Mele Kalikimaka 122511

Surf Report: Solid 4 foot and the occasional 5 foot close out

Water: Cool

Winds: Off shore

Atmosphere: Sunny

I had a long day yesterday, with surfing, grocery shopping (I had finished my Christmas shopping by the first week of December), coaching, and then playing basketball after coaching for another hour and a half.  Needless to say, I was sore.  Luckily, I’ve been taking a good regimen of stretching throughout the day and every morning, so the soreness was bearable.

I got up kind of late, and texted Matt to see if he was paddling out.  He said he was going to head out later to wait for the tide to top off.  I asked him if I could come by to his house to drop off a bottle of wine for him and Lauren, and he said sure.  As I was driving on the freeway, he calls me saying that he will meet me at the beach!

I was stoked to see him on Christmas day.  If there was one person I would surf with that day, it would be him.  The parking lot was practically empty, and there was only one guy out in the water.  The locals were calling it “unruly” and “not worth it” but I was determined to paddle out.

Last Christmas, I was out of the water because of my injury.  It was the first Christmas I had gone without surfing since I started surfing seven years ago, and so I was adamant on paddling out this year, on this day. 

Don was paddling out, and so was this Kauai kid Kyle.  I suit up and head out. 

Matt catches me as we make our way to the line up.  The line up was empty, with Eric and a few other dots speckled across the horizon.  Not too many takers today… but it’s ok!  That’s how I prefer it.

I definitely took some sets on the head today.  It was a day where the white water explodes right in front of you and you just hold onto your board as you get washed around, and come up smiling from the near death experience.  To me, this is the most fun I could have surfing, since the waves are slightly life threatening but just enough to keep you charging. 

Matt and I talk about the ensuing opening day of the NBA season, and what our plans are going to be.  We both have our schedules booked for the day, and so we share in this moment together of five foot close outs rolling in. 

My first wave was a small right where I was pumping twice and the white water section just crumbles the section ahead of me.  I was stoked.

Matt took a lot of rights that day in between our conversations of how he scored yesterday at HB.  He said he felt bad that Khang didn’t really score that day, but I told him that it’s fine, since not everyone can “score” on the same day. 

I took a nice little left that I pumped backside on, and initiated a bottom turn only to bog out.  I still have to work on that, but at least I got some backside pumps on it. 

I started to go for the barrels on the left sections, since that seemed to be working in my eyes.  I got pinched twice, but it was all in fun. 

I can see the sets rolling through, and so I turned around and paddled in.  I got my feet wet, surfed with a friend, got worked on a few, and caught a few fun waves.  What an amazing Christmas!! 

Mele Kalikimaka, and Mahalos Mother Ocean.