Wednesday
November 3, 1999
6:15a-8:45a
Laniakea, North Shore
Avg wave face 3
feet
Sets wave face
4-5 feet
Clear; Very light offshore
winds
Alt.surfing's Chickapalooza roared into town and I was invited to hook up for a session with the all star cast- Süs, Ggcarroll and Jules. We all had exchanged a few emails about where/when/who; Unfortunately Neal couldn't make it this time. The ladies seemed a bit apprehensive about their first surf session on the North Shore, but I assured them that small Laniakea is a piece of cake.
And small it was. Even though buoy #1 was pulsing ~6' with 14 sec periods, it was not showing at Lanis when we pulled up at 6am. On drive up, I beeped as I passed Jules and husband Steve (can't mistake the license plate!) a few miles outside of Haleiwa. Glenda and Süs showed up at Lanis about 10 minutes later, all smiles.
After a quick introduction (I had surfed with Süs once before), we hit the water and joined about 4-6 others spread out across the early morning lineup. Waves were running mostly waist to chest high, a few sets were bigger. Even though the waves were small, everyone seemed stoked- at least the crowd was super light and the conditions were outstanding..
Jules' experience on her
longboard showed right away, she immediately and consistently snagged waves,
zipping
across both lefts and
rights. Steve also did excellent for one who's been at it only 3 months.
Glenda was on a
surprisingly short shortboard
and seemed to revel in the warm water. Every time I turned around she was
paddling back out from
catching a wave.
Later, I began teasing Süs about how the sets would show only when she was on the inside. . .sure enough it happened again. And again :-) Despite being the bulls eye for the bigger waves of the morning, she scored enough waves to keep an ear to ear grin, all session long.
The surf became so inconsistent during the last half hour that I was thinking about paddling in. Of course, as soon as we all were up at our vehicles, head high and bigger sets started rolling in! Oh well. . .all in all, I think they had a fun morning in the surf- I know I did.
Good surfing to you,
Bud
Sunday
November 7, 1999
8:00a-11:00a
Pipe/Backdoor/OTW North
Shore
Avg wave face 4-5 feet
Sets wave face 6-7 feet,
a few bombs
Overcast; Moderate sideshore
winds
Check out Neal's
story and pics
Wednesday
November 10, 1999
3:00p-6:00p
Laniakea, North Shore
Avg wave face 6-9 feet
Sets wave face 12-15
feet plus
Mostly cloudy; Moderate
sideshore winds
Building swell was forecast to peak this afternoon. Rusty/Xcel Contest at Sunset was on. I spent the morning and early afternoon watching the surf cams and surf reports. I made a last minute decision to take the 6'4" instead of the 7' (mistake).
So, with Pixies' "Tromp le Monde" spinning in the dash, I headed out.
Dark comes fast this time
of year so it's that much easier to jump in at the first break that looks
good. Especially when that break is Lanis. Unfortunately everyone has the
same idea- it was pretty crowded. When I pulled up to the break there was
lots of activity around the fire truck and ambulance parked on the roadside;
On the beach I saw people gathered around the owners of 2 surfboards recently
halved. In the water there were two City & County rescue jet skis buzzing
around in the washing
machine conditions within the inner reef. There was a riderless longboard
getting pushed to shore by the surf and another board was floating by itself
about 75 yards farther out.
The waves were connecting
from Holtons and a successful paddle through that channel at this size
would be nearly impossible, so I jumped in at the south end of the break.
Good thing because I had paddled maybe 25 yards when one of the jet ski
lifeguards came right toward me. I thought, "what the hell, it is a loooong
paddle" - raised my arm and stuck out my thumb. . . He pulled up alongside
and said "go all the way up onto the float" (about 4'x6' and 6" thick-
firm but spongy mattress-like thing with rope handrails that is attached
to the back of the skis). I think he expected me to stay prone with my
stick between me and the float, holding the side ropes. But I figured it
would damage the bottom of my stick, so instead I did a quick roll off
my board, landing on the float on my back. In just a second I sat up, one
hand grabbed a loop of rope and the other the trailing fin of my stick
(deck up, nose in the water) and the bastard gunned it! :-)
Yeeehaw!
Blasted through the inner
waves and flew past everyone paddling out or sitting on the inside. On
the way out I asked and he said they had found both of the surfers they
were looking for, ok. Bouncing hard and running fast, I struggled to stay
on the float and hold my board, but I couldn't help the shit eating grin
as I approached the outside lineup and saw all the surfers I knew, shaking
their heads and laughing. My driver said "ok-here", so I thanked him for
the lift, let go of my
stick and rolled off.
He never even slowed down. . .
Small talk in the lineup
with Tony Moniz (killing it!) and old friend Michael Akima about how the
waves seemed extra thick and how getting into them was tricky. My board
was forcing me to take off later than I liked, and my first few waves were
heartstoppers (for me). It felt like just the tips of my fins were touching
the water as I skipped down the face of meaty 2.5xoh peaks. Unfortunately,
concentrating so much on making the drop left me behind the pocket on occasion.
I did well on several screamers and punched across many sections but really
couldn't put it together too often. Much of the
3 hours I spent getting
drilled or making the long paddle back out. Still, a memorable session
in hefty surf. I managed to take one picture from the water - here
(unknown surfer on a typical set wave).
Good surfing to you,
Bud
(Neal/Foon/Jules
glassy)
Saturday
November 13, 1999
10:15a-12:30p
Laniakea, North Shore
Avg wave face 5-7 feet
Sets wave face 7-9 feet
Sunny; Light sideshore
winds
(On
fire first hour/Bonga/Dahlin/fizzled last hour)
Sunday
November 14, 1999
6:15a-9:45a
Laniakea, North Shore
Avg wave face 4-5 feet
Sets wave face 6-7 feet,
rising
Overcast; Light sideshore
winds
(Neal/Makani/Foon/Jules/Steve/bumpy/kook
session first 2 hours/Makani's board)
Tuesday
November 16, 1999
10:30a-1:15p
Laniakea, North Shore
Avg wave face 8-11 feet
Sets wave face 14-18
feet +
Mostly sunny; Light sideshore
winds
(Roger
sniffen/seven oh)
Thursday
November 18, 1999
9:30a-11:45a
Laniakea, North Shore
Avg wave face 4-5 feet
Sets wave face 6-7 feet,
Overcast; Light sideshore
winds
(Larry
Mcguire/Aipa/seven oh/ bumpy)
Saturday
November 20, 1999
1:30p-4:30p
Laniakea, North Shore
Avg wave face 4-6 feet
Sets wave face 6-7 feet
Sunny; Light sideshore
winds
(Wife,
metTterrence, Tommy, Jason Kashiwai Pat sambueno, clean, packed at 3pm)
Sunday
November 21, 1999
7:15-10:15a
Laniakea, North Shore
Avg wave face 5-7 feet
Sets wave face 8-9 feet
Overcast then clearing;
Light sideshore winds
(Neal,
Cliff, )
Wednesday
November 24, 1999
2:00p-4:30p
Laniakea, North Shore
Avg wave face 3-4 feet
Sets wave face 4.5 feet
Mostly Sunny; Light sideshore
winds
(solo,
leashless, surfed south end)
Friday
November 26, 1999
4:00p-6:15p
Laniakea, North Shore
Avg wave face 6-8 feet
Sets wave face 9-14 feet
Mostly Sunny; Moderate
offshore winds
(Makani,
Slater, drilled/bruised)
Sunday
November 28, 1999
6:15a-7:45a
North Shore
Avg wave face 5-6
feet
Sets wave face
6-8 feet
Overcast; Moderate side-offshore
winds
Picked up da Sponge and his longboard at 5:25am; 30 minutes later we were waxing our boards at Laniakea. Surf bud Justin pulled up a few minutes after we got there.
Neal and I paddled out in the dark as the lot began to fill with cars. Wind was supposed to be out of control but it was surprisingly light. Waves were lumpy and kind of everywhere, but a nifty bowl was firing in the middle - throwing out some super fun double-ups. A few minutes later Neal swung around midface and tagged his first wave- a sweet 1.5xoh peak that jacked up too far outside of everyone but him. It had been a while since he'd been out on his longboard so I knew he'd be stoked after pulling off the late takeoff and flying across the nice wall (and nearly parting my hair too :-) )
Justin was the lone bodyboarder in a lineup that seemed to explode with surfers as the light increased. Watched some kook drop in and try to stuff him but he kept the pressure on the guy's rail until he kicked out. A few minutes later, he scored a sweet peak from the middle and I gave him a loud hoot before I ducked under the wave.
I was slowly building a groove, taking it kinda laid back as my stomach did somersaults (last night was my first experience at "The Old Spaghetti Factory"). As usual, it was nice to see all the friendly, familiar faces that make up the "regular" DP crowd here. Shouts & hoot of encouragement going back and forth between us as we picked off the sets.
A little more than a hour into the session, I nailed a nice overhead and a half peak from the outside. It was bowling beautifully but it didn't have much of a wall, so I wanted to get at least one good maneuver out ot it real fast. Took off behind the peak and turned square off the bottom, heading straight up for a lip blast. *Something* happened at the top and my board flipped over as I hit the lip. Board (now upside-down) continued up and out of the wave while I fell back. One of the fins hit the back of my left foot, HARD. I expected to see a fin box pulled out or a fin snapped at the tabs- nothing! But. . . as I was kicking my feet, treading water next to my stick, I could feel a chunk of meat "flapping" above the back of my heel.
The fin had sliced a thick, "U" shaped chunk- like potato skin hanging off of a potato peeler- into the skin just above the heel and just below the achilles tendon. As I paddled around with my foot up in the air & looking for a wave, I was surprised that it did not hurt much (yet). It was clean cut but it looked real nasty, gushing gobs of deep red blood.
I felt soooo bad about having to bug out and cut short Neal's one and only surf all week; But Neal and a half dozen friends winced as they saw it and agreed that it needed sewing. I dropped Neal off at his place then went home to shower and clean the wound to see if I really needed to go to a doctor. . .
As I limped into the emergency room, my foot was squishing around in blood and the slipper was flinging it all over the back of my legs. It looked freaky but the paper towels I had with me were already soaked. The ER Doc cleaned the wound of sand, then spent 15 minutes trying to make me squirm by spearing it with a rusty needle, supposedly trying to anesthetize the thick skinned area ;-) Seriously though, the MD (and staff) were super; Said I was lucky I walked away with only eight stitches. If I had been cut a few inches higher. . .
Looks like I'll be land bound for a week to ten days. Bummed.
Good surfing to you,
Bud
