A Trip to the Gas Station

Chevron's, that is, as in the surf spot in Laie. Wow, what a session. I actually went on two consecutive days, but the first day blew the second one away. Big NW wrap, probably 8-10 ft. solid, biggest and heaviest waves I've ever surfed. The waves were jacking up hard and quickly into these monster a-frames. Not to mention the winds were kona, blowing nice and light straight offshore. The vertical drops were sick and so screaming fast and the way the face bowled into itself was pretty impressive. Because of how fast the wave was for me, I didn't really get any tricks in as I was just trying to figure the wave out and avoid getting an all-time beating. There was this one memorable wave, though. The way the wave breaks is it pitches pretty hard first, then pinches and reforms, pitching hard again and longer as the bowl bends around the inside. Well, I had been going too fast and not deep enough off the takeoff and so I decided to go for the homerun and pull in right off the takeoff on a big one. Well, I got slotted, but then I didn't have any speed so I couldn't escape the pinch cleanly. I stayed horizontal, but I was blinded by the lip coming down on me just long enough to not see the second pitching lip coming. I don't think I've ever been hit so hard by anything. Steamrolled right on the head. I don't know how I stayed horizontal, eventually coming out of the whitewater, but I did. That wave got me nervous in that moment, but after I hit the channel, I was itching for more! I definitely could feel that I got some respect during that session for my charging. Also, I've never felt more physically wiped out at the end of a session - pretty much every muscle below the waist was burning and about ready to cramp, the adrenaline rush was going pretty much the whole time, and toward the end, I was actually feeling nauseated like I was going to dry heave due to fatigue. There came a point where I HAD to go in, not that I chose to or wanted to. The heavy-ness and my fatigue level pretty much dictated that. I wish I hadn't surfed crappy V-land the day before and saved all my energy for a longer session out there.


After staying over at Sheila and Keoni's that night, the next day the conditions and waves on the eastside were still good. I couldn't pass it up so I hit Chevron's again. Not nearly as good - smaller (maybe 3-6), more walled and not as a-framey as the day before, and definitely a lot windier (though still offshore). And crowded. There was one memorable wave that was just a medium sized one, but connected really far to the inside. I got two really big swooping cutbacks on that wave and almost some sort of air off the end section. Didn't quite materialize, though. It was one of those waves, though, where you really feel completely in-sync with what the wave is doing and what you're doing on it. No guessing, almost like you were reading it's mind. It was a cool feeling. Then there was this other near-distaster of a beatdown that I had. I took off deep on a pretty sizeable one and decided to pull in. I don't know what happened exactly but I couldn't hold my rail and was sliding down the face right into trouble. Got detonated on at full force so hard that, although blinded by water, I could feel myself and my board get launched into the air in the flats by the lip hitting and then rebounding. It was the weirdest feeling I think I've had on a wave, just flying through the air blindly. Then of course, I hit the water again and really got steamrolled after that. That was quite the hold-down. The worst thing, which turned out to be a small miracle, was that when the lip hit the first time, my fin AND my fin strap got ripped clean off in a flash. That's never happened to me. Ripped the velcro part right off the neoprene, the velcro parts still attached to each other. The lucky part was that as I came up, I saw the fin pop up probably just 10 feet from where I was. I hurried and swam to get it before the next wave and got out of there. Luckily, the fins stayed on the feet for the rest of the session. No more HIC fin tethers - I went and got DaKine ones the next day.


Well, just like I thought it would be, the eastside was all-time during those couple days of perfect conditions. And I haven't even begun to describe all the other spots that were going absolutely nutty from Laie to Kualoa. I wished I had a jet ski and all the right camera equipment to capture it all. So rare.


Here's what I do have from those days.