January 1999

with buoy readings going off the scale (several showing wave heights
at 27 feet/20 seconds), me & Neal made plans to head to the west side
for a dawn patrol to catch some wrap around action. we had visions of
possibly maxed out <secret spot> or some triple overhead Makaha Point.

driving to Neal's house an hour before dawn, i had to slow to a crawl
on the main road in/out of Ewa Beach: the wind was almost non-existent
and the smoke from a zillion New Years Eve fireworks had settled into
a low lying area of the highway. for about 2 miles, vision was reduced
to 5 feet ahead of your vehicle and dozens of drivers had decided to
wait it out on the shoulder, making it even more dangerous.

squeezed my 7'0" into Neal's small car and headed west. short version;
we were skunked!

longer version; even though it was dark, the lack of white water along
the coast was perplexing and we were kinda speechless as we drove
along. finally as we drove up to <secret spot> there was clear signs
of big wave action on the outer reefs, but not the epic stuff we
expected at all. flew out to Makaha and it was crap! onshore winds,
some maybe 10-12 faces that broke all at once and mushed out into the
channel. full on lumpiness and multiple swell confusion. by this time
it was light and i expected to see that the road had been washed over
by wave action, but nada.

we went all the way up the coast and we were fully disappointed. on
the way back past Makaha, still no one had gone out. clearly not
because of the size but the messed up surf. Neal was determined to get
wet so he jumped in the water at Tracks. i didn't want any part of the
small (waist to head high) close-outs with my 7'0", so i sat on the
beach and watched. Neal blazed a few close-out barrel rolls and came
in after an hour.

light winds forecasted,  try again tomorrow.

good surfing to you,

bud

1st -Noah Johnson (HI) $55k
2nd -Tony Ray
3rd - Johnny Gomes

i wanted to take my girlfriend to check out the monster surf (Waimea
was the only rideable place on the North Shore) and decided to take
some boards to put on consignment at Haleiwa Surf and Sea, at the same
time.

i knew the traffic would be insane, but i still could not believe it.
we sat in traffic for 30 minutes to get from the Mcdonald to the
Haleiwa bridge (about a mile) so after putting 4 boards up for sale at
the shop, we turned around, went to Haleiwa (Alii) Beach and watched
the maxed out conditions there, with about a hundred others.

my observations from a dozen local tv news stories:

20'+ (Hawaiian) surf at Waimea. very bumpy.

i was blown away by Michael Ho on this wave he rides all the way to
the shore break, (by this time he's going left) rushes the close-out,
over double-o head barrel with his head thrown back and arms clasped
behind his back. out-f***ing-rageous!!! his board ends up knocking the
wind out of him and has to be pulled out of the massive shorebreak by
lifeguards.

Cheyne Horan is still at it. . .  lovebirds Kelly & Pam were there.
once, Titus Kinimaka, Sunny Garcia and Slater all took off on the same
wave.

Kam Hwy south of the Bay became a 7 mile long parking lot. Haleiwa
merchants were loving it and tow trucks were snapping up illegally
parked cars all along the cliff around Waimea Bay. newspeople all over
the place.

'loha,

bud

2:45p-5:30p
East Coast Oahu
avg wave face-----------4-6 feet
sets wave face-----------5-8 feet
mostly clear skies, light side shore winds

found out early afternoon that my new stick was ready so i swung by my shaper's house to pick it up (i had it in the water an hour later). 6'4"x18-1/4"x2-3/8" thruster, 4oz bottom and 4oz top w/deck patch.

hooked up with my brother rich and surfbud makani (neal had family obligations). the huge swell was hanging around and the North shore was still big and out of control, with Waimea probably the only "rideable" spot. after the disappointing trip out west yesterday, we decided to head the opposite way for the possible east wrap.

we got to "k-bay" and saw that we'd made a good call. winds were light and the sets were well overhead. the inside sandbar was very pounderous. my new stick has much less volume and is narrower than my previous one. the good side is that it's unbelievable responsive & super quick. downside is that it's hard to paddle through the soup and when i'm getting thrashed, it stays under water longer. it's glassed pretty light so i'll have to baby it, too.

the tide was way high and there was a nasty backwash coming off the beach. kinda put a damper on almost every wave near the shore. the outside sets allowed some performance but overall the waves were very lumpy and poorly formed. military beach lifeguards added to the mess by blazing around in the surf with the rescue jet ski all afternoon

we planned to hit it again in the morning for low tide.

good surfing to you,

bud

6:45a-11:15a
East Coast Oahu
avg wave face-----------3-5 feet
sets wave face-----------5-8 feet
clear skies, almost no wind

me & brother rich hit the road early, makani decided to sleep in and meet us there later. neal couldn't make it again.

we pulled up to the beach and there was already 4-5 other cars with boards there. the waves looked great and conditions were perfect, very rare for this spot. we jumped in the water right away. the tide was going out but still pretty high, the first 2 hours were frustrating. the weekend crowd was thick with beginners. . . i took off on an over head left and as i was bottom turning some dude that could barely stand took off on the shoulder going right!! he was all wobbling as he stood up, when he saw me he bailed, sending his barge straight at me. i straightened out in time (i thought), but he must have had a 30 foot leash cause next thing i knew, his monster log was underneath my brand new stick!! F**K!!!! put an new 3" wide, 3' long, 1/8" deep "channel" mid way along the stringer on the bottom. plus a 3" crack in the rail. i was fully bummed.

a bit later, i drifted back down to the other end of the beach as the waves started to go off. . . the lefts started peeling and pitching. the water was literally like being in pool, and the wind was non-existent. a couple of semi-pro types paddled out with a water photographer in the impact zone. they also had someone with a telephoto lens on the beach. the sets were still over head and even the head high ones were pitching way out.

i surfed until my arms started cramping as i dipped under the surf. we went in and rich called makani (he had not showed up yet) to meet for another session!

'loha,

bud

3:00p-5:30p
secret spot west Oahu
avg wave face-----------6-7 feet
sets wave face-----------8-12 feet
raining, completely overcast, variable winds

the forecasted swell arrived on schedule; last evening it seemed like
buoy readings were jumping a foot or two every hour. the pipe cam this
morning showed consistent 2nd reef pipe & many waves closing out
because of the size and less than ideal swell direction.

got some first hand info on the west side surf situation from Neal's
friend Doug F., a bodysurfer and regular at Makaha. Makani called &
said he was on it too, so i told Doug i'd meet him at Makaha. from the
beach the waves didn't look so hot and there was a major backwash
churning things up. Doug decided to check this wicked shorebreak spot
up the coast and i called makani to tell him to meet me back at <surf
spot>.

waves looked pretty good, although a bit stormy it had some size and
there was only 3 guys out. makani pulled up a few minutes later and i
showed him the best way to get in the water from the lava rock
overhang. about two weeks ago, neal's leash snapped and his longboard
had been thrashed on these rocks.

the sets were breaking on the outer reef so it was easy to tell when
they were coming;  some were hitting the double-o mark. the sky was
dark with clouds and at one point in the last hour it rained so hard &
heavy we could not see the waves for a while.

makani was tearing it up on his 7'0" and he gave the spot a big thumbs
up. it's easy to see the potential for epic waves with the right
conditions.  it's a workout to paddle in the soup on my (very thin)
new 6'4", but once up and riding, the board flies. the killer
southbound current was tough too.

today was good, tomorrow is supposed to be bigger....

good surfing to you,

bud

3:30p-6:15p
secret spot west Oahu
avg wave face-----------6-7 feet
sets wave face-----------8-12 feet
sunny & clear, light offshore winds

we checked Makaha & a few other spots but surfbud makani & i ended up at the same spot as yesterday. turned out to be a wise choice. swell was holding and winds had turned more to the NE.

4-5 others were out, but our afternoon timing was perfect: swell peaking/low tide/offshore winds. this spot is only about 60 yards off the shore/parking area so we were in the lineup within minutes of waxing our boards. the setting sun through the waves seemed to make the water glow an unreal milky green color. two distinct takeoff points; makani favored the predominantly left breaking peak & his first wave was a 4 second stand up barrel. it set the tone for the rest of the session.

the "main" peak was firing unbelievable rights, almost double-o. the outer reef would indicate an approaching set and everyone would scramble. another great thing about this spot is that -on the bigger sets the take off is usually real "soft" and gives you a second or two before it jacks through the middle and then the inside. many waves were doubling up and getting caught inside meant getting thrashed good. in the short time we were there, 2 snapped leashes (boards on the rocks).

although i felt it was a little too big for the surf, my 7'0" was working great. burying the rail square off the bottom then again into a full extension carve off the top of a ten foot face is an indescribable rush.

as the sun was starting to set, quite a crowd was forming on the lava rock shore. cars with boards were stopping & checking it out. some guys were trying to get a board that was being smashed on the rocks. 3 others were suited up & standing on the cliff trying to figure out how to get in the water. the other guy that had his leash snap was swimming against the current but finally made it in. waves seemed to be dropping fast and a small pack filled the lineup just before dark; i saw makani trotting down the shoreline to the shower so i caught a wave in.

i handed my board up to makani as i climbed up the small overhang and we both were just shaking our heads at how good the surf was.

'loha,

bud

my brother rich is still on Maui and neal is still sick so it was me and makani heading to the "country" before the sun came up. we knew it would be big but should be dropping to manageable (for us) levels. with the swell swinging north, we were hoping to catch some heavy Laniakea.

unfortunately, the whole coast was mostly closing out with stormy, out of control conditions. the swell was still cranking out the big stuff. the only place anyone was surfing was Waimea, which had some triple-o+ sets. we sat and watched at Sunset till about 9am, but it was mostly big & crappy. we stopped at Ehukai & checked out the wave crunching at pipe (Morey contest postponed). the rip running parallel to the beach looked like a fast moving 50 foot wide river.

on the way back we stopped to watch the shorebreak at Waimea. about 4 bodyboarders (and one psycho on a surfboard!) were rushing 2.5x overhead closeout bonecrushers. the crowd on the beach would groan all at once everytime someone took off on one of the ultra suck-out, no exit, shore pounders. there was video/camera crew catching the action. i took a few shots with my disposable but not sure if they'll come out (prolly not close enough).

a fairly awesome day of surf, even though we didn't get wet. after the epic session we had yesterday, we weren't complaining too much.

good surfing to you,

bud

Friday January 15, 1999

6:40a-8:30a
"Haleiwa" north shore
avg wave face-----------7-9 feet
sets wave face-----------10-12 feet
clear, light offshore winds

no one from our regular crew was available so i headed out to the country solo. amazing how quickly everyday stress disappears when you're paddling into a thick double-o.

i paddled out while it was still pretty dark but knew what i was getting into from the distance of the white water from shore. waves were typical Haleiwa meanness and the infamous current was flowing full bore. no one came out till about 730 when an aussie transplant joined me. he was a big dude and an excellent, powerful surfer. even when a few other guys came out, we were the only ones catching the sets.

waves were very sectiony & fast. the predominantly west direction of the swell still had enough north in it to make a good percentage of the waves closeout. that, and an occasional bomber set seemed to keep alot of people on the beach watching instead of in the lineup. my first few waves were pretty huge but poorly chosen, already committed to a heavy drop then faced with the lip coming down ahead and behind me. then of course i'm stuck in the impact zone afterward. on one particularly non-stop pounding, i turned around to see that i had been dragged nearly to shore so i proned in and ran back up the beach to the paddle-in spot at the "toilet bowl".

got my shit together and picked several outstanding waves. pushing my 7'0" hard off the bottom & hard off the top a few times, then racing the middle section for a blast off the closeout in the toilet bowl. my last wave i pulled off a nice stand up tube even after being slapped by the lip coming out. . . got vertical off the top on the inside section and then laid down onto the board coming down into the white water, right up to the beach. fully stoked before going to work. glad i decided to hit it this morning.

'loha,

bud

7:00a-9:45a
"Sunset Beach" north shore
avg wave face-----------8-10 feet
sets wave face-----------12-15 feet
clear skies, light/moderate offshore winds

surfbud makani & i hopped in the budmobile and flew out to the country to meet neal. last night's buoy readings had dropped only a foot or two so we brought 7'0"s. neal was way ahead of us as usual and checked in from Lani's via cell phone; kinda small and sideshore, so meet at Ehukai instead. neal said pipeline was going off, but if they had not finished the "Backdoor Shootout" contest yesterday, it would prolly be run today. head out to Velzyland. . . on the way past Sunset we pulled off the road real quick--looked reeeal good & still pretty big too.

met neal and some of his buddies at v-land, it looked pretty good but only a bit overhead and waaay crowded already. me & makani were dying to get into the surf at sunset before the crowd got out of hand and it was clear that they were itching to surf the juice at the beachbreaks (pipe/backdoor) so we split up.

only about a dozen guys out when we first went out so we immediately scored several set waves each. sunset is one of makani's favorite spots & his experience showed. on top of tearing up the huge faces all morning, he was rushing from way behind the peak and pulled off at least one heavy backside barrel.

i had an excellent session & managed to snag several of the 2.5x overhead sets. being lifted by so much water so quickly, and then making the commitment to dropping into it is a such a rush. flying down the face as the lip is pitching and the massive wall is standing straight up ahead of you. . .

sunset has to be one of the most pounderous surfspots around, the white water just obliterates you. the combination swell gave the tricky lineup an added twist so every once in a while the middle lineup would be thoroughly cleaned out by a set. it's almost funny watching all these people bailing and then when the wave passes, seeing all these boards sticking straight up out of the soup, knowing surfers are attached but nowhere to be seen.

by 9am, the crowd finally reached the bursting point as we expected, and the waves were dropping real fast. sunset seems to be "the" place to be if you're a surfer visiting Hawaii. the large channel/bay makes it easy to paddle out so you end up having all these shoulder hoppers ruining the best sections for the people taking off from the peak or from the point.

still, an excellent session for us in pretty heavy surf.

good surfing to you,

bud

Sunday January 17, 1999

7:00a-9:45a
"Laniakea" north shore
avg wave face-----------3-4 feet
sets wave face-----------5-7 feet
clear skies, light offshore winds

rest of the crew unavailable so another solo session to the country for me. i had a busy afternoon so i wanted to get in the water and finished by 9:30, so i didn't even check any other spots. in the water right after first light along with 4-6 others. small waves and poor direction for the spot, at least it kept the crowd spread out. just a hint of offshore wind, clear water and lots of turtles about.

new stick working very well, real quick off the top and easy to get up and fly across the fastest sections, when necessary.

first hour still had many overhead sets but steadily declined as the pack swelled. by 9am i was ready to go in but not a wave in sight! finally snagged a waist  high bowl at the inside and worked it good, as far as it would take me.

possible bump up this afternoon/tomorrow morning.

'loha,

bud

Monday January 18, 1999

9:45a-12:15p
"Ehukai" beachbreaks, north shore
avg wave face-----------4-5 feet
sets wave face-----------5-8 feet
clear skies, light offshore winds

hooked up with my brother rich and makani for a late morning session (surfbud neal m. had a reef encounter of the bad kind yesterday). either a new swell was approaching or the same one was still kicking, we didn't care. . .

after a check of lanis/v-land/backyards, we ended up back at the beachbreaks. good call; it was firing! waves seemed to be on the increase and were very consistent. sucking out over knee deep sand made it almost impossible not to get slammed when caught inside. you just could not get any depth when ducking on the inside. sometimes it would take 10 minutes just to get through the 50 or 60 feet from the impact zone to the lineup. that, and the shifting peaks made it *relatively* less crowded than usual (the crowd at pipeline was incredible).

most of the waves ended up closing out but many seconds in crystal clear barrels was the norm not the exception. the lefts seemed to have better form and rich and makani (goofys) spent lots of time covered up. every time i'd turn around someone would be getting a stand up pit. managed to get a closeup shot of rich getting a nice barrel, hope it comes out.

i worked on my backside tube positioning and was getting "worked" regularly. always a moment of anxiety going into a backside closeout, getting slammed and the fraction of a second while you're getting sucked over, hoping you don't land on your stick when you come down. rather than the usual backside rail grab/shoulder dragging, i found that crouching forward with both hands planted on the deck ahead of my feet was more difficult but definitely increased distance & time in the tube.

no doubt a classic day at the sandbars.

good surfing to you,

bud

4:15p-6:30p
"secret spot" west shore
avg wave face-----------5-6 feet
sets wave face-----------7-9 feet
partly cloudy, moderate offshore winds

me, makani and rich hit <------> for an evening sesh. checked Makaha and a few spots further west but only lumpy high tide stuff.  <------> was 2-4' overhead on the sets, offshore winds, hollow but mostly closing out (poor direction for the spot). makani & rich surfed the lefts south of the showers and score some sweet tube time. a while later rich snags a nice right and rides it close to the reef. he jumps over the back of the wave as it closes out and as his board is pulled, his leash gets yanked off his ankle and new 7'0" gets thrashed under the cliff.  i was nearby and raced in to grab it while rich was swimming.  fin busted loose, 3 inches of the nose gone, assorted rail dings.  i scraped up my knees and feet and possibly broke a toe climbing on the rocks trying to grab his board while holding my own stick away from the wall and with waves crashing. second toe on left foot all purple, swollen & MAJOR PAIN.....may be out of commission for a while or could be just a bad sprain. if it's not any better by morning will have to hobble to a dok-tor.

we end up going back out, rich fully bummed on his beat up stick and me in a good deal of pain. we surfed till dark and the waves dropped to almost nothing during the last hour.

'loha,

bud
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
alt.surfing  follow-up:

> you are a good friend Bud, risking all for  bro's board.  You will be rewarded.  Bummer on 'da toe, though...

ey tanks eh.

it *was* pretty hairy. i'm lucky enough to say that we have a tight "crew". if there was a chance to prevent further damage, i know that  any us would have done the same for another. thing that really pissed us off tho, was the group of "surfers" on the shore who watched the whole thing. any one of them could have scrambled onto the reef and scooped it up before i got there
(although they could not have stopped it from hitting). i caught a small wave about 40 feet away and stood on my stick going straight in, and i was yelling & pointing at the loose board. when i was able to time the waves and get close enough to grab it,  i was balancing on a outcropping holding a board in each hand, this assmunch on the overhang looks down as sez to my
brother "damn cuz. .  yo nose stay all fucked up"

this morning my toe looks pretty bad, the bluish greenness has spread to a 3" half circle at the base of the toe. after i gingerly put it on, it's a bit easier to hobble with the support form the shoe. "gale force" trades have kicked in so a weekend of no surf might not be as bad.

Sunday Jan 24, 1999

6:40a-10:00a
Laniakea North Shore
avg wave face-----------3-5 feet
sets wave face-----------5-7 feet
overcast, strong side-offshore winds

my brother Rich picked me up; we hooked up with Neal & friend Justin at Lanis. parking area was almost full already! paddling out while barely light enough to see, we knew it was going to be *major* crowd situation. NE swell wrap made Lanis one of the few places with decent surf in the country, plus it was small. wind was blazing and it seemed like i was the only one not wearing some kind of wetsuit.

i saw neal and justin tearing up their share of the surf; the waves were small and not geared toward high performance bodyboarding but it seemed they were stoked anyway.

Kaipo Jaquias (sp?) was destroying the waves; Aipa was riding "short board" and killing too. brother rich worked the sets from the peak as usual, ripping the lefts more often to avoid the pack.

lots of friends in the lineup, so i prolly had less hassle to catch more than my share. . . but my broken toe from previous session prevented anything but frustration & pain. felt embarrassed and debated going in several times, then i'd get a decent wave and stay out a bit longer. overall, it was well worth it.

good surfing to you,

bud

Saturday Jan 30, 1999

6:30a-10:00a
Ehukai/Pupukea - North Shore
avg wave face-----------2-3 feet
sets wave face-----------4-5 feet
overcast, moderate/gusting sideshore winds

piled into my brother rich's truck at 5:30a & hit the country knowing it would be small. after picking up doughnuts & coffee we sat at Lani's for about 5 minutes (til it was light enough to see that it was tiny).

as we headed up to the beach breaks we saw strong sideshore winds & micro surf,  i told my brother i would not be bummed out if we did not get wet, especially with my broken toe still pulsing pain. the small waves at the sandbars looked fun though, and no one was out yet so we jumped in.

the whole stretch of breaks quicly filled with all manner of wave riders. short rides over knee deep sand. ducking, when possible, meant scooping sand with the nose of your stick. a whole contingent of preteen rippers were out popping airs and blasting the closeouts. several professional photogs on the beach.

rich was having one of them "on" sessions & he ripped in the small but workable surf. i managed a few respectable blasts (imo), but was content to sit & wait for the "bigger" waves for most of the session.

"loha,

bud

6:30a-10:00a
Laniakea - North Shore
avg wave face-----------6-8 feet
sets wave face-----------8-12 feet, occasional bigger
overcast, moderate side-offshore winds

me & rich actually got to Laniakea before neal did, and in the pre dawn darkness we could see white water that indicated the waves had come up overnight. the three of us rushed the beach in the darkness and were out for nearly 40 minutes before any type of crowd came out.

the direction was almost perfect, and although the wind was kinda bad, the waves were wicked! juicier than any of us expected too. we were hootin' at each other as we each snagged our choice of the sets, easily pushing double-o and just screaming across the whole lineup. me & rich were a tad undergunned and i blew a couple of beauts as my stick went squirrely off the bottom. on one such, the brand new disposable camera i had with me was blasted out of my pocket when i skittered out & got smacked by the lip.   bummed that i couldn't get any shots for the session.

brother rich was all business, working the rights like a machine and then right back out again. neal, on his semi repaired longboard, was scoring wave after wave and smokin' across some killer walls. i chose to sit deep & outside, and although i got burned by some closeouts, i did pull off several screamers across the "bay" and squeaked into some nice behind the peak late take offs.

didn't take long for a crowd to join us, but the occasional bomb set kept every one pretty spread out. that nut Kaipo Jaquias was killing and surfing leashless. . .Ben Aipa was all smiles and surfing like a pro. mid session, Mark Richards came out and treated us to his inimitable style and shredded just like the old days. nice guy & easy going, too.

my broken toe is becoming less and less a factor for my surfing, especially on a day when the waves were cranking. i'm stoked.

good surfing to you,

bud (went home & slept thru Superbowl XXXIII)