KK's Surf Kronicles: KKs Vacay - Haleiwa and Sandy's 120613

Surf Report: 3-5 feet on the face Head High + on sets
Winds: off shore
Atmosphere: Sunny
Water: Warm - Duh, it's Hawaii

The three muskateers: Fransauce, Alex, and myself.

I get up early, from my slumber on B-sauce's living room floor. I start my yoga and theraband exercises slowly, and then make my way to Bogarts. I ask Fransauce if he wanted a bagel sandwich, but he wanted an omelette with breakfast potatoes instead. I get Alex a bagel sammich too, since his phone number changed to an 808 area code.

We all eat our breakfast, pile our stuff into Francis's car, and hit the road to the West Side of Oahu. I play some tunes from the back as we head to the West side, hoping the swell has filled in. Francis points out a road with a center divider.

"We got a 9-1-1 call when I was at this gas station further up, and I headed the wrong way. The guy had cardiac arrest, and we couldn't U-turn forever. I felt so bad."

We start checking spots on the West Side.

"This place right here, it's usually a good indicator if there are waves on the West Side."

It was flat.

We drive further and further, but there were no waves. The swell wasn't hitting here yet...

"Should we go to the North Shore?" Francis asked.

"Yea, let's go there. I haven't been back since 2008 to surf North Shore."

"Where should we go? Puena Point?" Alex asked.

"How about Haleiwa?" Francis said.

"I wanna try Haleiwa. I've never surfed it. I've watched all the competitions though, so I wanna see it."

"You think Klaude will be ok there?" Alex asked Francis

"Yea, he'll be fine. Just watch out for the toilet bowl section cuz it's shallow."

So, off to Haleiwa we went.

The familiar roads leading to the North Shore hit a soft spot for me. I really love the North Shore, or the Country as Hawaiians call it. There really isn't anything around here, besides local communities, world class surf spots, and Foodland. Haleiwa town is a small, quaint town with surf shops, places to eat, and small clothing stores dotting the area. We drove to a huge parking lot marked Ali'i Beach Park. The famed Ali'i Beach Park that I always heard about on the webcast... and now I'm here. I walk to take a look at the break, and it's just like how we see it on the webcast. There were maybe ten heads out, and the five foot faces rolled in periodically. There were kids playing in the shore break where the channel started. It was a world class surf spot, but indeed a beach PARK, with benches and picnics being set up with people laying out on the sand.

Alex and I wear jackets to protect our skin, while Francis lets his sexy brown skin bronze even more. We grab our boards, and head down to the beach. I stretch, and Francis points out the channel and where the toilet bowl section is.

"Try to go around that section, and then just paddle straight out," he says.

So, here I am, back on the North Shore... paddling into some medium/small surf. I can see the reef in the toilet bowl section, and paddle around it. The toilet bowl section is super shallow, like the webcasters always say it is. I see small groups of people sitting on the peak, and some scattered wide of the peak. I sit wide of the peak first.

I see Alex catch a set wave on his foamie. I inch closer to where he took off. I see Francis take off on a wave. I inch closer to the pack.

I take off on my first wave, and it's so easy. It's such a perfect wave, I bottom turn, carve off the top, then pump down the line and carve off the top on the toilet bowl section. It's so shallow I can stand here. I paddle around it with a smile on my face.

Francis took one left that he pumped down the line, and unleashed buckets of spray on. He lost control of his board because he pushed so hard off the tail.

Alex was killing it this day, taking a lot of waves. He is really good on a longboard, and it doesn't matter that it's a soft top - he was just killing it. He is goofy, so he took off backside on a right. It was steep so he grabbed rail on the take off to help angle the board. I duck dived right near him on the head high wave. He makes a huge backhand turn on the foamie and comes back stoked.

"Nice wave Alexxxxxx!" I say.

"Thanks Kimo!" he says.

"You know what the best part of that wave was?" I ask.

"What's that?"

"That I saw it!" We laugh.

Indeed, the best waves we ride are the ones our friends see us on, since we share the experience of riding waves from two different perspectives: one as the rider, and one as the observer, hooting them as they drive down the line.

I catch a left where the take off was super smooth, and bottom turn. I wait an extra second to make my turn, and feel my toes dig in to the tail pad. It was a one shot wave, but I was happy to get that turn.

"Yo! That was a sick turn! Shredddddding it Kimo," Alex says. "You know what the best part of that wave was?"

Driving to the North Shore, you see pineapple fields forever

"No, what?"

"That I saw it!"

There were maybe ten people in the line up the whole time. I'm not sure how long we surfed for, but it was fun. We all catch our last waves in and shower off.

We decide to eat at Wailua Bakery in Haleiwa. Immediately, we see Cheyne Magnusson and Matt Wilkinson eating inside. I was star struck, but kept it cool. We order our food, and proceed to sit outside. As we walk out, Taj fucking Burrow walks in.

"Oh my god!! it's TB!!! Guys, I have to get a photo with him," I say.

He was with a girl and talking with Wilko, and so I waited for him to stop talking with Wilko to ask.

"Hey Taj!"

"Hey, how are you?"

"I'm good, thanks. Look, I'm a big fan of yours, is it ok if we took a photo together?"

"Yea, right mate! No problem!" He was genuinely stoked to take a photo with me.

"Should I take it for you?" the girl asked.

"Naw, we'll selfie it, we've done this many times," Taj said, as he smiled.

Snap snap.

Taj Fucking Burrow

"Thanks man! Good luck at Pipe this weekend!"

"Thanks mate!!"

Wow, he is payed millions of dollars to surf, and he was totally cool with some surf geek coming up to him and taking a photo with said surf geek. How. FUCKING. Cool.

We eat our delicious post surf meal and Alex has some jail bait call out to him. She works at the Outrigger Canoe Club too. She was with a bunch of other girls, and they had just shopped at San Lorenzo bikini shop. They had a 50% off sale, which explain the throngs of girls going in and out of this parking lot with bags full of bikinis.

The sign at the register of Wailua Bakery in Haleiwa

Definitely a must if you're on the North Shore

Alex has to get to work, so we head out of the Country. We hit horrendous traffic, and so Alex takes a nap in the back. Francis and I drive back on the H2 and H1 and get back to Town and wake up Alex. Alex calls in saying he will be late for work. I guess it's ok to be a little late for work in Hawaii... haha.

When we get back to the Dojo, we start playing some ping pong with B-sauce and Taiki. After a few rounds of ping pong, we decide on going to Sandy's again.

We body surf while B-sauce and Francis go shell diving. It starts to rain a little bit as we get home, and we start deciding where we need to eat. Taiki had dinner plans already so he wouldn't join us this night for dinner.

It's in the water

B-sauce wanted to take me to a noodle spot called YOTTEKO-YA. This charming place is a gem!! It was the best broth this side of Japan. It blew all the ramen places I ate at in Los Angeles that I touted as the best ramen outside of Japan. They use half chicken, half pork broth to come up with an elaborate tasting broth that is silky smooth. I later asked the owner what was their secret, to which she replied, "It's the water. Mainland water is not like Japan or Hawaii's water... so you have to use different techniques or gimmicks to get the flavor out, but in Japan, or Hawaii, it's the same water, so it's easy to get the flavor out." Nuff said.

Afterwards, we go to Bubbies to get some mochi ice cream. We each get four flavors... yum! And holy shit was the cashier girl cute!!! I lost myself and found myself mouth agape and stuttering. B-sauce clowned me on that.

Alex came home with Cass that night, and Cassandra and I played ukulele together.