- Old Man's, 2:30PM-3:30PM
- On my 9'6''
- By myself. About 20 people out.
- Waist-high. Pretty weak with many fake-outs. Just had to be exactly on the peak to catch something.
- A large group of kids as part of a surf school was on the main peak, and it was a total zoo. I stayed with a few others on the peak on the right, which is so flaky and strange. Caught a couple of waves though.
- Paddled out just to get wet and to try to get rid of that stupid cold I've been dragging for days now. I think the ocean helped.
- Diamond Head, 7:30AM-8:30AM
- On my 9'6''
- By myself. About 20 people out. Saw Harold briefly, and Nodari joined me later
- Waist-high, sort of weird and disorganized, pretty weak too, but some waves to catch
- Caught about 10 waves, nothing to write home about
- Still not in great shape as I seem to not be able to shake that cold. Oh well. Great to be in the water on a beautiful morning of course.
- Flies, 7:30AM-9AM
- On my 9'6''
- By myself. About 3-4 people.
- Waist- to shoulder-high, junky an inconsistent, lots of doubles, windy
- Caught 3 waves, one of which was pretty decent and lined-up.
- Saw Wendell in the parking lot afterwards
- Great to be back in the water after two months due to cold/bad weather and/or no waves.
- Diamond Head, 7:15AM-8:30AM
- On my 9'2''
- By myself, joined by Nodari and Phil later. About 20 people out.
- Waist- to shoulder-high+, consistent-ish, but rather bumpy and choppy due to moderate winds.
- Caught 4-5 waves, including a couple of decent rights. A lot of non-starters.
- Diamond Head, 7:15AM-8:30AM
- On my 9'6''
- By myself, joined by Nodari and Phil later. About 10 people out.
- Waist- to chest-high, pretty consistent, light winds.
- Caught 10+ waves with 2 or 3 really good rights. Caught a left as well, which is when I realized that, somehow, I hadn't caught a left in months! Felt pretty awkward... need to make sure I go left sometimes!
- Diamond Head, 7:15AM-9AM
- On my 9'2'' and my 8'2''
- With Dario. About 25 people out at the peak.
- Waist-high+, glassy, not super consistent, but nicely shaped.
- Caught about 15 waves, with 1 really good right. Failed to catch a couple of outstanding ones, which sort of sucked.
- Dario and I swapped boards at about 3/4 of the session, and I caught 3 waves on the 8'2'' which I hadn't surfed in years. Pretty pleasant actually.
- Diamond Head, 7AM-9AM
- On my 9'6''
- With Dario (on my 9'2''). About 20 people out at the peak.
- Waist-high, light winds, not as consistent as yesterday.
- Caught about 10 waves, with nothing to write home about but for one decent right. Long waits. But beautiful weather out there.
- Toes, 1PM-3:30PM
- On my 9'6''
- With Dario (on my 9'2'' Stewart), Lambert, and Ryan. Nobody else out.
- Waist-high, light winds, consistent.
- Caught about 30 waves. At the beginning I was catching mostly rights, which are pretty steep and lead you into the shallows. Fun but a bit unnerving on a longboard. Then started going left, and the lefts were pretty fun, with steep-ish take-offs and then long peeling rides. Beautiful weather, beautiful views, tons of waves, nobody out, what more to ask.
- Very long session. Good thing I sort of got in shape the last week or so. Still really tired though.
- Toes, 10:30AM-11:45AM
- On my 9'6''
- With Dario (on my 9'2'' Stewart), only one other person out who was never really on the same peak as us.
- Waist-high, very light winds, not as consistent as yesterday, but ok.
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of good lefts.
- Decided to go in so as not to totally exhaust ourselves, and saw about 10 people paddling out! Good timing on our part.
- Queens, 8:30PM-9:45PM
- On my 9'6''
- With Dario (on my 9'2'' Stewart) and Larry (on the 7'6'' I sold him years ago). Nobody else out.
- Waist-high with almost chest-high peaks, glassy, pretty consistent.
- Caught at least 15 waves, with 5+ more great rights with super fun take-offs. A wonderful night session tonight!
- Toes, 8:30AM-10:45AM
- On my 9'6''
- With Dario (on my 9'2'' Stewart). Nobody else out.
- Waist-high+, windy, sort of disorganized and choppy, but still some waves coming through
- Caught 5-6 waves, with two really good lefts. Caught one right but only for a small section after kicking out due to shallow reef.
- Pretty exhausting session due to the need to constantly paddle to stay in position.
- Mostly cloudy with only a few sunny patches. Overall a pretty good session though.
- Toes, 7:30AM-9:30AM
- On my 9'6''
- With Dario (on my 9'2'' Stewart). Up to 7-8 other people out.
- Waist-high+ with some chest-high peaks, light winds, pretty consistent.
- Caught 15+ waves, with several great lefts. Also caught a great right at a peak west of the main peak, which turns out was working pretty well as well. Another great session overall, with so many different waves to catch.
- Flies, 7:15AM-8:45AM
- On my 9'6''
- With Nodari and Phil (Jay in the line-up at first)
- Waist-high+, glassy, very long waits, often barely breaking
- Caught about 8 waves, which is much better than I expected given how inconsistent it was, with actually 4 really fun rights. Who knew? At the end of the session Nodari called last waves. I then caught a good right. Decided to paddle back out. Caught a good right again. Decided to paddle back out again. And then caught a great right as my last wave, which brought be to the stairs.
- Nodari and Phil got their slippers stolen on the shore! Only mine were left untouched. I guess I grabbed all the good karma this morning.
- Flies, 7:15AM-8:45AM
- On my new 9'6'' Hernandez
- By myself, one SUP-foil out but never on the same peak
- Waist-high, glassy or light winds, very inconsistent and pretty weak
- Caught 6-7 waves, with only 2 or 3 real ones.
- Couldn't really tell much about this new board, but definitely able to catch more waves with it due to thickness.
- Rain at the end of the session
- Toes, 2:30PM-4:30PM
- On my new 9'6'' Hernandez
- With Ryan and Lambert, one SUP out for a bit and a windsurfer, but pretty far from us
- Waist-high+, pretty choppy and windy, but somehow still some waves coming through
- Caught 10+ waves, with a couple of decent one, but most being oddly weak and oddly shaped
- Last wave was the best of the session, a nice left with some size, that brought me really far in, which was good because I was soooo tired
- Flies, 6:45AM-8AM
- On my 9'6'' Hernandez
- By myself, about 7-8 people out
- Waist-high+, glassy, not consistent, a bit odd/mixed-up
- Caught about 10 waves, with 2 or 3 pretty good rights.
- This board is pretty easy to paddle into waves, and seems to ride pretty well on the face, even when it gets a tad steeper.
- 4-5 more people paddled out and I just caught a wave in right when the rain started.
- Caught 10+ waves, with a couple of decent one, but most being
- Diamond Head, 6:45AM-8:30AM
- On my 9'6'' Hernandez
- By myself, Nodari and Phil showed up about 15 minutes in, 20+ people out
- Waist-high+, glassy, pretty consistent
- Caught about 10 waves, with a couple of nice rights.
- A duck in the line-up!!
- Toward the end of the session I got tired of the crowd, and on top of it the waves were sort of dying down. So I just rode some white water in.
- Flies, 6:45AM-8AM
- On my 9'6'' Hernandez
- By myself, nobody out until the last few minutes.
- Waist-high, glassy, pretty consistent if a bit weak.
- Caught 20+ waves, and ended on a decent right.
- Not that these conditions were fantastic or anything, but they were pretty decent. Quite amazed to be absolutely alone out there for the whole session.
- Flies, 6:15AM-7:45AM
- On my 9'2'' Morgan
- By myself, 4-5 people out, including this guy Wayne with whom I chatted a bit
- Shoulder-high, glassy, somewhat consistent with a as usual quite a few close-outs.
- Caught about 8 waves, with 3 or 4 nicely open rights.
- Got stuck in the parking lot for 1.5 hours on the way out due to a bicycle race! Ended up walking to Kaka'ako and grabbing coffee.
- Flies, 9AM-10:30AM
- On my 9'6'' Hernandez
- By myself, 4-5 people out
- waist-high+, glassy, consistent-ish
- Caught about 12 waves, with 3-4 really good rights with a nice wall
- Flies, 9:30AM-11AM
- On my 9'6'' Hernandez
- By myself, 4-5 people out, all on foils!
- waist-high+, choppy, not very consistent, not breaking right due to the low tide being quite high
- Caught about 5-6 waves, including a couple of nice bigger rights
- Not insanely out of shape, somehow, in spite of 2 months out of the water
- Toes, 10:30AM-12PM
- On my 9'6'' Hernandez
- By myself, 2 other guys out.
- waist-high+ with a few head-high peaks, a bit choppy but pretty consistent if not always easy to catch
- Caught about 10 waves, almost all left, with a couple of the bigger ones, including one pretty steep take-off that ended up working out nicely
- One turtle on the outside
- Really tired after the long paddle out, the long session, and the long paddle in
- Toes, 2:45PM-5PM
- On my 9'6'' Hernandez
- with Ryan, 5-6 other guys out
- waist-high+, moderate winds, pretty consistent but waves were really hard to catch
- Caught 10+ waves, with one really goo right and a couple of really good left.
- First/Second Hole, 2:45PM-5PM
- On my 9'6'' Hernandez
- with Ryan and Lambert, up to 6-8 people out
- waist-high+, light to strong winds, pretty inconsistent at times.
- Started the session at first hole, then went to second hole and then back to first hole when second hole got more crowded.
- Caught 15+ waves, with a couple of nice rights at first hole and a good left at left hole.
- Flies, 8:30AM-10:30AM
- On my 9'2'' Morgan
- By myself, met Tracy and later Eric in the lineup
- waist- to shoulder-high, consistent-ish at the beginning and less so as time went on due to tide and wind. Some nicely lined-up waves with the usual close-outs.
- Caught about 10 waves, with 2-3 really nice rights that stayed open and had a nice wall.
- Back in the water after being away (again) from Hawaii (California and Tennessee), always super pleasant but super tiring.
- Flies, 9:30AM-12:30PM
- On my 9'2'' Morgan
- By myself, met Eric, Ian, Bob, and a few others in the line-up, up to 15 people out at the max.
- knee- to shoulder-high, extremely inconsistent with crazy long lulls, but a few sets coming in, not counting the ones that wouldn't break due to the tide and high-frequency bumps, no winds, beautiful weather.
- After 1 hour without catching a single wave, finally started catching a few! Caught about 7-8 waves, with two really good rights with a nice wall. Caught a few close-outs as well.
- A couple of spotted eagle rays in the line-up!! Circled us a few times and then went away slowly. Very mellow. Very close to us, right at the surface. Good thing they're not aggressive. thing they are
- waist- to shoulder-high, consistent-ish at the beginning
- Diamond Head, 7:30AM-9AM
- On my 9'2'' Morgan
- With Nodari and Phil, about 20 people out
- Waist-high+, choppy, but consistent-ish.
- Caught 5-6 waves, with a couple of decent rights.
- Diamond Head, 7:30AM-8:45AM
- On my 9'6'' Hernandez
- With Nodari and Phil, about 20 people out at the max
- Waist-high+ with a few bigger sets (including a head-high one) coming through, light winds.
- Caught 7-8 waves, with most of them being nice rights with a bit of a wall, even though they petered out quickly but for a couple of them.
- Flies, 7:15AM-8:30AM
- On my 9'6'' Hernandez
- With Nodari, Phil, and Sue, about 4-5 other people out
- Waist-high+, not consistent, smooth, getting better as tide got lower.
- Caught 10+ waves, with some of them really hard to catch, but weirdly pretty fun on the inside with somewhat of a wall.
- 3-4 dolphins in the line-up on the outside, perhaps 10ft from my board, which I don't think I've seen often in Hawai`i
- Flies, 8:30AM-9:45AM
- On my 9'6'' Hernandez
- By myself, 25 people out (!!)
- Waist-high+, not consistent, smooth, getting better as tide went down
- Caught about 10 waves, including 2-3 really nice ones with a steep-ish wall.
- The crowd consisted mostly of foilers, and of longboarders who somehow opted to not sit on the outside, even though a set was coming every 10 minutes or so. I don't think I've ever had a session with so many people during which I essentially caught every wave I wanted... really odd.
- Flies, 7:30AM-8:30AM
- On my 9'6'' Hernandez
- By myself, 5-6 people out, Jay at first but he went in immediately.
- Waist- to head-high, pretty consistent, a bit bumpy due to moderate winds, but nice open faces on most waves!
- Caught 7-8 waves, each of them really fun with a good wall that never closed out and that allowed taking fast high lines.
- Flies, 7AM-8:15AM
- On my 9'2'' Morgan
- By myself, 3-4 people out.
- Waist- to chest-high with very occasional bigger sets, inconsistent and weird, moderate winds.
- Caught 4 waves, with long waits in between each. 2 of them were actually pretty decent, with workable walls, while the other two closed out pretty quickly, although there was some reform on the inside.
- Waist- to head-high, pretty consistent, a bit bumpy due to moderate winds, but nice open faces on most waves!
- Diamond Head, 7:30AM-8:45AM
- On my 9'6'' Hernandez
- By myself, 20+ people out including Karim
- knee- to waist-high, smooth, consistent-ish.
- Caught 4 waves, all pretty small but for one that was nicely lined up all the way to the inside.
- Can't believe I hadn't surfed in 3 months! Weirdly I wasn't that out of shape..