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April 2000

Saturday April 1, 2000
8:15a - 11:15a
West Shore (ili)
Avg wave face 5-7 feet
Sets wave face 8-10 feet, occ bigger
Partly sunny;  monster side-offshore winds

(Rich back on shorty, Neal @ stinks, nice rights, WIND, Larry Rios, got da bomb)

Sunday April 2, 2000
11:30a - 1:00p
North Shore (kea)
Avg wave face 6-7 feet
Sets wave face 8-10+ feet
Cloudy, raining;  monster side shore winds

(solo, no one out, turtle sharks, tool)

Thursday April 6, 2000
2:30p - 5:30p
North Shore
Avg wave face 4-5 feet
Sets wave face 6-7 feet, a few lil bigger
Partly sunny; slight side-offshore winds

The past few sessions on an old back up board has me pulling my hair out. This was the first day in weeks that the wind was almost back to normal rates. . . .and it was sunny for once. The left over NE windslop had cleaned up by noon, so me & Rich made a bee line for Laniakea. Our timing looked good, as the tide was coming in and there was only a half dozen or so in the
lineup. We jumped in right away.

Sets were a foot or two overhead and the in-betweens were fun waist to head high. . . .but I could not put two consecutive turns together. I blew my first three waves, each one the best wave of the set and each time kooking out in two turns or less.

An hour into the session I was still struggling to keep a decent place in the pecking order, when the crowd exploded into several dozen. I guess it didn't take long for word to get out that the waves were small and clean. Funny, a few days ago I surfed here from noon to 2pm without ever seeing another surfer.

Rich was having a decent session, but he was seething after the umpteenth time a clueless surfer ruined a great section by paddling *into* his path,  rather than take a hit from a f**king head high wave. A few waves later, the same situation occurred but Rich went for the lip bash. . .he made it past, but the kook panicked and tossed his board. Paddling back out he said he'd
ran someone over and was afraid to look at the bottom of his board. We looked all over the bottom and found nothing. Almost too good to be true until he noticed one of the forward fins was teetering, hanging by a few ragged strands of fiberglass. Faaaaaaaak.

Rich tried surfing a couple, holding the broke-off fin in his mouth, but that didn't last long. We went in to put his board in the truck, grab his fins to maybe get some pics with the disposable camera and bodysurf a few. Somehow the camera popped out of his pocket while bodysurfing and it was gone. It was a full camera so at least there were no shots lost.

Around 5pm, the waves were dropping fast but the crowd continued to grow, so we gladly looked for waves to ride in, ready to call an end to a less than memorable session. We were so gung ho and stoked when we first hit the water, too. . . Oh well.

Good surfing to you,

Bud

(Makani, Rich on my old stick, me on new stick- stoked, no one else out, moray eel)

Thursday April 13, 2000
2:00p - 5:15p
North Shore (kea)
Avg wave face 4-5 feet
Sets wave face 6-7 feet, dropping
Partly sunny; Moderate- strong sideshore winds

(Rich board fixed & ripping,  new stick so-so, small crowd)

Friday April 14, 2000
11:30a - 1:30p
South Shore (LH)
Avg wave face 3-4 feet
Sets wave face 4-5 feet
Mostly sunny; Blasting sideshore winds

(solo,  new stick still not right, 2 others out, consistent, lots of waves surfed)

Saturday April 15, 2000
8:30a - 11:15a
South Shore (LH)
Avg wave face 3-4 feet
Sets wave face 4-5 feet
Partly sunny; Moderate sideshore winds early- growing very strong later

(Makani,  borrowed fin set- much better but not 100%)

Sunday April 16, 2000
7:15a - 10:00a
South Shore (LH)
Avg wave face 2-3 feet
Sets wave face 4, occ 5 feet
Cloudy; Blasting sideshore winds

(full crew,  new stick sometimes good, big pressure, Rich leashless, Neal rollos)

Wednesday April 19, 2000
2:15p - 6:15p
South Shore (LH)
Avg wave face 3-4 feet
Sets wave face 4-5, occ 6 feet
Sunny turning cloudy; Moderate, turning to strong sideshore winds

(Rich, Makan,  new stick better, talk about moving, basically kooking)

Saturday April 22, 2000
6:30a - 10:30a
South Shore
Avg wave face 3-4 feet
Sets wave face 4-5, occ 6 feet
Partly Sunny; Moderate sideshore winds

It's that time of year - the winter to summer transition - usually means lots of small & blown out surf. At least there is more potential for swellage from both north and south directions. It's easy to get spoiled by solid buoy readings during the winter here in Hawaii; These smaller, erratic springtime swell reports make it hard to figure which coast might have the best surf, especially the night before a dawn patrol.

As usual, Neal was on the road super early this morning. The north shore buoy report had dropped somewhat overnight. Our surfbud MM caught head to overhead surf on the southshore the day before, so Neal decided to check out our most frequent town spot, before heading to the country.

Neal buzzed me from the south shore lookout and said the sets looked chest to head high, maybe a little bigger. Brother Rich was on the way to pick me up and agreed it was best to go with the sure thing.

Cliffside getting ready to surf, we debated going leashless. . . then decided to wear 'em, knowing the tide was dropping and much more reef would be exposed as the morning progressed. The lines coming in looked halfway decent as we trotted down the path to the beach. Alone in the outer lineup, Neal was tagging everything in sight.

Throughout the morning, the conditions changed quite a bit. Mostly it was pretty well blown out, but not nearly as bad as the past few days out here. The crowd was never more than 3-4 others. Late in the session, for about an hour it almost glassed off and many of the waves seemed to be doubling up nicely. The small surf even packed a decent punch now and then, providing
enough ooomph to bury lotsa rail and smack the lip good.

Not the kind of surf or conditions to really test his bodyboarding skills, but Neal was definitely putting a 110% into it. He's been really gouging some severe bottom turns then pulling off these amazing lip bashing airborne el-rollos. Chout cuz- bumbai you going buss up yoa back. . .Rich was on fire too, looking completely solid with every hard & full turn. He has been snapping
quicker and coming off the bottom more square than ever before. Any doubts about whether he'd get used to his potato chip are long gone, imo. . . For me, although I flailed on quite a few, it was the first session on my new stick where I felt stoked about the way I surfed, so I was very satisfied.

Just before Neal was to leave, Rich and I were front row for a few of his last waves, repeatedly taking off in the hook then bursting through the curtain. A couple times he was a bit too late, giving us reason to wince and hoot as he paid the price.

We always seem to be out so much longer than other surfers, and still it's never enough for us. Over four hours in very mediocre surf. . . was pure fun all morning.

Good surfing to you,

Bud

Sunday April 23, 2000
9:30a - 12:30p
North Shore
Avg wave face 3-4 feet
Sets wave face 4-5, occ 6 feet
Sunny; Light offshore winds

I hit the road after sleeping in a bit. Nice open roads on this Holiday and I was groovin to an old Jesus and the Mary Chain cd. Half an hour later I was welcomed by another picture perfect morning in the country. Driving down Kam Highway overlooking Haleiwa, I could see enough whitewater on the reef to insure headhigh surf. Done it a gazillion times. . .but that feeling you get cresting that hill, then that first glimpse of faraway surf, is something special. At about 60mph, you have maybe 6-7 minutes with the whole North Shore spread out before you. . . big blue ocean, visible lines and whitewater everywhere. I first started coming over in the 70's; To this day I still get butterflies, even when I know it's gonna be small.

Pulled up to ---- and liked what I saw. The small NW bump wasn't much, but pretty well what I expected. Anything but a
straight N usually splits this place into several peaks which really spreads/thins out the crowd. There was only 6-7 out anyway, plus a  light offshore wind, bright sunshine and crystal clear waters--I didn't have to think twice about jumping in.

Decided to leave the leash in the truck since the crowd was light and waves were pretty small. Occasionally there were
overhead sets, but mostly it was chest to head high. Sweet little bowls were wedging off the northmost peak, giving a fast right or a short left to choose from.

My very first wave, I had to swim almost all the way in. . .I tagged a nice little right about chest high. . .couple roundhouses as the wave began to stand up, then I setup for a lip smack. Some guy was paddling out, but with the wide open wall, my line should have obvious. Came hard off the bottom and hit it nicely in the sweet spot of the lip. Common courtesy would have said to take a stroke or two toward my wake, but this guy kept going for the shoulder and was right under me as I came off a 180° turn. In a fraction of a second, it was either plow right onto him or kick my board away. I quickly flicked it down the line and did a butt first bail as he ducked the wave below me. When I popped out the back I saw that my board *almost* cleared the
section, but then the nose followed the tail as the lip slowly pulled it over the falls. . . .faaaaak. Of course the board stayed with the wave until the last inkling of whitewater had it as far away from me as possible.

Besides that initial swim, the rest of my morning turned out to be another great session for me. Never had to chase my stick again and was stoked with the way my board is feeling. Changing fins & adjusting the position a week ago made a big
difference. I was describing problems with the new stick to a friend from the factory and he gave me a slightly smaller fin template to try. I found it hard to believe fins a ¼ inch smaller would make any difference but it has changed my whole take on the board.

After my session, I went into Waikiki to visit my mom. From her 31st floor apartment I watched beautiful head high surf all along the south shore, and realized the wind was offshore down here too. Go figure.

Another Shitty Day in Paradise :-)

Bud

Tuesday April 25, 2000
1:30p - 4:15p
South Shore (LH)
Avg wave face 4 feet
Sets wave face 5-6 feet
Sunny; Moderate sideshore winds

(Rich ice, start good, photog, last 2 hours a kook fest)

Saturday April 29, 2000
7:30a -10:30a
East Shore "NB"
Avg wave face 3-4 feet
Sets wave face 5, occ 6 feet
Mostly sunny; Light- moderate sideshore winds

MM and I hop over to the east side for windslop plus a tiny NNE bump. The small mountain on the point at the south end
of the bay helps to block much of the prevailing sideshore wind (trades). Waist to chest high with occasional head high+ sets, sand bottom and crystal clear water. We join two others in the lineup, 4-5 others paddle out about an hour later; but by the last hour, we had the spot to ourselves. MM was slashin and burnin and going off as usual. In fact we both had good fun all morning.....MM grabbed the disposable & snapped this shot of me.

Good surfing to you,

Bud