- Threes, 2PM-3:30PM
- On my 9'6'', no leash.
- By myself. One older guy out on and SUP.
- Waist-high, pretty clean and consistent, glassy.
- First session after coming back from freezing Europe where I spent Christmas. Flies wasn't working, and after looking at Rockpiles I figured I wouldn't go in. But as I was going around the Kaiser parking lot a look at Threes convinced me to go. Turns out it was a great "getting back into surfing" session.
- Caught about 15 waves, with a couple of pretty fun rights that were a little bit above waist-high.
- On my 1st wave, a huge multi-colored parrot fish swam under my board. 1 Turtle in the line-up. Definitely good to be back in Hawai`i.
- Queens, 9PM-10:30PM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Larry, Conrad, and a friend of his. Nobody else out.
- Waist-high+, pretty clean and sort of consistent, light winds.
- First night session of the year. Caught about 10 waves, including 2 very fun long rights. I am really out of shape after spending 1 month doing nothing in Europe.
- Queens, 9PM-10:30PM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Larry and Dave. Nobody else out.
- Waist-high, supper glassy and pretty clean, sort of consistent.
- Nice conditions out, nicer than yesterday.
- Caught 10-12 rides, with a couple of fun long rights that were super clean. My paddling is getting less pathetic, which is good.
- At some point during the session Larry saw a big splash in the water on the outside. Sort of spooked us a little bit.
- We note that night visibility in the winter, with the moon over the mountains is definitely not as good as when it's over the horizon.
- Flies, 6:45AM-8AM
- On my 9'6'', no leash.
- With Larry. Nobody else out.
- Waist-high, sort of bumpy, not consistent at all, but a few waves in the middle of the session.
- Following Larry's hard-core optimistic "let's not check conditions before we paddle out", it looked like this could be a no-wave session. But, with help from the dropping tide, we actually had a decent 1/2 hour in the middle of the session, with somewhat consistent waves. The beginning and the end of the session were pretty much dead though.
- Caught about 8 waves. Pretty fun take-offs and then short rides. The waves were oddly challenging today, sort of jacking up more than usual, so that was fun. Rides were nothing special and the shoulder died quickly.
- Great to be in the water for a beginning of the year with so little surfing due to various colds, hurt shoulder, and lack of waves.
- Flies, 6:45AM-8AM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Larry. Justin paddled out, and later Carl. Met Eric in the parking lot after the session.
- Waist-high+, glassy, much more consistent than yesterday, even though there was a lull toward the end of the session.
- Caught about 15 waves, including a pretty intense left with a steep take-off, and a couple of decent rights.
- I had my first wipe-out of the year on a total close-out.
- Some jellyfish in the water, birds picking fish right out of the waves, and a pod of dolphins way outside that we spotted after the session.
- A pretty nice session overall, with super nice weather and conditions.
- Flies, 6:45AM-8AM
- On my 9'6''
- With Larry. up to 8 people out including Justin, Conrad, Eric, Rob
- waist-high+, light wind and rain on and off, not consistent and weakened by the tide that was dropping but was still too high.
- Caught 4-5 waves, with two really nicely shaped and fun rights. I missed several waves because they were just too slow and I couldn't pull in. Justin got the one head-high wave of the day, with a great ride.
- Eric told this hilarious story about the way he "snaked" Jim at Threes. After paddling to the line-up, he went up to Jim and told him that parking on the street was terrible. Jim said "yeah, I got the last spot!" to which Eric replied "what? I didn't see your truck!" Since Jim had parked in an odd spot, Eric thought it hilarious to play a joke on him. Jim immediately caught a wave in and he said afterward that he was worried the whole time about his truck having been towed. Eric just knows how to empty the line-up!
- Very intense rainbows during most of the session, but I was pretty much freezing the whole time. Definitely not ready for California in 2 weeks.
- Flies, 7:45AM-9AM
- On my 9'6''
- By myself. Up to 12 people in the line-up, including Conrad.
- waist- to shoulder-high with a couple of bigger sets, glassy, not super consistent but not bad.
- Decided for a later session today, waiting for the tide to be a bit lower. Met Justin in the parking lot after his session.
- It was a bit too crowded, but not terrible. Caught 10+ waves, with a couple of really nice holding lefts, and a few smaller rights. I didn't really feel like jockeying for position for the bigger rights with 6+ shortboarders on the inside.
- On the bigger set of the day, which was slightly overhead, I was right in the impact zone. It was actually nice to go under a big wave for the first time in a while
- Overall a pretty good session.
- Flies, 4:30PM-6:30PM
- On my 9'6''
- With Larry, Conrad, and Rob. 2-3 other people out, including Justin.
- Light to strong winds, waist-high+, very inconsistent with a 1/2-hour lull halfway through the session.
- Caught about 15 waves, with 3-4 really fun rights, with nice shape. Most waves weren't breaking though. Toward the end of the session a nice set would come every 15 minutes, with absolutely nothing in between.
- I decided to stay out longer and catch a ride with Justin. We waited until the sunset and I was lucky enough to catch one of the rare waves in, to conclude an odd but enjoyable session.
- Flies, 8AM-9:15AM
- On my 9'6''
- By myself. Saw Eric as he was getting out, and Jay left right after I got to the line-up. Alone with Brian for 1h, and then one other person out.
- Waist-high+, glassy, clean, not very consistent.
- Caught about 15 waves, with a couple of really nice rights with nice little walls. Nothing super exciting, but the conditions were just beautiful with bright sun and sheet glass water.
- Light to strong winds, waist-high+, very inconsistent with a 1/2-hour
- Canoes, 8:15PM-8:40PM
- On my 9'6''
- With Larry, Conrad, and Dave. Nobody else out.
- Waist-high+, glassy, sort of consistent, kind of pitching and poor visibility.
- Conrad was telling this story about this morning at Flies were two guys independently saw a big shark in the line-up, only hours after I was there, and how everybody just paddled in.
- Right after getting to the line-up I had 2 wipe outs and 1 reasonable wave, when all of a sudden this huge splash happened about 30 feet from us. Conrad saw a big dorsal fin, and I saw little fish jumping out of the water. Most likely a good size shark hunting! We paddled back to the beach right away, to conclude a super short session.
- Not sure how much night surfing I'll be doing in the near future.
- Flies, 7:15AM-8:30AM
- On my 9'6''
- By myself. Eric and two other people out.
- Waist-high, glassy, not consistent and a bit weak.
- Unlike what the forecast said, it was smaller than yesterday.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of decent rights, but nothing special.
- Sub, Sunset Cliffs, 8AM-9:30AM
- On an 8'6''
- With Dario. 5-6 other people out.
- chest- to head-high, glassy, not very organized wind swell, light wind, and surprisingly not too cold for me.
- Caught 4 waves, with a nice first one and then pretty lame others. First session after 1 month of working/eating in Europe without any physical activities and 10 hours after landing, cold water, with a wetsuit, with different waves, and a different board. Not a recipe for a super successful session, but overall pretty pleasant.
- Beautiful weather, one seal in the line-up briefly.
- Sort of enjoyed the breakfast at People's more than the session :)
- Sub, Sunset Cliffs, 6:30AM-8:15AM
- On an 8'6''
- With Dario and Travis. One other guy out.
- waist- to chest-high, weak and not very consistent wind swell, offshore breeze.
- Super sore today from the session yesterday... aah... the joys of getting back into surfing after one month of sitting around.
- Caught 5-6 waves, with a couple of ok ones but nothing to write home about. Really weak in terms of paddling but at least I wasn't as cold in the water as Travis and Dario.
- After my last wave I got caught in a current on the inside. 10 minutes of admittedly very weak paddling got me nowhere and so I gave up and went in. Overall a pretty pleasant session even though the waves looked better than they actually were.
- In the parking lot, Dario was so tired and his hands were so cold and numb that he couldn't even remove his booties and I had to remove them for him! Insanity. Travis and I laughed our asses off. Nothing like the 1/2 hour parking lot hang out at the cliffs after the session.
- Flies, 5:15PM-6:30PM
- On my 9'6'', no leash.
- With Larry and Rob, nobody else out
- Waist-high, with a couple of bigger sets.
- Weak and very inconsistent, light winds.
- Caught about 5-6 waves, nothing exciting. Very short and weak rides, but for one right that was halfway decent.
- One nice chest-high set came through. I tried to drop in but was a bit too inside. Ended up riding it down on my stomach and bailing at the first opportunity. Really a shame since that was clearly the wave of the day but a huge margin
- Nice to be back in balmy waters after the last two sessions.
- Flies, 6:30AM-7:30AM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Larry, Conrad, Eric. Justin showed up a bit later.
- Waist-high to chest-high, very inconsistent, light winds but pretty smooth.
- There were a few decent sets coming through but somehow I missed them. It seems that I would always paddle for a small one, not catch it, and turn around to see each of the few bigger sets on the outside. In the end caught only two waves, a tiny right, and my last wave which was pretty nice and brought Justin and I all the way to the stairs.
- Nice to be sort of in surfing shape, although this cold I caught in California seems to not ever go away.
- Flies, 6AM-8AM
- On my 9'6'', no leash.
- With Eric on his SUP. Nobody else out.
- knee- to waist-high, pretty weak an inconsistent at times, but still waves coming through.
- When I pulled up to the parking lot, I thought I saw that Eric had taken his board out of the car. So I geared up super fast to go up the hill, expecting good conditions. That's where I found him, and he announced to me that there were no waves. Darn his SUP that was hiding his longboard in his car! He was going to take out his SUP and I decided to paddle out just for kicks after I saw at least one wave break.
- It turned out to be a much better session than I thought. I caught perhaps 15 rideable waves in spite of the grim outlook and it was quite a workout, especially because Eric and I traded boards twice. As a result, I got quite a bit of time on his SUP. Pretty big workout, as expected, and a very different workout. After a short adaptation period I was paddling it OK. I even managed to get into a wave paddling and to ride for 10-15 yards! But that took a lot of effort and by the end of the session, after catching another 4-5 waves on my longboard, I was pretty tired.
- About 20 minutes after we got to the line-up we saw Justin on the shore waving at us and shouting something. At that time I was on Eric's SUP and I thought Justin was just taunting me for going over to the dark side. He was making weird signs I didn't get at all, so after a while I paddled over. Turns out, he had seen a shark in the water just 15 minutes prior, right by the jetty, swimming toward Ala Moana. Not a very big one from what he said. At that point, I debated what to do. But in the end I figured that we know there are sharks, and that the odds of being attacked in broad daylight on a longboards are really low. Besides, in 15 minutes, the Shark could have been easily miles away, and more likely that not there was at least another shark closer that we simply wouldn't even see. So I paddled back out after Justin announced his decision to go back home. It was true enough that the condition were not very compelling, and had I seen the shark with my own eyes I may have done the same. I paddled back out to Eric and he completely didn't care. He's seen quite a few sharks over the years, and a shark seen 15 minutes ago, swimming away, 200 yards from the line-up, is just not something he was going to worry about. I concurred and we ended up having a really pleasant, if tiring, session.
- Flies, 3PM-4:30PM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. 2 other people out.
- Waist-high, extremely inconsistent with very long lulls, pretty weak even on the sets, moderate winds.
- Caught 4-5 waves, with a couple of reasonably fun right sections.
- Just had to get wet after a week of being sick with a sinus infection, but it was hardly worth it given the conditions.
- Flies, 5PM-6:30PM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Larry. About 15 people out, including Brian briefly and Justin.
- Chest to shoulder-high+, very inconsistent, a bit choppy and windy.
- Caught 5 waves, with 1 initial good wave, and then a few close-outs. Pretty frustrating conditions overall, with extremely long lulls and oddly shaped waves.
- Not doing great out there in term of health. Super tired due to the sinus infection, totally upset stomach due to the antibiotics. Should probably have stayed home in retrospect, but Larry was so motivated :)
- One turtle on the outside.
- Flies, 7:15AM-8:15AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. 5-6 people out, including Eric and Justin.
- Chest- to shoulder-high, with a few head-high+ sets. A bit choppy with light winds, and not very consistent.
- Because the swell was South-West, the waves were breaking pretty oddly today, with several lefts and many close outs. Still, pretty nice to be in uncrowded waters with some energy in the ocean. Caught about 6-7 waves, but only 1 with a clean open face. Several fun take-offs though, with short and steep sections. On one of them I should really have pulled in (and subsequently eat it), but I just played it safe each time.
- Flies, 6:30AM-8AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. 5-8 people out, including Morad, Eric, Justin, Amy.
- Waist- to chest-high with a couple of head-high sets. Oddly shaped with many, many close-outs, but getting a bit better as the session went on.
- Caught about 15 waves, with only 2 that had open faces. Still nice to be out there and making the take-offs though. Nice vibe in the water as usual. Perhaps tomorrow will be a bit cleaned up.
- Flies, 6:30AM-7:30AM
- On my 9'6'', no leash.
- With Larry. 3 of the usual guys out.
- Waist-high+, not consistent or clean.
- Odd conditions today. A few waves coming through. One 10-wave close-out set toward the end of the session.
- Caught 7-8 waves, with a couple of decent rights.
- Toward the end of the session Larry hurt his knee, banging it on the board and getting a small gash from a skeg. That was right when that freak set cam through. He opted to go to shore. I paddled out for one more wave and then called it a day.
- It rained a couple of times during the session.
- Found a floating dead fish in the line-up.
- Flies, 10:30AM-11:30AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. 2-3 other people out, alone for about 20 minutes.
- Waist-high, not consistent, really high-frequency and messy due to a couple days of Kona winds.
- Very, very odd conditions. Impossible to tell what the waves were doing by looking at the horizon. This reminded me of a couple of Rainbow sessions: just pick a spot, don't even look at what's coming unless it's 2 seconds out.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of pseudo-decent ones that, unexpectedly, stayed open all the way to the inside.
- Due to the winds, there was tons of bits of plastic floating in the water. Picked up as much as I could, but it just gives an idea of all that's floating out there...
- Flies, 7:30AM-9:15AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. Eric and Amy out as I paddled out, then Amy and I, then 3-4 other people out including Patrick. Morad in the parking lot leaving as I was setting up.
- Waist- to chest-high, size dropping as the session went on, not very consistent but much better and cleaner than yesterday, moderate winds.
- Caught about 20 waves, with 2 or 3 really fun open rights. By the time Patrick paddled out I was completely exhausted after my first longish session since coming back. I even had a hard time catching a last wave. A pretty good session overall, even if I got a late start.
- Flies, 6:15AM-8:45AM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Larry. 5-6 people out, including Eric, Amy, and Greg.
- waist- to chest-high, not super consistent, "shifty and wobbly" according to Eric, light winds.
- Caught about 5 waves, with nothing really good although some good waves came through.
- I can't remember last time I surfed this poorly. Bailed on a wave on which I was in the perfect spot, wiped out on late take-offs, missing waves left and right. I guess that's what 10 days off and sick will do to you. Not that I am that great typically, but this was really embarrassing. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
- Flies, 5:45AM-8AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. 10-15 people out, including Carl, Wendell, Vern, etc.
- waist-high with only a couple of bigger sets, not very consistent, much cleaner than yesterday, some rain on and off.
- Caught about 15 waves, most of them with clean and open faces.
- It got pretty crowded, out there, and there weren't many waves, especially toward the end.
- Flies, 6:15AM-8AM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Larry. 5-6 people out including Rick, Randy, Morad, Amy.
- Waist-high with a few bigger sets, not very clean, not very consistent but breaking, a bit choppy.
- Caught about 10 waves, with nothing special. Attempted a few late take-offs and failed. Feeling a bit tired due to rather intense yoga last night.
- Flies, 6AM-7:45AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. 3-4 people out including Amy and Brian.
- Waist-high with a few bigger sets, not very clean and consistent, a bit choppy, but the occasional nicer set coming through.
- Started pretty dismal, with many waves that I just couldn't get into. Conditions improved a bit throughout the session, a bit cleaner but still long lulls.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of nice rights and especially my last one which was really fun. Other than that a lot of paddling for waves without catching them. Quite the workout.
- Flies, 6:45AM-8:15AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. 3-4 people out, including Greg, and Amy and her friend from the North Shore.
- Waist-high with a few bigger sets, a bit windy and choppy, deteriorating as time went on, not very consistent but still some occasional nice peaks.
- Caught about 20 waves, with a couple of fun rights and surprisingly clean lefts.
- I was in the parking lot on the phone when Greg showed up. Turns out he had forgotten his leash and luckily I had a spare one in my trunk which I let him borrow.
- Flies, 6:30AM-7:30AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. 5 people out at the beginning, including Rick, and 15 when I left.
- waist- to head-high, sort of consistent, relatively clean with moderate offshore winds.
- I showed up later than I wanted because my alarm clock didn't go off (I had set it to 5:30PM).
- Pretty decent conditions today with the usual ratio of close-outs to open waves. A little bit of a lull halfway through the session.
- Caught about 7 waves, with a couple of really fun, if short, rights. It was nice being in the water when some of the bigger sets came through.
- My last wave was probably the longest ride I had all morning, starting toward the left and staying perfectly open all the way to the stairs. Feeling a bit tired, and due to the crowd factor, I called it a day then. Nothing like a quick session to start the day.
- Flies, 5:45AM-7:30AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. 7-8 people out, including all the usual guys, and Amy later.
- waist- to chest-high, windy, some rain, long lulls, but clean sets once in a while. Losing size as time went on though.
- Caught about 15 waves, with 2-3 really fun rights, especially at the beginning of the session.
- Feeling pretty tired and cold at the end.
- Nice conversations in and out the water, really mellow and not crowded.
- Flies, 5:30AM-7AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. 5-6 people out, the usual people.
- Waist- to chest-high, sort of consistent, pretty clean. Pretty strong offshores.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 3-4 very fun rights, although I didn't catch the biggest sets of the day.
- Nice conversations in the line-up. Turns out one of the guys had lived in Ocean Beach in San Diego for years and surfed there before there were wetsuits. We talked about some of the spots back there and about what it was like to surf them 50 years ago.
- Flies, 5:30AM-7AM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Larry. 6-7 people out, the usual people and Amy who paddled out toward the end.
- Waist- to very occasional chest-high, not very consistent, relatively clean but a few close outs. Light winds.
- Caught about 15 waves, most of them small rights, with a couple that had a bit of punch and fun inside sections.
- Two bigger sets came through, but I was on the inside each time.
- Mellow vibe as usual with pleasant conversations with all present.
- Flies, 8:30AM-10AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. 5-6 people out including Conrad.
- Waist-high+, super clean but weak and not very consistent. Super glassy at first and then light winds.
- Today the conditions felt like the tide was high although it was getting close to low. So waves were fat and slow, and hard to get into, especially for the few shortboarders out there (including Conrad). However, waves were really, really clean and beautiful.
- Caught 15+ waves, with 3 or 4 very nice long rights with a very open face all the way in.
- At some point I felt a bump on my fin, and I saw this fish (looked like a large whitespotted toby) going round my board, and bumping on it repeatedly with its nose, then back to the fin. Really odd. Not sure what was going on. Talked about it with that large hawaiian guy who was struggling on his first day on his new 8ft board although he had never ridden anything under 11ft. He had never seen this before but its main comment was that it was all good as long as I wasn't being bumped by a shark :)
- There was this guy out who wasted so many nice waves on his longboard before Conrad and I figured out he just couldn't go right at all (goofy-footed). I don't think I've ever seen somebody who just could only go one way to this extent.
- Overall a very pleasant session.
- Flies, 5:45AM-7AM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Larry and Evan. 6-7 people out, including Greg and later Eric on his SUP.
- Knee- to waist-high, weak and inconsistent, but rather clean. Completely glassy and beautiful.
- Caught about 15 waves, with 2 nice rights that held for a while with a nice face.
- At the end of the session I swapped board with Eric and SUPed around for 10 minutes. What a workout that is. Saw a bunch of fish in the water from this higher vantage point.
- There was some large orange thing floating on the inside. Eric paddled over to get it. Turns out it was a shortboard (no fins) wrapped around an inflatable raft. Eric kept the board to give to his granddaughter.
- Eric saw a pod of dolphins on the outside on his SUP, but from the line-up we couldn't see them at all.
- Kailua, 1:30PM-2:30M
- On my 9'6'', no leash.
- By myself. 4-5 people out.
- Knee- to waist-high, moderate winds, junky beach break.
- Went to Kailua with Serge, Fredo, and Yves for a picnic on the beach, and I took my board just to get wet. Ended up being in the water twice for 1/2 hour each time.
- Caught above 10 "waves", with super short rides that ended with me jumping off the board and grabbing my board to avoid taking out kids playing on the sand on the inside.
- Queens, 8:45PM-10:15PM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Larry, Dave, and his kids Chris and Eric, one other guy out at the end.
- Waist-high, light winds occasionally but glassy most of the time, very inconsistent but for 1/2 hour that was pretty good toward the end of the session.
- Caught about 15 waves, with 3-4 very nice rights with perfect faces.
- Initially, there were a few good sets and then there was a terrible 1/2 hour with nothing at all, at which point Dave, Chris, and Eric paddled in. A few minutes afterwards, conditions improved radically and we caught nice waves for 1/2 hour. At the end conditions deteriorated again and we just paddled in.
- Flies, 8:45AM-10AM
- On my 9'6'', no leash.
- By myself. Nobody out for most of the session, and at the end one guy teaching his girlfriend.
- Waist-high+, not very consistent and a bit weak due to the high tide, but still some rideable waves.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 2 pretty fun rights with a nice wall and peaking at the chest-high level.
- Great feeling to get back in the water after a break. guy out at the end.
- Flies, 8:30AM-9:30AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. 3-4 people out including Carl.
- Knee- to waist-high, extremely weak and inconsistent, light winds.
- Caught about 6-7 waves, with only a coupled that qualified as rides.
- Although it looked like there were going to be some waves, it turned out to be pretty lame. No matter, it was nice to get wet and paddle around. Beautiful morning too.
- Flies, 8:30AM-9:45AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. Alone for 1/2 hour then 3 people out.
- Knee- to waist-high, not consistent but less weak than on Monday.
- Caught about 15 waves, with a couple of fun rights. At the end of the session I managed to catch one that took me almost to the stairs.
- Flies, 5:45AM-7:15AM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Larry. Two people out initially, then only us, and later Conrad.
- Waist-high+, glassy, the high tide making it weak, with some consistent patches.
- Caught about 20 waves, with a couple of fun rights. Tried to paddle even for small stuff just to get a workout, which I got. With a lower tide this could have been pretty nice, but we're still pretty far from the size of a regular swell.
- Flies, 9:30AM-11AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. 2 other people out.
- Waist-high, killed by the high tide, weak, and pretty inconsistent, mild winds.
- Just felt like being out in the water in spite of the dearth of waves. Beautiful day out.
- Caught about 10 waves, with only one good ride on a right that went pretty far in.
- Flies, 9:15AM-10:45AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. 2-4 other people out, including Carl.
- Waist-high to chest-high, pretty inconsistent with a 1/2 hour lull in the middle of the session, glassy with a few rain cells coming through.
- Several very nice set came through with reasonably open faces.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 3-4 very nice rights that were really smooth and long.
- Flies, 9AM-10AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. 2 people out, alone at the end.
- Waist-high, very inconsistent and weak, glassy.
- It felt like the tide was already too high, even though it was only mid-tide, due to the swell slowly dying from yesterday.
- Caught 5 waves, with a two ok rights, but other than that rides were quite underwhelming.
- Flies, 9AM-10AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. 5-6 people out including Greg.
- Waist- to head-high, not very consistent, light winds.
- Not a bad session, but the big sets were far in between and wave shape wasn't great (several close-outs, several waves too fat to get into). There were still fun waves to be had.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 2 super fun rights that held all the way in and allowed many maneuvers.
- Felt pretty tired today... wondering if that sinus problem isn't working its evil again.
- Flies, 5:45AM-7:15AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. Up to 12 people out including Scott and later Amy.
- Waist- to head-high, tide too high, not very consistent, light winds. A few good sets.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a very nice left that had a great wall, and a couple of decent rights. Waves were pretty difficult to catch today due to the tide that wasn't dropping fast enough, but the best sets still pushed through the tide
- Flies, 5:45AM-7:15AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. Up to 6-7 people out including Scott.
- Waist- to a couple feet overhead, not very consistent due to the high tide, many close-outs but some nice corners on smaller waves.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 3 nice rides on waves in the under chest-high range that stayed open. Never managed to take off on a big one that stayed open, but taking off on short sections was still fun.
- I took one on the head, and the way it exploded above be and send me tumbling made me think that it had been a long time since I was out in overhead surf.
- Nice conversations in the water and pretty mellow vibe. Sets were far apart enough that paddling back out was a breeze, which is always nice.
- Threes, 5PM-6:30PM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Dario (on my 9'2''). 10 people out.
- Waist-high, with a few bigger sets come through, glassy and clean.
- Caught about 10 waves, and didn't snatch any of the bigger sets because a few guys had a good grip on the outside.
- Very pleasant session overall. Dario felt pretty out of shape after a long period without surfing.
- Threes, 8:30AM-10AM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Dario (on my 9'2'') and Larry. 4-5 people out.
- Knee- to waist-high, blown out, junky, and horrible.
- Caught 5 non-waves, and perhaps one semi-decent wave. It had been along time since I had been out in such bad conditions. Dario's visit is probably here visiting during the worst week of the Summer surf-wise. Oh well.
- As we were driving away, before getting to the Ala Wai, some guy next to use said we had dropped a "shirt." Turns out it was Larry's rashguard. We went back around to were we had originally parked, threading our way trough Waikiki mayhem, and, sure enough, saw the rashguard on the pavement. As I drove next to it, Larry opened the door and snatched it. Pretty lucky overall.
- Threes, 9AM-10:15AM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Dario (on my 9'2''), only one other guy out for part of the time.
- Knee-high, weak, not completely blown out but windy.
- We caught 3-4 waves, that were bit cleaner than yesterday but without much power. The session overall was nicer because sunnier and with less wind overall even though there were a few gusty moments.
- We had parked in the Kaiser parking lot, and so walked on the beach before paddling out. We paddled back in aiming for the Hilton's jetty, going over super shallow coral. Pretty mellow and pleasant session in spite of the lack of waves.
- Flies, 11AM-1:30AM
- On my new 6'8'' Takayama.
- With Dario (on my 9'6''), Larry, and Greg. Nobody else out.
- knee- to waist-high, very inconsistent, weak, blown out, and overall very lame.
- First session on the new board, and thus some motivation to get a ride on it no matter how bad the conditions. Managed to "catch" one wave, but wiped out on the take off. We swapped boards several time and I caught about 5-6 waves on my 9'6''.
- The irony is that the only nice wave of the day came right after Larry, Dario, and I swapped board. I managed to drop in on that wave for a nice take off, but on my 9'6'' instead of my 6'8''.
- The fin setup for the 6'8'' was completely off (surfed it as a thruster), which, according to Dario, made the board squirly. Next session will be with the default 5-ft setup.
- Somehow, for no clear reason, we stayed out 2 1/2 hour in the water! Absolutely ridiculous given the conditions, but over pleasant if completely exhausting. Dario got massive sunburn on his shoulder since he was only wearing my neoprene tank top.
- The jury's still out on whether that new board is a completely insane decision, or a life-changing turning point.
- Flies, 5:45AM-7:30AM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Dario (on my 6'8''), Larry, Scott, and later Eric.
- waist-high, sort of weak and killed, once again, by the rising tide.
- Probably the best conditions of Dario's stay in Hawaii, which is a bit sad really. Still, he caught several waves and could finally get a feel for the 6'8''. The 5-fin set up is, accordingly to him, amazingly stable. So that's good. We'll see what happens when I take it out next!
- Caught 5-6 waves, nothing special. A few late-ish take-offs.
- Amazing double rainbow at the end of the session. overall very lame.
- Flies, 5:45AM-7:30AM
- On my 6'8''.
- By myself. Only Wesley out until the last 10 minutes when 2 longboarders and 1 boogie boarder showed up.
- waist-high+, not consistent, glassy, but a few surprisingly nice waves coming through.
- First true session on the 6'8'', and I caught perhaps 8-9 waves. My first take-off was absolutely terrible and I fell off. Going to such a shorter board sort of feels like learning how to surf again. But then, perhaps surprisingly, I was able to get to my feet quite consistently. Now, those take-offs weren't good enough to allow me to get a good start on the wall or anything, but I feel that that may happen at some point, which is good. In particular there was one nice wave where I was in the perfect spot, but had to readjust my feet after the take-off, and thus missed the section. We'll see what happens next time.
- Very lucky to be alone with Wesley out there. Not sure what things will feel like with 10 longboarders on the outside.
- Flies, 6AM-7:30AM
- On my 8'2''.
- By myself. About 10 people out including Jordan, Scott, and Eric.
- Waist- to head-high, glassy, not super consistent or clean but nice waves coming through.
- Caught 4 wave, with a great last right that have a nice shoulder-high wall all the way.
- Opted for the 8'2'' today, thinking that with the size and crowd it would be a bit easier than the 6'8''. Turns out that even though it's a bit easier, it's really not that different from the 6'8'' since it's much less buoyant. I fell on my first take-off, the same way I fell on my first take-off yesterday. But after that, I made all take-offs, probably a bit better than yesterday on the 6'8''. Handling the crowds was a bit of a pain and I ended up caught inside quite a few times when big outside sets came. There were a couple of overhead such sets.
- I was getting pretty tired after a lot of paddling, when that beautiful shoulder-high wave came. I was in position and dropped in. I had a fantastic ride, zipping through sections all the way to the jetty. Deciding to end on a high note, I called it quit at that point. That left me time to buy 6 bagels at "This is it!" on the way home.
- Flies, 8:45AM-11AM
- On my 6'8''.
- By myself. Alone for a while, then 2 guys out, then Rick.
- Waist-high+, getting better as it got glassier as as the tide went out.
- It was pretty terrible when I paddled out, but I just had to get wet after not surfing for a week or so. Paddling on that board is really not too bad, and today my goal was to try to take off on as many waves as possible. I had perhaps 12 take-off totals due to super long lulls. I made about half of them, albeit not gracefully/smoothly at all. The sad thing is that those were all on crappy waves. 4 times I was in the perfect spot on a wave that peaked at chest-high and was glassy, and 4 times I botched the take off, mostly falling backward, and once getting to my feet but so slowly that at that point I was going straight. Basically, I am facing the typical longboard-to-shortboard deal, when taking off in the steepest part is to technically difficult and taking off in the not-steepest part is impossible. Rick and I talked about it a lot and he was full of good advice. At least I go water time on the board and I guess it can go nowhere but up at this point. The good thing is that I didn't feel too tired and feel like I can paddle forever on that thing. Just feel like learning how to surf again.
- Flies, 9AM-10:30AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself. Three other guys out, Darren, Cody, and Brent. 3 other people and one SUP-er paddled out toward the end.
- I had seen Darren before when he was just trying out his new 8' after surfing only an 11' all his life. He has since then totally adapted to that board.
- Saw Jay on the boardwalk checking things out, and he opted to come back later as the still high tide was killing it a bit. Apparently, while I was out for almost 2 months due to being busy, traveling, and plagued by a neverending sinus infection, he was down with some bronchitis type stuff.
- Waist- to chest-high, a bit weak and inconsistent with several not-quite-breaking waves, but a few nicely shaped ones coming through.
- Caught about 10 waves, all rights, with a couple of fun ones and a great one as my last waves. That one was juicy, and stayed steep all the way to the stairs with makeable section after makeable section.
- Overall not a bad session at all considering that I have been out of the water for 2 months! I didn't feel particularly out of shape, but of course the conditions out there weren't taxing in any way.
- Flies, 10AM-11:30AM
- On my 8'6''.
- By myself for 1/2 hour, then one other guy out.
- Waist-high+, light winds, killed by the tide, but a few decent waves once in a while
- Caught perhaps 4 waves, with somewhat shaky take-offs. It seems that on the nicer/bigger waves, even though I am in the right place, I constantly mistime the take-off and get up before catching the wave. One or two more strokes would be needed. Then, on the following wave I take too many strokes and find myself riding the white. The joys of going to a 6'8'' from a 9'6'' I guess. We'll see how long I keep this up...
- Queens, 8:45PM-10:30PM
- On my 9'6''
- With Larry, Greg, and Conrad. 2 other people out and later an SUPer.
- Waist-high+, glassy, a bit weak due to (again!) the tide.
- Beautiful weather for the first moonlight session on a while, with great visibility.
- Caught 10+ waves, with a couple of very fun rights that stayed steep all the way to the inside.
- Flies, 8:35AM-10:15AM
- On my 9'6'', no leash.
- By myself. Nobody else in the water save two shortboarders in the last 10 minutes.
- Knee- to occasional waist-high, super glassy and clean, not very consistent.
- An absolutely stunningly beautiful morning, with rare glassy conditions.
- Caught about 10 waves, with nothing too exceptional given the size, but not completely weak either.
- One of the most serene sessions ever, perfect way to start a day. Took pictures of crabs on the shore afterwards.
- Queens, 9PM-10:30PM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Larry, and later on his friend Mikael. One SUPer out as well.
- Beautiful evening with some moon, glassy conditions. Inconsistent waist-high waves, with a few larger ones and a few sets. Many weak waves that would just die after a few yards though. Decent visibility.
- Caught about 20 waves, with a couple of nice somewhat juicy rights that were called out by the SUP-er on the outside.
- Overall a very pleasant session.
- Diamond Head, 2PM-3:30PM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Jean-Marc and Christina, for their first surf session.
- Knee- to waist-high, messy, moderate winds.
- We stayed on the inside and I tried to provide some hints to Jean-Marc and Christina who had rented foamies from UH. As usual, the first session's always difficult. Christina, in spite of something that sounded like pneumonia, did incredibly well for a first session.
- Caught 4-5 ankle snappers on the inside, which was super shallow, and then one reasonable wave outside toward the end.
- Flies, 9AM-10:30AM
- On my 9'6''.
- With Jean-Marc and Christina, two other people out.
- Knee- to waist-high, inconsistent, moderate winds, some decent waves once in a while.
- Caught about 15 waves, with my best one definitely the last wave in the session, a somewhat juicy righthander that held all the way to the inside. Other than that, pretty unremarkable waves.
- One sea turtle in the line-up.
- Flies, 9AM-10:30AM
- On my 9'6''.
- By myself, one guy out at first, and then two other guys and one bodysurfer.
- waist- to shoulder-high+, glassy, not super consistent but at least one good 5-wave set every 10 minutes.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of good ones. Bailed on one bigger one that in retrospect I should have charged on. Regardless, a super nice session right before flying off to cold Europe for 3 weeks. (edit: turns out the Europe trip was canceled and I stayed in Hawaii!)