Home  |  Photo Index  |  Journal Index  |  Misc

December 2000

Saturday December 2, 2000
7:15a - 10:30a
North Shore Rocky Point
Avg wave face 3-5 feet
Sets wave face 5-6 feet, occ lil bigger
Partly clear; Moderate variable/offshore winds

Wounded Neal photo session

Sunday December 3, 2000
7:00a - 10:30a
North Shore Pupukea
Avg wave face 3-5 feet
Sets wave face 5-6 feet, occ lil bigger
Sunny & clear; Moderate variable/offshore winds

Roxy shoot, epic sandbar conditions, girl shortboard surfers ripping, Makani beef, Rich & MM leashless, cameras everywhere

Thursday December 7, 2000
3:30p - 5:30p
North Shore /kea/
Avg wave face 5-6 feet
Sets wave face 7-8 feet, occ lil bigger
Sunny & clear; Moderate side offshore winds

Saturday December 9, 2000
7:30a - 10:30a
North Shore /kea/
Avg wave face 3-5 feet
Sets wave face 5-6 feet, occ lil bigger
Sunny & clear; Calm, light winds

Solo sesh leashless good fun
 

Wednesday December 13, 2000
1:00p - 4:00p
North Shore /kea/
Avg wave face 4-6 feet
Sets wave face 6-8 feet, dropping quickly in the eve
Partly sunny; Light variable winds

Mixed up but many excellent N swells, lining up nice.. Last wave good as Rich walked up

Saturday December 16, 2000
9:00a - 12:00p
North Shore /Lanch/Alii/
Avg wave face 6-8 feet
Sets wave face 9-11 feet, occ bigger, then dropping later in the day
Clear & sunny; Calm to very light variable winds

Sunday December 17, 2000
10:00a - 1:00p
North Shore - Sunset
Avg wave face 10-12 feet
Sets wave face 14-16 feet, occ bigger
Clear & sunny; Calm to light variable winds

My vehicle was crammed with spears, Brother Rich's 7'9" on top of the pile, passing between the front seats with the nose just under my rear view mirror. From buoy reports & the surf cams we went expecting some hefty surf. When we topped the first hill coming over to the country, we were surprised there was not more whitewater along the coast. It was still pretty big, but not as big as we were thinking it should be.

We were hoping for a repeat of the awesome surf me & MM caught at an outer reef yesterday so we looked from Haleiwa first, but the direction had changed more westerly so it just wasn't happening. Next stop Jockos, but that was a no-go also, the sets were connecting all the way across and making a big mess.

Onward to Sunset, or maybe 'yards, if it wasn't connecting/closing out. The Pipe contest was on and we had *never* seen so many cars parked on the mile of road fronting Ehukai. A few local homeowners sitting on lawn chairs cashing in on the action with crude signs saying "Parking- $2." Cars were completely overflowing all the grassy lots on the mountain side of Kam Highway; On the the ocean side they pulled right into the shrubbery along Ke Iki. I heard later that the surf was the best ever for the contest.

We pulled up to Sunset and could not believe how empty the parking area was. The surf was going off  ("At 11:00 a.m., yesterday morning, Sunday morning, there were no more than a dozen cars in the Sunset parking lot while dead-wind, 10- to 12-foot sets boomed off the west peak" - from this Swell.com write up )

The waves were cracking and Sunset was doing her thing. A few "names" were out, but Tommy Caroll was the star of the show, destroying the monster walls on his backhand and cutting it up in the lineup. The guy is just too cool. Besides the one biiiig local dude who would drop in with complete disregard and the few others who looked to be in over their heads, the mood in the water seemed to be "wow, where *is* everybody?" as reeling 15+ foot faces were picked off by us happy campers.

The waves were epic, but by noon it began to get inconsistent and the crowd started to grow. Our crew wasn't having the greatest of sessions, but we each nabbed some beauts. Just the rush of dropping into a massive Sunset bowl and racing the wall as it fully jacks up all the way across the middle is indescribable.

"There is no other wave like Sunset. Looking down and getting over the ledge on a big wave is f**king scary." - Brother Rich

As the sets became fewer, the wait would push us deeper and more inside looking for good waves, but ripe for serious poundings when the bombs snuck in. I got nailed hard by one such bomb... the extra meat on the borrowed 7'0" (thanks MM) gave me good paddling speed, but I miscalculated making it past this macker. Instead of pitching out over me as I expected, the lip hit mid face on the wave, just ahead of me. I was already mid-duck and hoped I might squeak past but I got crushed. Board ripped from me as I ragdolled, dragged with the wave... then the pull of my leash went limp. Faaak...

It's very disconcerting to be swimming so far outside and getting pounded. At least with a broken board you have a small piece of floatation. This set seemed relentless and after diving under each one, I came up gasping with less air than the last one.  I knew enough to stay away from the channel and it's outgoing rip, but I was having trouble fighting the panic, choking on the seawater of 2 foot thick froth while vicious north peaks slammed me down again and again.

A bit later, about 80 yards away Brother Rich was paddling back out in the channel and saw me bobbing in the impact zone. By then I had almost recovered my wits and waved him off. The idea is to let the whitewater push you in without fighting it too much, and it was finally working. Fifteen minutes after losing the stick I made it to the reform just off Val's reef, and now I could push off the bottom after being hit by the walls of whitewater, to get air quicker.

By now I was feeling the strain of the swim but knew I was fine. A minute or two of fear but cool thinking prevailed. Plus the image of being hauled in from the channel by a rescue ski like so many clueless kooks trying to swim in against the current was prominent in my mind. But the final blow was the last twenty yards to the beach- took nearly 10 minutes of hard swimming to get past the rip along shore and all the outflowing water.

Someone had found the board and stuck it in the sand. After I checked it out (no damage! The velcro had pulled free from the plug rope), I plopped on the hot beach and kicked back for about 20 minutes before round two. While resting I grabbed "Mr. Malibu's" loose board (broken leash) from the shoredump and stuck it in the sand. When he finally made it to shore, he looked just like how I felt a few minutes before :-)

Round two saw more crowd and even less waves, but my last wave turned out to be one of my best ones. Late drop into a full rail bottom turn then a nice snap under the lip as Rich was paddling by hooting for me. Worked it as far as it would take me and I kicked out all smiles.

Several broken leashes and at least 4 boards broken in the few hours we were out. Our crew and boards came through the day in one piece and we were quite happy about that!

Good surfing to you,

Bud

Friday December 22, 2000
8:30a - 11:30a
West Shore - Makaha
Avg wave face 5-7 feet
Sets wave face 7-11 feet
Clear & sunny; Light variable winds

Rich, uncrowded, Gerald Pavao, Puggy, Brian & Buff Keaulana

Saturday December 23, 2000
9:00a - 1:00p
West Shore /bondage/
Avg wave face 4-6 feet
Sets wave face 7-8 feet, dropping
Clear & sunny; Calm to light variable winds

Rich- Makani, keaus

Sunday December 24, 2000
9:00a - 12:00p
North Shore /kea/
Avg wave face 4-5 feet
Sets wave face 6-7 feet
Clear & sunny; Calm to light variable winds

Rich, sweet sesh

Wednesday December 27, 2000
2:15p - 5:30p
North Shore /kea/
Avg wave face 5-6 feet
Sets wave face 7-9 feet, occ bigger, then dropping
Clear & sunny; Calm to light variable winds

Rich, Ronnie, Pat, reef bounce, lip smack, beat up, good sesh

Saturday December 30, 2000
2:15p - 4:30p
West Shore /stinks/
Avg wave face 3-4 feet
Sets wave face 5-6 feet
Sunny & clear; Light variable winds

Solo the whole time, inconsitent but great fun, solid fin free lip bashes, borrowed board working good

Sunday December 31, 2000
7:15a - 10:00a
West Shore - Makaha
Avg wave face 4-6 feet
Sets wave face 7-8 feet
Clear skies; Light variable winds

Me & Rich, tide too high & too many FOGOLs. couple decent but overall a kook fest. Rich surfed a good sesh.