A Bunch of Werds

8.17.12

The North Shore...she stirred a lil bit for us!  Just 2-3 footers at V-land, inconsistent and weird at times, but still waaaaay mo' bettah than town's summer season (drought!).  Sorry no pics, GoPro making a return to my board soon!.

8.26.10

I've been in the water lately, just not as much as usual because of some other personal bidnezz I've had to deal with. What can you do with this pretty lame summer, though? I did have one of those sessions yesterday where the waves are tiny, but for some reason, everything flows and feels smooth and you're completely in tune with the wave. It was maybe 1-2 ft. Maili Pt., but I couldn't believe how many waves I caught in 1 hr. Probably somewhere in the 15-20 range, maybe more. Seriously, no joke! Felt smooth and swervy, even got a couple of very "cozy" pits over that lovely inside reef. I love when that right is working!

8.10.10

I still surf! In fact, I surf as much or more than ever, which is probably why I'm too lazy to write about it all. Don't worry, just a bunch of mediocre sessions so far this summer, you haven't missed much!

4.22.10 - Ma'ili Pt.

Interesting session out there today. Patience definitely paid off. I got there midday.....about 5 min. before the winds turned onshore and shredded everything to pieces. So I waited a long time in the parking lot, just kinda trying not to get out of the mode with the frustration I was feeling at the change of conditions. Glad I waited because before long the winds shifted back offshore and it was on.

Big time mix of SSW and NNW swells with the south juice way more consistent. They seemed to be taking turns and it was really easy to get all disoriented out there, really easy to fix your eyes on one direction and then almost get cleaned up by the other if you weren't paying attention. When they would meet each other halfway, though, wow...magic. I had a bunch of really good barrels, even almost pulled my first air reverse 360. This one barrel I had was maybe one of my top 5 of all-time. It was a fat wedgy one that I faded pretty deep on. I cut the fade just enough to keep a perfect line to be able to slingshot my way right through a fat backdoor pit. Stayed open too, right in full view of a couple of hooting fellas on the shoulder. Man, that one felt good!

More the next two days hopefully (NS, then town), plus solid SSW on the way for next week.

3.29.10 - V-land

Brrraaaaaaah. V-land was killers today. Rainy, stormy, and ugly, which was nice, kept the crowds away. But the waves were sick! First half of the 3 hours, especially (second half, got kinda too big, maybe the forerunners of the new swell hitting tonight/tomorrow). Non-stop waves and there was a combo of swell angles, which made for some super chunky ones on the inside. HEAVING. After seeing a bunch of those, I decided I was getting me one. Well, I found one...or maybe I should say it found me. I lined myself right on that little spot of reef (you know the one) on the inside that draws in all that energy on those inside chunky ones that just miss the outside. I'm feeling pretty good about myself as I'm getting drawn up the face and the wall is starting to line up. Then all of a sudden, as I'm right at the apex of the a-frame, I see and feel the wave just lurch backward and downward from underneath me, really hard. Next thing I know, all that water that just lurched away from me is right behind me and THROWS me way out into the flats. I thought I was going to be able to get down the face a bit just under the lip. Nope. THROWN. I remember thinking, "uh-oh". I've never been worked like that on a wave. So I went flying, about 8-10 feet up and just tried to fall as "good" as I could. I didn't get very deep and I could suddenly feel and hear air as it picked me up again as I was in the barrel and tossed me down again. Luckily, I only hit reef as I was getting rolled underwater, cutting my heel just slightly. As I was flying through the air, I could see reef just a couple feet (if that) below the water so I got lucky.

Kinda shook me a little and my heel was kind of making me nervous (slightly bleeding), but I decided to chance 'em. Glad I did! Sick session!

Camera is out of action for awhile so no pics. "Waterproof" apparently doesn't apply to sand and Pounders.

12.15.09 - V-land

Pretty disappointing, surf-wise (esp. compared to the last trip), but I had to go and was glad I got in the water (3 week trip to the mainland to visit family for Christmas starting later today). Despite good size and conditions, I can't remember ever seeing v-land so sectiony/peaky and broken up. It could've been epic if the sections were connecting but they mostly weren't (I guess waves for the last day of the Pipemasters were the same - nature of the swell I guess).

Mostly the memorable waves were some fatty closeouts I pulled into. There was this one that I could see I was way too deep on - I pulled in anyway and kind of braced myself for the tumble. It kind of surprised me, though, with a little surge that drove me a little harder through the barrel, which was suddenly starting to open up more. I was super deep at that point but it kind of felt like it was going to let me out. Sort of in the same moment, I saw more lip pitching way too far away for me to make as well as a little doggy door just a little ways in front of me. I tried to make it but I was too low and had very little speed. The lip came down nice and square on the back of my head and neck. Got rolled pretty good, I think I may have even donated some dermis to the reef, but it was one of those vivid, slow-motion waves that you remember. Totally worth it.

It's gonna be sweet when I can get back in the water in 3 weeks. Merry Christmas everybody!

12.11.09 - V-land

Today was one of those days at v-land that you live for. I surfed it for about 5 hours - so hungry, so tired, reef cuts, cramps, rash all over the place, and.....one big fat smile on my mug.

It wasn't the best I've surfed it, but it was close. The tide was dropping, the swell (STILL leftover from the big stuff this week, amazing) was still pulsing pretty good and super consistent, maybe in the 3-5' range with some bigger ones every once in a while, the water was so clear and it was sunny w/light offshores. Plus everyone in the water seemed to be in a pretty good mood, which is always a plus out there when you're sharing waves with 30 or 40 of your "closest friends".

Like usual, I wasted about 30 minutes of my time sitting on the outside battling for a few so-so bombs before I realized, again like usual, that the inside drainers was where it was at (I should just make a permanent rule for myself never to go out there unless it's uncrowded because it's such a waste of time). Most people were sitting on the outside or waiting to pick off those medium sized ones that back off from the outside. Me and just a handful of others, though, were getting pitted out of our minds on the inside that was just so perfect and so hollow (esp. w/the tide going down). I think I may have caught the most amount of waves I've ever caught in a single session at v-land and I'm pretty positive I had the most amount of shacks I've ever had in a single session there. It was starting to get a little routine at times, actually. That wide inside bowl was so consistent and in the same spot every time that it was just turn around, drop, stall, get swallowed, get spit out, do it again. Almost every single wave. Once in a while there would be one of those fatties that missed the outside and would swing around wide and just hit the reef and throw like a sledgehammer over the inside but for the most part it was just little 2 or 3 ft. waves but super square over very little water.

Now, if I can manage to score a few more sessions like that in a few months from now when there are half as many bodies in the water...

12.8.09 - Green Lanterns

Frustrating! I stuck to shooting vid and pics all day yesterday (other than that weak session at Pounders) with the idea that the swell would hold and I'd be all over it today. Well, the swell for sure held (maybe even pulsed a little stronger at times), but I stayed up too late last night and didn't get out to Yokes side early enough. Just my luck, lifeguards closed the beach! I probably sat too long and watched (more vid and pics) because I just started to get more and more irate. 2nd dip was dredging and reeling like crazy, perfect light offshore winds, too. Today was definitely cleaner and more lined up than yesterday, which made it even more frustrating to have to sit and watch. Was seriously a beautiful scene. Couple guys went try and chance 'em walking down the beach. Hope they didn't get citations.

So by the time I could peel myself from off the guardrail over there, most all the other spots were getting that midday onshore texture. Settled on the shorebreak/inside of GLs. Pretty typical - mean kine current, but some super fun drops. The thing I like about that spot is that when you can get into one, you get a lot of speed and it gives you time to line things up for what you hope is a backdoor into that chunky end ledge just before the shorebreak. Had a couple like that, but I couldn't (ok fine, wouldn't) quite pull in.

Luckily, looks like the swell is still pumping so maybe, just maybe, I'll finally score tomorrow.

12.7.09 - Pounders (?)

Yeah, kinda weird how I ended up here with all the massive swell all over the island. I was shooting pics and vids all morning and thought I might score with a session like I had at Chevron's last year around this time. Nope. Big as expected over there, but north winds made all the decent spots super sketchy, pretty closed out. So just messed around for a little while at the old stomping grounds. Not very stompy today. Tomorrow, I'm hungry. Back to da westside.

11.30.09 - Ma'ili Point

Weird swell going on right now. Kinda big but sort of messy, sort of short interval, long lulls, SUPER windy. After sitting on the outside peak/bowl turned out to be a waste of time, I ended up getting shacked pretty good sitting on the inside, multiple times. When that blallah of a seal came cruising through the lineup just before dark, though, it was time for me and my boy to catch one more in. Big stuff on the horizon within the next week.

11.26.09 - Ma'ili Cove

Pre-Thanksgiving dinner goodies. After checking multiple spots but not wanting to ruin the flavor from last night's sick session, I decided to sample Ma'ili Cove for the first time the next morning. A whole lot squarer and hollower than it looks from the hill's grassy edge, once you get at water's level. Some of the sketchiest reef I've seen, too, dumping right on some pretty rigid, abrasive sand-embedded rocky slab that looks deceivingly like soft sand (not to mention the waves starts off right in front of a jagged rocky slab, sort of like a mirror image, right-handed Tumbleland). Such a fun wave, though, with a ton of speed and lots of barrel potential. I may have had the best barrel of my life, actually. Not the biggest, but easily the deepest and probably the longest I've had. On my last wave, I lucked into one with quite a bit of shoulder (most had very little, just kind of running across the reef on a sharp angle, very north). There was a lot of ripples running across and up the face, too, from the back/sidewash so I had even more speed and hollowness going than usual. The thing just encased me for a good 3 seconds and shot me out clean onto the shoulder. None of this shallow cover-up stuff while sliding up and down the face. Genuinely shacked. Yeah, I screamed and splashed my arms in the water like a little girl. I got out after that one - I couldn't dishonor that wave by trying to get another one, it was that good. So...yeah...I'll be checking it again.

11.25.09 - Ma'ili Point

As good as Monday was out at Ma'ili Point, it's now a distant memory after this afternoon/evening's session. THE most epic session I've ever had out there. Thick, bowling, top-to-bottom-barrelling 6-8 ft. freight trains. I was the lone bodyboarder out there but surprisingly got tons of waves, including 2-3 of the biggest, air-droppin'-in-the pit, hollowest ones of my life. Reminded me a lot of that sesh last winter at Chevron's (maybe just a hair smaller). Not to mention you could pretty much ride a single wave all the way across to the river mouth, probably a good 200+ yards. Still figuring out how to slow down on that particular wave. A smaller, crescent tail board would be ideal, but that's life with no flow. The only bad thing about this session? That I spent so long taking pics in the morning and didn't paddle out at Ma'ili earlier!

11.23.09 - Ma'ili Point

Wow. Some serious size again. If it weren't for some SSW swell crossing things up, the point woulda been all-time I think. Still, it was pretty solid, even if it was dropping. It was super shifty out there and with how it was dropping - dropping but not completely - you'd get suckered into moving inside a little bit during big lulls, only to get annihilated by macking sets that were still coming in every now and then. I can't remember ever having to ditch my board on two straight waves until today. My leash is pretty much pau, almost completely straightened out! Yup, took some beatings but also had a couple of the longest waves I've probably ever had. Not the greatest bodyboarding day but it was good to be in some size. At times, it felt like skipping rocks on the pond out there and me and my board were the rock. When both hamstrings were about to lock up with cramps, that was it. Fricken' amped, though - just pau with school for the whole week and swell on the horizon for days (not to mention grinds on Thursday - Happy Thanksgiving)!

11.21.09 - V-land

Decided to hit V-land on the way home to Makaha from a meeting in Laie. Pretty north and tradesy but still some good little connectors over the inside shelf. My last wave was probably one of my deepest and roundest barrels I've ever had out there (which is a lot of waves). Also saw this massive monk seal just cruising around in the lineup, only like 20-30 feet away from everyone. He looked like he was just chillin' and having a good time like everyone else, but still, anytime you see something bigger than yourself in the water, your heart jumps a little.

Waiting for the real goods with swell coming in for days over the next couple weeks.

11.19.09 - Ma'ili Point

SSW still holding but seemed to be a little more south out at the point, where the lines were getting broken up at the point proper while a little more organized further up and further down the way. It was super frustrating, too, because we'd get suckered into catching the smaller ones on the inside because the waits were pretty long, then a 5+ wave overhead set would come and just mow us down. Had some pretty sick rights, though (mahalo's to da high tide).

Spookiness at the end. I was waiting for my last wave to take me in and as I sort of lunged forward to paddle for a wave, I kicked something really solid. It wasn't my own foot because my legs were apart and it wasn't the reef because it was right at the surface. I whipped my head around so fast. I kept telling myself it was just a turtle, just a turtle. Luckily I caught one in soon after. Made waiting for that last one super sketchy, though.

11.17.09 - Yokes

Went out for some late season SSW. They were calling like 2-3', but I had my doubts if we were even going to get that. To my surprise, it was pretty solid in that range, with a few runs of some bigger sets. Just the 4 of us for quite a while...it was pretty epic all-in-all, all things considered (although freaken' cold at first with some howling offshores and the sun coming up later and later). Had a couple of sick lefts and one really fun right, too (tide was nice and fat). Very first wave, got worked pretty good - it was super hard offshore that morning and I dropped in with one eye closed with water in it, the other squinting with the spray coming off the lip. I extended my board to try and keep contact with the face to make the drop but all I felt was air. I kept waiting to reconnect with the face but instead, my face connected with the water in the flats. I ended up just kind of doing this slow pirouette towards oblivion and then got pushed deep and held down for a surprisingly long time for how small it was. Other than that wave, though, da sesh was solid. More/lasting SSW the rest of the week, awwrrright!