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January 2002
January 2002
Tuesday January 1, 2002
10:00a-1:00p
Avg wave face 5-7 feet
Sets wave face 8 feet (NW)
Sunny; Calm to light variable winds (SW)
I drove, Rich... BMW dude w/gf again.... Donavan Gonzales. Fun session
in better than expected conditions. SunBurnt.
Friday January 4, 2002
9:30a-11:30a
Makaha
Avg wave face 5-7 feet
Sets wave face 8-11 feet (NW)
Sunny; Very light side-onshore winds (SW)
Solo sesh, small crowd, good session in clean conditions
Monday January 7, 2002
7:15a-9:45a
Army
Avg wave face 4-5 feet
Sets wave face 6 feet (NW)
Mostly clear; Very light variable winds (SW)
Me
& Rich... Derrick from Hale Nalu, fair session in the oldest stompin
grounds
Wednesday January 9, 2002
2:00p-5:15p
Marines
Avg wave face 4-5 feet
Sets wave face 6-7 feet (NW)
Mostly clear; Moderate to strong offshore winds (SW)
Me
& Rich... Makani later.... bozoville by the rock, thumpin hollow inside...
paddled past runway & back
Saturday January 12, 2002
8:00a-11:15a
North Shore /kea/
Avg wave face 5 feet
Sets wave face 6-7 feet, a few little bigger early, dropping fast (NW)
Sunny & clear; Calm to very light variable winds (NE)
Solo,
Barry & Gary, Aipa.... super clean & excellent form. Blew an off
the lip on one of the best waves of the morn. Poor session.
None of the crew was available so I headed out solo to catch a bit of the new swell. Even though I was still miles away, coming over the hill I could clearly see some of the outer reefs peeling. Gulp.
Much of the parking area cordoned off by police for a film production ("Surfer Girl"), but there were only 4-5 surfer vehicles around. Swell direction favored this spot named for a certain mountain range and pretty huge lefts were breaking way out on the cloud break then re-forming about 300 yards in. I felt a bit silly with my 6'3" but it's all I have at the moment and I was not about to miss out, even if it meant scampering about in the danger zone.
Must have been 2/3's of mile out when I got to the reform. About 300 yards further out from me were the group of 4-5 guys on huge boards who were nabbing the biggest sets on the outermost (?) reef. It was pretty consistent and the sets out there were well over 3xoh, but they feathered and broke only to die out just before reforming into a nasty doubling up bowl .... fully heaving freight trains. At the bowl the faces were still pushing 18 feet.
I was sketching hard but managed to drop into 3 back to back screamers just as 2 other guys paddled out to join me. Basically negotiating a hairy drop then pumping; taking a high line for speed, trying to stay in the pocket without getting left behind since the walls never let up. One of the newcomers was a familiar face and I was jazzed when he described how my last ride and wave looked.
Just as I was feeling a little more confident and taking off deeper, a set swung wide and I got caught in the focus of the bowl. Thinking I could scramble under it (nope), I ended up directly under the lip and took it square as I ducked. It crushed me like I haven't been crushed in a long time. The lip exploded on me and I swear I saw stars. Figured my board was toast. But the solid pull of my leash as I ragdolled (for what seemed like forever) gave hope that it didn't snap. Still underwater, I held my leash strap to keep it from pulling off my ankle. Between my fingers I could feel the urethane stretching to spaghetti noodle thinness and was dreading that tell tale "sudden loss of pull" of a leash giving way. This far out and so much surf I knew if my board got away I would never find it. And the swim in - oh man. But it held. I was forcing myself to relax, not fight the turbulence, and even though I fought semi panic from lack of air I was finally able to kick to the surface. Unfortunately the next 4-5 waves were a bit smaller than the first so they broke *right* on me too! Faaak I was getting drilled and drilled.
Took a good 15 minutes to get clear of the poundings and to start making some head way. I was badly shaken but paddled back out... very gun-shy. I caught only about 3 more waves in the last hour. By then, the swell was already dropping - sets were taking longer and longer; the guys on the outer reef had come in to join us at the reform and about 4-5 more people had paddled out. Still, only a few of the surfers sat at the bowl. Most of the waves went unridden as the bulk of the 4-5 other surfers sat way off in relative safety.
On the way home I stopped in Haleiwa, shopping for a new used gun.
Good surfing to you,
Bud
Thursday January 17, 2002
2:45p-6:00p
North Shore
Avg wave face 5-6 feet
Sets wave face occ 7 feet (NW)
Partly sunny; Moderate to strong sideshore winds (NE)
Parked at the default spot and watched for about 10 minutes. Despite
some strong sideshore winds, it looked very fun, very
surfable and with fair direction. Drove off to see what was happening
upside; checked as far as V Land but the wind was
having a worse effect up there. Kinda figured it would be this way
but since I had the time, wanted to make sure I wasn't
missing anything before I surfed the first spot I saw. Went back, parked
again and suited up, noting that it was pretty clean
considering the wind..... a couple feet overhead on some sets and for
some reason only three people out! Rich and Syril were on the way so I
gave them cell phone report.
Turned out to be one of the most satisfying sessions for me in a while.
I was stoked to have an "on" day. The waves dropped off pretty quick in
the last hour, but for the first two, it was amazingly good. Mega fun head
high workable walls were coming in
almost non stop. By the time Rich & Syril came out, there were
about 6 others in the lineup but they all stayed on the end. We
couldn't figure it out, but weren't about to waste time wondering why
no one else came out to the main peak. We basically had the place to ourselves
and had a blast. Spent the whole time jockeying for priority amongst ourselves
or trying to goad one
another into taking bad waves, late take offs etc., knowing the next
wave was "the wave of the day."
One wave Syril tagged as I was paddling out was a double up that quickly
jacked to a couple feet overhead. Taking off very late and behind the peak;
he leapt to his feet under the lip, turning immediately mid face and pulling
into a stand up dry barrel.
Shhweet! He disappeared and a second or two later looked like he was
gonna come out..... then the lip caught his shoulder and edge of his board
and he went down hard. Popping out the back, he first checked to see if
his new fish was OK, then let out a hoot.
A Good Time was had. Lucky live Hawaii.
Bud
Saturday January 19, 2002
8:00a-11:30a
North Shore /kea/
Avg wave face 5-6 feet
Sets wave face 7-8 feet, a few bigger sets, dropping (ENE)
Mostly cloudy; Very strong side-offshore winds (ENE)
Solid
windswell. Solo, Harry, Dana... some good snaps. Rich coming out as I came
in. good session
Sunday January 20, 2002
8:00a-10:45a
North Shore
Avg wave face 5-6 feet
Sets wave face 7 feet, occ lil bigger (ENE)
Cloudy, occ heavy rains; Moderate to strong side-offshore winds (ENE)
Met visiting ASer "lp" and friend Dave at 0715 as we planned. Easy to find each other since there were only a few cars along the beach at Sunset. Blazing tradewinds over the past few days had kicked up a local wind swell that was wrapping to select North Shore spots. Rocky Point has potential to catch this kind od wrap, but a quick check showed it too disorganized, so we headed down the coast. Lp was coming off a pretty serious injury but was anxious to (gradually) get back in the groove.
A few minutes later we pulled up to Lanis and noticed that every other surfer on the island had made the same call. Oh well, at least it looked fairly consistent. The three of us paddled out into the mix... short period waves but often doubling up for some solid overhead drops. Typical for this scenario - peaky, sectiony, sometimes mushing out but other times holding up for some very fun rides.
I could tell right away that lp and Dave were experienced surfers who knew their way around in the surf; but they were obviously watching their p's and q's in crowded, unfamiliar territory. For me, it was lots of regulars and familiar faces, but the pack got bigger and more aggressive throughout the morning.
Mostly we sat on the north most peak, trying for the deep shots and hoping to snag the sets from the corner bowl going right or left. Eventually the mob at the outside turned really ugly, but lp stuck with it and jockeyed with the best of 'em. Even forced into the "I can take off deeper and later than you" ordeal, he nabbed his share of the sets, always taking off under the lip (injury? What injury!?). All the while we could see Dave moving all over the lineup, tagging sweet ones that slipped past the rabid crowd.
Some waves were really fun, the reforms from the middle to inside section were especially nice - better than it looked from shore- but eventually the crowd became ridiculous. Some wiener dropped in on me and while coming down from hitting the lip off his wake I ended up running over a friend paddling out (no damage/injury to him but 2 pressure dings for me). I figured that was enough and found a wave to go in.
Once more, visiting ASer's prove to be the most down to earth, stoked surfers around. Not much in the forecast, but I am looking forward to hooking up with this NorCal crew again this week.
Good surfing to you,
Bud
Friday January 25, 2002
8:45a-1130a
North Shore - Rocky Point
Avg wave face 3-5 feet
Sets wave face occ 6 (NNE)
Overcast; Light to moderate sideshore winds (NE)
Neal,
almost movie stars, meet lp Sunset, low tide bouncing off reef, Neal gaping
slot, lp fin cut
Sunday January 27, 2002
8:15a-1145a
North Shore /kea/
Avg wave face 7-10 feet
Sets wave face 11-15 feet, occ bigger (NNW)
Overcast; Calm to light side-offshore winds (NE)
Solo,
Lane, Phil, Chings, Colin, Hookano late bomb, Miranda bomb, snuffed
hard, Bud scores screamerbomb from waaay outside all the way across,
last wave stoked
http://www.wavelust.com/bsl/012702c.jpg
The rest of the story on that pic:
The goofy footer in the pic takes a very late drop; for a fraction
of a sec looks like he'll make it. He gets to his feet but it's too
steep and his fins break free of the face. The next fraction of a second
he free falls a bit; and then his fins catch, but by now the
board has turned parallel on the face. He "catches up" to the board,
his weight returns to the deck and the board starts to "go" ... but he's
way off balance. He lands, butt onto the board, both hands grabbing the
rail behind him. Another fraction of a second he's half off the board,
perpendicular and going up the face.
By now the "rider" is practically on top of the guy in the white rashguard
(ducking at the bottom in the photo). White rashguard
promptly throws his board and dives (I'm guessing, to protect himself,
but IMO if he'd have kept ducking - no prob).
Before this all came to happen, I was thinking I had to get pic when I saw that guy about to go for it in that killer section. I knew I was gonna get pummeled anyway, so I figured- what the hell. But now they're both going over in the lip, and this whole clusterfuck - surfers, boards, lip- is about to be planted upon yours truly. Sitting up on my board, up to my chest in the water and with a $10 plastic camera pressed to my face, I'm saying to myself "ohh shiiiit"
Black rashguard in the foreground paddled deeper and out of the way of the mess. I had taken the picture, stuck the rubber band in my teeth and pushed the board as deep as I've ever ducked. Since I was sitting, I had no forward motion as you want to have in a normal duck, but figured all I needed was DEPTH to come out of this one in one piece.
They surfaced about 10 feet shoreward of me, a tangle of leashes and boards clunking. They had gone clean over me; I had been ragdolled a bit but came up somehow still holding my stick, and teeth clenched on the rubber band (the two surfers were both ok).
Yeeaaaaah! Adrenaline is sweet, especially when you squeak by certain disaster...
Had some memorable rides on this day
Good surfing to you,
Bud
