- Flies, 12:00PM-1:30PM
- On my 9'6''
- With Larry. Nobody out.
- Knee- to occ. chest-high, not consistent at all (North Shore wrap from the huge swell up there), moderate winds, beautiful weather.
- Caught about 10 waves, without catching any of the bigger ones.
- Not in too horrible a shape even though the last session was more than one month ago. Objective for the year: surf more than 12 times :)
- In-Betweens, 6:30AM-8AM
- On my 9'6''
- With Nodari. About 15 people out.
- Knee- to waist-high, reasonably consistent, very light winds, cloudy.
- Caught about 4 waves, all lefts.
- Incredibly out of shape after so long out of the water due to lack of waves, bad weather, or too much work. But great to be back in the water
- Nodari's first session in Hawaii. He cut up his foot a bit on the reef as it's pretty shallow on the inside.
- In-Betweens, 6:45AM-8:15AM
- On my 9'6''
- With Olivia. About 15 people out.
- Waist-high, smooth, reasonably consistent, no wind, a bit cloudy.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of decent ones.
- Already in much better shape than 2 days ago.
- Olivia's first session in 2 years, and she caught a couple of waves!
- Queens, 8:30PM-10PM
- On my 9'6''
- With Larry, Dave, Conrad, Ann. 3 other people out.
- Waist-high, with occasional bigger sets, smooth, reasonably consistent, no wind, clear skies with 3/4 moon
- Caught something like 20 waves, with a few fun rights. Overall a beautiful night session.
- There was a weird point on the inside that broke really well, not sure why. Dave identified it, and then we caught a lot of inside waves that way.
- Cliffs (Diamond Head), 7:00PM-8:30AM
- On my 9'6''
- With Nodari and Raoul, about 10 other people out
- Waist-high+, light winds, reasonably consistent but not very nicely shaped, typical.
- Caught about 10 waves, some of them ok, nothing to write home about.
- Beautiful morning out there
- Rock Pile, 7:00PM-8:15AM
- On my 9'6''
- With Nodari, about 6-7 people out.
- Waist-high, moderate winds, not very consistent, beautiful weather.
- Caught about 5 waves, with one decent right.
- Given the forecast, the surf was much smaller than expected.
- Flies, 7AM-9AM
- On my 9'6'', no leash
- With Nodari, the usual 8-guy crew, and then only a couple of people out for the second half of the session
- Waist-high to occ. chest-high, not very consistent and a bit weak, glassy for the most part.
- A lot of work to catch waves today, especially early on in the session. The conditions felt very high-tidish, but the tide was negative. Conditions improved substantially after the morning crew went in though.
- Caught about 15 weaves, with a couple of fun rights and one great one that was in the chest-high range.
- I talked Nodari into removing his leash for a bit, and of course that's right when the biggest/cleanest set of the day came in, with head-high peaks.
- Tongs, 5:30PM-7PM
- On my 9'6''
- With Mahdi, about 10 other people out.
- Knee- to waist-high, not consistent at all, and a bit killed by the high tide.
- Caught about 6-7 waves, all lefts, with a couple of decent ones. But it was a bit of a struggle to catch waves. We're almost in May already and we still have to see a decent South swell...
- Beautiful evening, with great view of sunset-lit Diamond Head, etc.
- Flies, 10:45AM-12PM
- On my 9'6'', no leash
- By myself, Carl out at first, and at the end 3-4 people including Jim
- Waist-high+, not very consistent but not bad, shape getting worse as the wind increased, but size getting a bit bigger as well.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of fun rights. Really nice to be essentially alone in the line-up for close to 1 hour.
- Lost my board on a late take-off and had to swim really far in to get it. Nice workout.
- Dive O'ahu was doing dive certifications at Flies this morning (said hi to Lindsey). A bit crazy given the swell, but doable I guess.
- Flies, 7AM-8:15AM
- On my 9'6''
- By myself. Up to 10 other people out at some point.
- Waist- to occ. head-high, glassy, very inconsistent.
- Caught 6 waves, with a couple of fun rights. The bigger ones were closing out most of the time. It was nice to be in the water with some wave energy after months with so little surf.
- The session ended with a 20-min lull with absolutely nothing. Ended up riding a close-out back to shore.
- Flies, 6:30AM-8AM
- On my 9'6''
- By myself. Only 1 other guy out for a long time, then up to 4, and down to 1. We actually talked about the fact that it was surprising to not have a crowd with decent waves.
- Waist- to occ. shoulder-high, glassy, very consistent for the 1st half of the session, less toward the end.
- Caught about 12 waves, with 2 very good rights that remained open for the first section with a beautiful wall, and then with enough power to allow me to go around the middle section.
- Quite an enjoyable session overall, getting slowly back into surfing shape.
- Flies, 6:30AM-8AM
- On my 9'6''
- With Nodari. Up to 8 people out, but only the two of us at the end. Carl was out there. Amy on a SUP (hadn't seen her in ages).
- Waist- to chest-high, not very consistent, a bit weak, glassy at first but then quite a bit of texture in the water due to the wind.
- Caught about 15 waves, with 2 good rights. Several bigger sets came, but mostly closing out.
- Overall a great workout and a decent session.
- Flies, 6:15AM-7:45AM
- On my 9'6''
- By myself. Up to 4 other people out.
- Waist- to occ. chest-high, glassy, not super consistent but not bad.
- Caught 10+ waves, with 3 pretty fun rights. The swell was cleaner than yesterday, but with less power. Pretty nice session overall.
- Three, 7:15AM-8:45AM
- On my 9'6''
- With Nodari. Up to 6 other people out.
- Waist-high+, not consistent at all and weak (seemed like it was a high-frequency wind swell).
- Caught about 8-9 waves, with 2 surprisingly fun rights.
- Flies, 8:15AM-9:45AM
- On my 9'6''
- With Nodari. Up to 5 other people out, including Jim and Eric.
- Waist-high+, not consistent at all with long lulls, and oddly shaped, but a beautiful day out there in terms of weather.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 2 surprisingly fun rights.
- Flies, 7AM-10:30AM
- On my new 9'2'' Morgan
- With Nodari, who went in early. Up to 15 people out, including Eric
- Chest-high, inconsistent but some nice waves coming through. Wind picked up as the session went on.
- Caught about 15 waves, with 3 or 4 fun rights, and one outstanding right that remained open all the way.
- It had been a long time since I clocked in at more than 3 hours for a session. I guess I am getting back into paddling shape, just in time before taking two months off!
- Flies, 7AM-10:30AM
- On my new 9'2'' Morgan
- With Larry. 3-4 other people out.
- waist-high, inconsistent and bumpy, windy.
- Caught only 2 waves, really a poor session but as usual happy to be out there.
- In-betweens, 3:30PM-5PM
- On my new 9'2'' Morgan
- With Melody (on my 9'6'') and Christopher (on my 9'2'' Stewart), about 10 other people out.
- Knee- to waist-high, not consistent, very weak, light winds.
- Caught about 20 waves, but catching waves required a lot of paddling and M and C couldn't catch a single thing.
- Sunset Cliffs, Subs, 5:45PM-7PM
- On Dario's 9'
- With Dario. Nobody out.
- Knee-high, not breaking due to the high tide, but beautiful late afternoon out there
- Caught one wave, which was a miracle given that there was almost nothing breaking!
- Sunset Cliffs, Subs, 12:30PM-2:30PM
- On Dario's 9'
- With Dario. Between 2 and 5 other people out.
- Waist-high, glassy, somewhat consistent.
- Caught about 20 waves, fund take-offs, and then somewhat weak walls (the left was better actually, but somehow I caught mostly rights).
- What a beautiful day out, very mellow vibe, full sun and almost no wind. Sort of burnt my feet on the walk to the spot!
- Sunset Cliffs, Subs, 1:30PM-4PM
- On Dario's 9'
- With Dario. Between 2 and 5 other people out.
- Waist-high+, glassy, consistent.
- Caught about 30 waves, including one fantastic right with a steep take-off, a great first section on a high-line and then a super fast inside section. Right after that wave I caught another one that was a bit smaller but with a completely lined-up fast wall on the inside.
- What a great and somewhat unexpected session out there (Summer at the Cliffs with good waves and almost nobody out???). Really had to be on the peak to catch waves, but they were coming pretty regularly with sort of shifting peaks.
- After one of my rides, a kid on the inside on a long board, with a pound of sunblock on his face, asked me "hey! Do you have a sticker?", to which I answered "what? no!" and he went "Dang it!". wtf??? Paddled back, and 10 minutes later Dario came back after his last wave and said "Hey! That kid on the inside asked me for a sticker and went 'dang it!' when I told him I didn't have one!". Really, really odd.
- Flies, 2PM-4PM
- On my 9'2'' Morgan
- With Larry. Nobody out but for a shortboarder at the end.
- Really weak at the beginning and then up to 4-5ft as the tide dropped, somewhat inconsistent, moderate winds.
- Caught about 8 waves, with one really good right, and the others somewhat marginal.
- Great session to get back into things. Less out of shape that I would've thought.
- Flies, 2PM-4PM
- On my 9'2'' Morgan
- By myself. 10 other people out including Jay and Conrad. Saw Eric and his daughter after I got out of the water. They were off to go surf Wainae.
- Shoulder to head-high, not very consistent, oddly shaped, difficult to catch, light winds.
- Caught 5-6 waves, with one pretty nice right. Others tended to close out.
- Very odd session. First, I went out with my wallet in the pocket of my board shorts! No biggy, but still sort of annoying. Good thing I didn't lose it. Also, my laundry detergent had dripped onto my hat and wetsuit, somehow. I sort of noticed the rashguard had an odd feel to it, but once in the water it starting bubbling and I got slick all over. On my first take-off my hands were like bars of soap and and totally botched it. After rubbing most of the detergent out, it got better, and I guess I don't feel too bad about that reef given that the harbor nearby must do its share of polluting. Definitely need to find my groove again :)
- Flies, 2PM-4PM
- On my 9'2'' Morgan
- By myself. 8 other people out, including Conrad.
- Waist- to shoulder-high, somewhat consistent, moderate winds.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 2-3 nice rights. A couple of bigger sets came through, and I managed to take off on one such wave. Many close-outs as one might expect.
- One turtle in the line-up.
- Flies, 2PM-4PM
- On my 9'2'' Morgan
- By myself. 15 other people out, including Conrad and Nodari later.
- chest-high+, somewhat consistent, glassy.
- Due to the high tide, smaller sets were hard to catch unless one was camping out on the inside. Bigger sets came through with a fair share of close-outs, but as usual occasional open nice waves.
- Caught about 6 waves, with one very nice right. Ate it on a couple steep ones, including a left on which I tried to grab the rail and hand on but was sucked over the falls.
- One turtle in the impact zone!
- Saw Jordan at the stairs. Hadn't seen him in a long time and he was there just checking out the waves without his board.
- Diamond Head, 7:30AM-8:45AM
- On my 9'6'' South Coast
- With Nodari. 20+ other people out but spread out.
- Knee- to waist-high with higher peaks, light winds.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of fun lefts and one good right.
- Flies, 9:30AM-11AM
- On my 9'2'' Morgan
- With Nodari. 2-3 other people out including Jim and later Eric.
- waist- to head-high, somewhat consistent but for the end of the session, light winds.
- Caught about 12 waves, with 4-5 really nice rights. A couple of bigger waves came through. I was able to take of on one of those, and the take off was fun even though it ended up closing out. I barely made it over the 2nd big wave while everybody else got wiped out.
- All in all a pretty fun session. The swell's supposed to build tomorrow. We'll see.
- Flies, 6:45AM-8AM
- On my 9'2'' Morgan
- By myself. 4-5 other people out including Jay, Rick, the Preacher.
- chest- to head-high, glassy, not very consistent, very oddly angled with the channel closing out.
- Caught about 10 waves, ranging from overhead peaks that closed out early on, to nicely lined up chest-high waves that went all the way to the stairs.
- Paddling back out was a bit strenuous once in a while due to the lack of a channel. But there were sufficient lulls.
- Flies, 8:00AM-9:30AM
- On my 9'2'' Morgan
- With Nodari. 1 SUP out and later Conrad and a friend of his.
- Waist-high to chest-high, a bit weak and choppy, moderate winds, rising tide.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 2 or 3 really fun rights, especially my last wave which took me all the way back to the stairs.
- Odd session. With the rising tide it initially looked like it wasn't going to work out. A lot of wobbliness in the water, some backwash, etc. But then, bigger sets came and surprisingly fun rides were to be had.
- Queens, 8:30PM-10PM
- On my 9'6''
- With Larry. Nobody out.
- Waist-high+, glassy, not very consistent. Incredibly warm water.
- Caught 10 waves, with 2-3 really nice rights.
- In-betweens, 8AM-9AM
- On my 9'2''
- With Mahdi. 60+ people out including Will (!)
- Waist-high, light winds. not very consistent.
- Flies wasn't breaking, and we ended up at in-betweens.
- Caught 4 waves, all lefts, with one very good one.
- Really shallow inside, which is never good. One one wave I had to straighten out due to people paddling on the inside and found myself in the shallows. Slightly dinged the board, which was annoying.
- Diamond Head, 7AM-8:30AM
- On my 9'2''
- With Nodari and Rich, 30+ people out
- Waist-high+, somewhat consistent as the tide dropped.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 2 really good rights, bigger ones that I caught on the outside.