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July 2002

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Looks like me & Rich made a bad call today, should have gone into town. heard many spots were firing. Here, the combo of windswell and new South swell was making a big jumbled mess. Still, an ok session. The lefts were actually pretty fun, but the paddle back out against the wind, current and all the water flowing over the reef was a bitch.
 

Me & Rich met Neal who had already DP'd for a couple hours already. Old stompin grounds, inconsistent as usual, but some pretty nice waves when they came. Mostly head high grinders right over the shallowest nasty reef pillars around. Low tide - often exposed when the waves sucked out. Mostly I sat around waiting to pick off the "right" right, letting the rest of the small pack fight over the lefts. Very low wave count but scored a couple good ones, kinda hard to relax with the reef bubbling all around though. Paddling back out after riding some rights, I watched Neal score two of the most square barrels I've seen in long time. Head high waves but big gaping tubers, he was stoked!

Later as the crowd increased it started getting tricky to jockey for waves. A pack of young kids with bodyboard came out - no surf etiquette at all. Once you commit there's no pulling back, you have to go or get fully pitched. I finally paid the price when trying to punch out the back of a close out going right - I got sucked back over and body slammed on the reef. Just some minor scrapes and bruises luckily, but my new board hit too, and tore off a ragged a 3" chunk from the tip of the nose. Faaaak - I was pickin seaweed and bits of rock out of it all morning. Didn't see much of Rich's waves... he said that he had a mediocre session
 

Wooohooo! Much better than I expected. A couple of inconsistent periods, but what a nice treat, middle of summer and all. Solo session, closest to a DP for me since my son was born. Lots of people already out and going out. Glen Minami, the "wwf" longboard crew, Jimmy Garduque, Rick & Harry, 2 Danas, Mike, Les, and many many other winter regulars. The older haole dude who surfs leashless all the time was all smiles and talkin about how good it was yesterday. Kaipo Jacquias was killing. Tons of unfamiliar faces too, but mostly bouys & not catching the best waves. Lining up from the north peak and sometimes connecting all the way across. The lefts were firing too. I was having a pretty decent session, a very good wave count & stoked to finally ride my new stick (still dinged - taped up - unpatched from last Sunday) in smooth open faced waves with long fast walls. Roundhouses board sticks like glue and speed all the way around- figure 8 rebounds. Loose & quick, can push hard & square off the bottom no slipping.

Later, I bungled a left and tried to pull my board back with the leash before the whitewater took it. The leash was looped around my middle & ring finger of my right hand and before I knew it the board was YANKED HARD. I fell my knuckles "pop" and tip of middle finger went loose from the socket for a second. I was nearly in tears from the pain. From then on every paddle stroke was torture and I could not use my fingers to grab my board... it's now the next day and middle finger is all black blue & green, swollen fat, skin streched smooth and nasty looking. Will wait a couple days - think it'll be alright since I can still move it slightly.
 

Slopfest session, nothing really to report. Was able to surf with my finger injury, although I smacked it once grabbing my board (leashless today) and the pain was excruciating!
 

More size than I expected (some head high at the peak) and conditions were pretty good for windswell. It was almost offshore for a while, but then it switched to more SE and got really choppy & nasty, blasting my eyes and making it very hard to surf against the wind (for me anyway). I had one of those days where I could do nothing right. Flailing around in the surf I had a frustrating session. Add to that some dork windsurfer decided to come over from cliffs and use the LH lineup as his "training" grounds. The past 9 days was probably the longest period I've gone without surfing in a long time... we need swell dammit. Swam twice, should have used a leash today, too choppy & windy. Finger still swollen and painful. Probably broken but I'm reluctant to pay the doctor what I think I know already :)
 

Yeah! Where'd this come from? Anyway, beeeeutiful day, sweet conditions and probably the best windswell action I've seen yet this summer. Me and Rich had a excellent good time, with a just a few of the regulars and pretty consistent surf. So many waves, my wave count went off the scale. Was actually glassy for certain periods. The one time I lost my board, naturally it gets flipped end over end and the nose hit the reef. I had JUST patched the tip last week dammit. My new 6'1" is now a 5'9"    Pic Pic     faaaaaaaaaaaak!

A super fun session overall, Rich was killing as usual and never lost his board. I had so many good rides, my day was made early. When the crowd started filling in after 3+ hours, I was fully satisfied and went in on a long ride. Was able to fire off the whole disposable camera and got a few decent shots too. I'm burnt to crisp.