Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono - Ala Moana Bowls 062312

0.5 – 1 feet

Off shore

Sunny

Cool water

Surf session with Kilty!!  I woke up at 700 AM and texted Kilty if she was down to surf before I left.  She answered that she was down, and offered to pick me up and drive us to Town.

It was another low tide day.  On the paddle out, I felt the reef on my hands.  I grabbed the reef while paddling.  When we got out to the line up, the place was infested with longboarders and people learning from lessons conducted by local Hwaiians.  It was a bit kloudy when we left, and so Kilty said, “I hope that the sun comes out…” as she smiled.

And just like that, the sun came out.

Kilty is a good surfer from Kaneohe.  I met her through a mutual friend back in LA while she was attending UCLA.  Today, she would take waves all the way to the inside and paddle back out, only to take another wave all the way in.

It was not such a great day for shortboarding, but I was able to get a few waves under my belt.  No turns, just pumping and chop hopping.  Still, I was stoked, and happy to be spending my last hours in Hawaii in the water. 

Ala Moana Bowls is a left that peels perfectly.  The legend Gerry Lopez honed his barrel riding skills at this very spot.  I can see how on a bigger day this place would be firing, but today was just a small day for surf. 

The water was so clear and the lulls were long, so I went diving.  I could see the coral breathing in and out, swaying with every wave.  I wish we had goggles on to see what was under here.  Kilty even said she had found a Nixon watch under water.  During a lull, I was diving, staring at the corals.  I resurfaced to find a small bump forming ahead of me.  I scramble to get on my board and awkwardly paddle for the wave to no avail.  Kilty laughs at my goofy nature and I laugh back. 

A word of advice: Don’t go right at Bowls.  This place is not like Kewalos, where the right is sort of makeable.  The right here is down right unmakeable.  I went for a right, and as soon as I popped up, I knew I was in trouble.  I could see the cry reef ahead o fme as the white water crumbled behind me.  I tried to casually kick out but the wave just kept taking me across the reef.  I felt an initial kiss on my back.  I felt my feet getting dragged on the reef.  And then I felt my elbow get thrashed by the reef.  I had to stand on the reef and wait for a few waves to pass before walking on the reef and walk out to the channel in order to paddle out.  Kilty was smiling at me as I made my paddle back out. 

“I guess I shouldn’t go right here huh?” I said.  She laughed at me.

As we sat, Kilty tells me a joke: “What did the spam tell the rice?” 

“Hmm, I don’t know.  What?”

“Let’s get nori (naughty)!”

I laughed out loud at that joke.  And then I laughed a little more thinking of caricatures of a piece of spam and some rice, getting together and getting naughty with nori. 

Kilty suggested we paddle across the reef to a right that was less crowded.  It was a spot called Rockpiles Rights, and it wasn’t as crowded as Bowls, but there was a definite hierarchy.  The Uncles took the best waves, all the time.  Kilty got two good rides, taking them all the way to the inside.  Must be that Hawaiian blood that flows so vigorously inside of her. 

She was trying to encourage me into waves, but it seemed the waves were not cooperating.  Our time in the water was running low.

We decided to paddle in.  I was convinced that we were around Kaiser’s and that we could paddle through the boat channel, as Fransauce and I did a few days ago. I paddled a little wide to the right, thinking to myself, “Where are the buoys showing the boat channel?”

Well bubba, there ain’t no buoys, since there ain’t no channel, since you ain’t at Kaisers! 

I feel my fins hit the reef.  OH FUCK.  Kilty looks back at me, probably wondering why I didn’t follow her into the channel.  She points to my left. 

Health Bar Acai Bowl! Delicious

I had to walk on the reef for a few minutes in order to get into the channel.  I received more Hawaiian kisses on my body.  I had to laugh, since it felt like the most fitting way to say “A hui hou” (see you again) to Hawaii.

Kilty drove me back to the Dojo as Lauren Hill’s voice seeped through her speakers.  We said our “see you laters” and parted. 

If you don’t already know, I missed my flight home that day.  I felt that me missing my flight was meant to be.  There were a lot of factors leading up to me missing my flight:  the juicer at the Health Bar breaking down while B-Sauce and I waited for a light snack before I departed, or the cones blocking off two lanes on the H-1, or me getting lost to find the rental car return place.  All of it happened for a reason.  Perhaps I was meant to stay in Hawaii a little bit longer?  Sitting in the airport for close to eight and a half hours, I was able to contemplate my trip to Hawaii this time around.  I reflected on all the people I met, the food I ate, the Aloha spirit I received and gave, and the overall joy I felt being in the land of Hawaii.  I was pretty bummed I was leaving this land, that I wasn’t going to see my friends every day anymore… that Fransauce was no longer going to be in LA when I return.

25 side orders of Garlic Chicken - gone within 30 hours

But I stopped feeling bummed as quickly as I started.  For all I have to do is come to the land of Aloha by perpetuating the Aloha wherever I go.  I have to have the Fransauce factor: Cool, Calm, and Collected, under any situation.  And that bright smile too.

Surfing wise, I learned a lot about paddling, positioning, duck diving, and riding the wave, not the board.  When I paddle for a wave, I have to position myself in the most uncomfortable place on the wave, right where the wave breaks.  In my head, that is most uncomfortable because it is the most consequential, but I have to get over that.  I started to do that half way through the trip, and it was working.  We will see how far I can take this plateau.  

Ala Moana Bowls Kiss <3

I’ve also concluded that in order to reach certain goals in my life, I need to move to Hawaii.  I don’t know how or when this is going to happen, but I would want my family to be raised in the Aloha way, where caring about others and cooperating and giving is championed, not punished.  On top of that, I really don’t see how else I’m going to start getting set waves in Hawaiian waters unless I start living here and going to the same spot every day, all day.  I definitely have to move here. 

Finally, Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono is the Hawaii state motto, which roughly translates to English, “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.”  No matter how many highways or condominiums are built in this modern day, the Hawaiian spirit will always be alive and well, perpetuated by the land and the people.  You just have to live the Hawaiian way.

Mahalos Mother Ocean.  Mahalos to all the OG Dojo members and their friends.  And Mahalos to the Land of Hawaii.  A hui hou!!!