Flies, which was flat in spite of the low tide, I went to the Kaiser parking lot to look at In Betweens and decided to paddle out. Very mellow and beautiful session. Caught 6-7 waves, with a couple of long knee-high perfectly glassy ones over the coral. Couldn't ask for a more relaxing experience really. The crowd was on the main peak and I was off to the side with only a few people. A couple of very good longboarders were truly tearing it up in spite of the tiny waves.
- Once back in the parking lot I hung out for 20 minutes watching the sun set. There were two soul-surfer-type guys in the beat up minibus next to me (license plate "SRF WDG") covered in marijuana-themed stickers. Pretty classic.
- Threes, 6:30AM-7:45AM
- on my 9'6'', no leash.
- With Larry. One other guy out for 1/2 hour, then Clarence and Craig paddled out.
- knee-high, glassy, inconsistent, rather weak but still nice quality to the wave.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of decently long smooth ones.
- Craig hadn't surfed in 1 year and this was his first time in the water after that hiatus.
- Stunning sunrise.
- Canoes, 8:30PM-10:15PM
- on my 9'2''
- With Larry and Conrad. Met Dave, a friend of Larry's, on the beach.
- knee- high with a few waist-high peaks, pseudo glassy, very weak and not very consistent. Almost no visible moon due to clouds.
- Caught 20+ waves, nothing very good save one decent right and one decent left. Somehow, in spite of the poor visibility and the very weak waves, I ended up catching a lot of them.