Water: Cool for Hawaiian standards
Atmosphere: Sunny
Winds: Off shore
I was awoken by my the gentle humming of my cell phone and a car's exhaust hurriedly going up the road. It sounded like Alex's car.
Missed Call: Alex
I call him back. "Hey, I think that I heard you go past the house. Turn back around."
Alex has made the trek to the North Shore with one of his buddies, D-Roy. I sheepishly greet them. It was my first full night's sleep since getting to Hawaii. The Dojo is great, but having your own bed is definitely something that was missing on my vacation.
I give them a tour of the house and tell them to settle in. I hadn't done any grocery shopping, so I could only offer them water. I tell them I have to do my shoulder exercises, and then we can go surf.
"This is a sick place!" Alex and D-Roy say.
"Yea, it's really nice, I really out-did myself with it here."
"Where do you wanna surf?"
"Well, V-land is right down the street, and I got this place so we can surf there, but we can surf wherever," I tell them.
"V-land sounds good man, I haven't surfed there in a long time," D-Roy says.
"We can walk there, it's just 3 blocks over that way," I say.
"Man, walking's for POOR PEOPLE!" Alex says. "I'll drive."
"Really man? It's right down the street..."
"I'll drive," he insists.
Fine, drive. V-land is literally three blocks down. It wasn't much of a drive.
I brought my Neckbeard out to this session. We parked our car, and walked down the asphalt, through some trees, and bam, there's an A-Frame peeling right in front of us. There are about ten, twelve people in the line up. There's a knee boarder, some body boarders, a chick, and a few uncles surfing. I mean, it's a weekday, what did you really expect? Plus there isn't much swell in the water.
We stretch, and D-Roy says, "Man, it's gonna be COLLLDDD."
"Oh you Hawaiians, so spoiled," I laugh.
The Soft Top Bandit paddles out, and I follow him through the channel. I start thinking to myself, man, this is the spot that every Hawaiian talks about. The legendary Dale Velzy's name is on this spot. Buttons surfed here. The Ho's. The Rothmans. The Bustin Down the Doors. They all surfed here.
The wave itself is like Trestles. The rights are nice and long, and the lefts are there if you're willing to put up with the shallow inside. The take off is steep, and the sections barrel most of the time. The inside is shallow, so you don't want to get caught on the sets.
I learned the line up this day, and where to line myself up. There was a definite pecking order, where the Uncles and the knee boarder had priority. We waited for wider sets to break and picked off the smaller waves. Alex aka the Soft Top Bandit was in the thick of things and charging hard. He inspired me to charge into the pack and go for the set waves.
I caught one good wave where I got two round house carves off. The wave was so fat and meaty that two round house carves fit into the face. I pumped, bottom turned mid face and arched around, then pumped from the white water and did a round house again in the flats.
D-Roy was wearing similar boardshorts to this other local, so I found myself hooting at the wrong dude. Oops.
The guys in the line up were very helpful. They told me if I saw a peak pop up to the left of me, then the wave will bend right where we were sitting. If it broke outside, then it will swing wide and break to our left. Those ones are bigger and harrier, but they offered a barrel off the take off. I missed one of these wide ones where an Uncle was telling me to go, but the lip was barreling over me so I bailed out. Still getting used to this break... I felt a bit inadequate in my abilities, naturally.
"I like these in between days... they make my winter. Everyone would be out and crowding the spot if it was a big day... but these in between days... when no one's out? They're the best," and Uncle said. I have to agree. I didn't quite understand what he meant by "crowding" but I will find out soon enough, since I was living down the street here.
We surfed for a few hours and called it a day.
Kev had called us, and he said they were en route to the North Shore. We said we needed to grab food, so they should meet us in Haleiwa.
On the way there, we had parked at Wailua Bakery. The place was PACKED. I saw Sage Erickson's sexy ass there as we walked by the line. She was talking with some other professional surfers. So, we opted out of Wailua Bakery and decided to try a Viet Namese place. Unfortunately when we crossed the street where the Viet Namese restaurant was located, it was closed. So, we decided to eat at L&L.
Alex had lost his $20, so I bought the boys lunch since they came all the way out here. Kev and B-Sauce showed up to the L&L, and ordered some food too. Alex was still bummed about his lost $20, so I told him we should retrace our steps, and maybe it will still be out there.
After we eat, we cross the street and start to retrace our steps. I find a $5 bill on the ground, so I thought to myself, "Oh, I should give this to him so he doesn't feel so bummed."
Then, I see a crumpled up $20 bill near our car. BINGO.
"Yo! Found it!! I found this $5 and was gonna give it to you, but since we found your $20, I'm gonna keep it."
"Whaaaat? You found the $20? And you found a $5?" Alex was flabbergasted.
We get to my house and give the boys a small tour. Then we go to V-land where we surf a second session. The second session had more or less the same crowd of Uncles, the chick, and more groms out since school was done. It was still pretty small, but I struggled catching waves while not running over the groms on the inside. Alex, of course, took a lot of waves on his soft top. We surfed for a good two and a half hours this second session, but it was more of a learning session for me than anything.
I took off on a set wave that came to me on the inside. It was a beautiful wave, but it seemed to close out in front of me, and I thought I could have gotten around it. The wave crashed, and I couldn't get around the section. I was now stuck in the shallows of V-land. And when I mean shallows, I mean knee deep with sets breaking on your head. Nothing you can do but take it without duck diving, stand up, get your feet cut up, and hope the sets let up. I paddled around the reef, and paddled back into the channel and politely bowed out of the line up.
However, in hindsight, I should have just pulled into the barrel first, and then think about what to do with the section ahead of it. I had missed the barrel. I was pissed at myself for missing the barrel. It was RIGHT THERE. It was mine for the taking. I took off smoothly behind the peak, and all I had to do was to shoot for it. Instead, I went around it, and got punished. Indeed, the safest place to be on a wave is inside the barrel.
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| Sunsets in HI |
That night, I got invited to the Outrigger Canoe Club's Annual Christmas party. I had to drive into Town during rush hour, but hey, it was a party. It was an all you can eat buffet, and I had a grand time. There was some entertainment and games played by the staff of the Outrigger Canoe Club. There were some cool people I met there which I hope to keep in touch with, and not to say that there were a few alcoholic beverages to be had too. The party ended, and we ended up at the bar. Alex was having some girl trouble with Cass, so he was in a foul mood that night. Francis and I took off early in the night, and we came home to the Dojo, only to confront Cass crying her face off about Alex.
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| Buffet!! |
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| My first plate |
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