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May 2001

Wednesday May 2, 2001
1:45p-4:15p
South Shore /bowls/
Avg wave face 3-5 feet
Sets wave face 6-7 feet
Sunny; Light offshore winds

Hooked up with brother Rich, met MM at the boat docks and we paddled through the boat basin. Conditions were great & sets were well overhead but very inconsistent. Rios and Gonsalves were flat out killing. First hour & half the crowd was super light, not one longboarder even. Still not enough waves to go around. Still bumming on my "new" board, replacement should be ready soon. Somehow MM's  board hit him during a tumble, snapped his trailing (FCS) fin out, plugs and all. Bernie Baker was out surfing. Ran into old friend Miles Matsuda.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Friday May 11, 2001
3:00p-5:15p
South Shore /rock pile, bowls/
Avg wave face 3-4 feet
Sets wave face 5 feet (rare)
Sunny; Light offshore winds

Surfed with Hiram, got stopped by police on the way - no "reconstruction decal" for the oversized rubber on his monster 4x4; Let go after name dropping. Great conditions, waist to chest high, with maybe one or two head high sets the whole time. Frustrating scratching for tiny waves with the dozens of clueless & rude. Almost a month without significant swell. Welcome to south shore in the summer. I miss winter juice. I promise never to take for granted those winter sessions when I complained about this 'n that in solid surf.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sunday May 13, 2001
7:00a-9:15a
South Shore /dhl/
Avg wave face 4 feet
Sets wave face 5 feet, a few little bigger
Partly sunny; Moderate side- offshore winds

Surfed with Rich, fun session, no crowd, decent windslop. Defininately bigger than yesterday morning (I drove away without surfing). Rich was surfing very well.

No new swells in sight <sigh>
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday May 15, 2001
3:00p-5:15p
South Shore /Big R, Concessions/
Avg wave face 4 feet
Sets wave face 5-6 feet
Sunny; Light offshore winds

Solo session in town- beautiful, sunny afternoon. Checked Bowls from Magic Island, but a nice set on the Park side caught my eye. Scored a good parking spot and made the reef walk out to Big Rights. Swell direction wasn't happening for BR so I popped over and joined the pack at Concessions. There were a few episodes of multiple overhead sets, but mostly it was very inconsistent. No sets at all for the last half hour, plus the lineup exploded with the 4PM after work crowd. Still struggling with my new stick but I caught more than my share- kind of surprised how easily I slipped high into the pecking order.

Some newbie shoulder hopped an overhead set I was riding and he nearly got pitched; I was bottom turning backside and looked up to see his wide open eyes and white knuckle deathgrip on his rails. I was coming up for a snap under the hook as this kid bellyrode down the face and I nearly gave him a new earhole. Everyone in the pit scrambled out of the way as I punched out from the lip and he continued his beeline for shore. Of course I was forced to straighten out too, so I just kept going, standing there next to him in the whitewater as he struggled to his kness, wobbled to his feet, then promptly fell backward into the soup.

A quick unweight on the nose while pushing on the tail and I popped out the back of the whitewater sitting a few yards from him. Wasn't worth getting bent over a clueless kook, so paddling past I gave him a "what's up with THAT?" glare while shaking my head in disbelief. Got a bunch of knowing grins from the lineup, from then on the kid stayed way off in the channel.

Going in, I misjudged the beginning of the "trail" and had to stumble about for a good 75 feet or so. The water was too shallow to allow paddling but deep enough to distort the bottom. Seemed like I caught the sharp edge of every hole in the reef, leaving 3-4 small, but painful cuts on each foot. Arrg.

Good surfing to you,

Bud
 
 

Friday May 18, 2001
1:15p-5:45p
South Shore /dhl/
Avg wave face 4-5 feet
Sets wave face 6-7, occ lil bigger
Sunny; Very light sideshore winds

Great fun today, felt I was working the board well. Beautiful clear sunny day and excellent conditions. The pack was thick but I hung out way outside and consistently picked off a good share of the sets. The waves were doubling up nicely, especially on the inside. Rich & Makani were killing. On one wave that Rich and I shared, we both cracked the top at the same time and almost plowed over some poor dude paddling out. As we came down the face, all he could do was pull his arms & legs out of the water as we turned just in time to skim his rails on both sides, it was damn close! Everyone was hooting and I looked at Rich - we both couldn't believe how close that was, laughing as we continued riding. Lots of friends and familiar faces... Colin, Lena, Moniz, Reggie, Phil, Kuna .... bunch more I can't recall as I write this.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Saturday May 19, 2001
7:15a-9:45a
South Shore /dhl/
Avg wave face 4 feet
Sets wave face 6 feet
Partly cloudy; Glassy calm, turning light sideshore winds

Rich burned his feet on the pavement so bad yesterday that he opted out of todays session. Slept in a bit an met Neal in the lineup. He'd been out since before the sun came up! Ocean was pure glass but the surf was on the way down from yesterday. Nice sets, but totally frustrating because there were rarely more that one wave per set. Noticeable tension in the full crowd. Neal sat deep and outside, a few times burned on waves he clearly had first, but I saw him on several that he tagged from outside all the way across and to the inside. I took Rich's board out today, working good but its hard to keep the board from spinning out on the roundhouse. Ran in to old friend "twin" Craig ... Brian, Cameron, Reggie .....
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday May 24, 2001
2:00p-4:15p
North Shore /kea/
Avg wave face 2-4 feet
Sets wave face 5 feet
Mostly sunny; Light side-offshore winds

Solo run to catch small N bump that snuck in yesterday. Knowing there wasn't much anywhere, I was torn on which coast to hit, thinking that I'd get skunked if I headed north. Luckily I found surprisingly fun, clean little waves ... but it was dropping fast. Took Rich's board out leashless. Word in the lineup it was overhead all afternoon yesterday.

Small, mellow crowd & well spread out. The first hour I was surfing good, the second hour I kooked hard. At least I only had to make one short swim. There was a big tide filling in and the little waves were barely feeling the bottom anymore. Dennis Pang came out with a Japanese friend who was surfing like a pro. After a few more bogged turns I proned in before it got worse.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sunday May 27, 2001
2:00p-4:15p
East Shore /pr/
Avg wave face 2-4 feet
Sets wave face occ 5 feet
Mostly sunny; Light onshore winds

MM ...... windslop
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday May 31, 2001
4:00p-5:30p
North Shore /kea/
Avg wave face 2-3 feet
Sets wave face 4 feet
Partly sunny; Light side-offshore winds

Picked up my new stick yesterday and just *had* to get wet. Small NW was hitting buoy 1 so I figured I might get a piece of the front end. Shoulda stayed home - it was about as small as it could be before being unrideable. Ran into Ken from "Q-tips"