Patience

So if you live in Hawaii, you definitely know. If you live anywhere else, perhaps you saw or heard it in the news. We had massive swell and amazing conditions this week. The Eddie Aikau contest went and it was all-time. I only watched on the internet, though, because I was too busy watching/riding all the sick waves on the west side. See the previous post for most of the stuff I captured.

Monday was the first big day of the swell and I decided to spend it taking pics and shooting vid with the idea that I'd be all over it on Tuesday. Well, I go out to check Yokes area and 2nd Dip is going off.

Problem was, right when I got there, the lifeguards closed the gate to the beach. You killing me, guys! Monday was kinda wild and stormy and just beastly. Tuesday was clear, blue, organized, still big (yet smaller than Monday), with perfect offshores, yet they still closed it. Hey, tourists are messing around on north shore beaches in much more dangerous conditions! I can't even describe how frustrated I was. I almost followed a couple other guys by taking my chances at racing across the sand, leaving my car on the hill (lucky thing I didn't, a cop showed up and went in after them a little while after they got in the water). Needless to say, no session that day could've possibly made up for what we were made to drive away from. (Click to grow)



More of what we were forced to watch from the hill...



So I decided for the next morning that I was going to beat those stinking lifeguards to the gate. Well, I got there early, but the gate was still locked from the previous day. Aaaahh! This time I tried to bolt for it across the sand. If only I hadn't hesitated/watched for 5 minutes, I would've been in the water but instead, I got whistled back about halfway down the beach by a DLNR officer who just happened to show up right then. Major bummer at first, but I decided to wait and see if the lifeguards were going to show up and open up the gate. Well, an hour+ later, they did just that. Suddenly, they were everybody's friends! All the antsy braddahs at the gate jetted to 3rd Dip while I went, all by myself, to 2nd Dip.

To say I scored doesn't even come close to describing it. Perfect, glassy, HARD-sucking, square, dredging barrels, all to myself (one guy, Justin, below, joined me after an hour or so). There's this crazy ledge that jacks up out of nowhere that you suddenly find yourself looking over, with a decision to make.....I hit the reef a couple of times in multiple places (and probably should've hit it a couple more), but it was so worth it. I took some pics but like usual, they don't even come close to what what these eyes saw. I'd pay money to reproduce, for you, what I saw. The 3 day patience was worth it. Another spot to check when the NPAC is pumping.

All these are pretty weak compared to what I saw, but they're not too bad either...

The downer of this session? After riding for awhile, I caught one in to go get my camera. There was a sneaker huge set that came through where I had to dive super deep to avoid getting blown up. Almost had to put my face on the bottom to avoid the turbulence. Well, I don't think my camera was too happy about this because it sprung a leak and as of right now, it's still dead. So unless Santa is good to me in a couple weeks, this blog might be photo-less for awhile.