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October 2001
October 2001
Tuesday October 2, 2001
1:45p-4:15p
North Shore
Avg wave face 7-9 feet
Sets wave face 11-13 feet, some bigger (NNE)
Overcast; Light onshores, turning calm then to light offshore winds
Was starving, but running around trying to wrap things up at work so I
could get in the surf asap. My plan was to wolf down
something light on the way to the country after a noon appointment with the
dentist. Should have been out of the chair in half an hour, but it took 30
minutes and 3 tries with the needle before he got the right nerve and my
lip and jaw went numb. So, instead of just a small area of numbness to replace
an old filling, I had no feeling in most of the right side of my face, mouth,
lips and tongue. "Do NOT eat anything for four hours or you'll chew up your
tongue and lip" ... damn..
With a grumbling stomach I started racing to the North Shore from downtown. Half way up, my cell phone buzzed and I saw Neal's number on the screen - "Yo! howth thuh thurth?" I says... "It's onshore but the waves are a couple feet overhead, looking pretty good... I'm out there!"
Solid NNE swell so there's really only one place to go... and everyone
was already there. Yikes, the parking area was packed.
Saw friend Roger S. getting ready to pull out, and I took his spot. He was
bumming - his session cut short after his fave 7'3"
snapped while taking a thick one on the head. "Get out there it's sweet!"
he says driving away.
Slight onshore winds made it a bit crumbly, but it was still surprisingly
glassy and smooth. The waves were lining up real
sweet, too. Big fat walls, reeling all the way across the wide break. Potential
for rides of a couple hundred yards. Changing
from "work" clothes into trunks, I watched JBG obliterate a big one from
the point, going straight up into the lip, again and
again and again.... then I recognize Slater on another, flat out flying past
seemingly unmakeable sections and pulling incredible
turns ... humbling, yet inspiring talent.
Moved my trailing fin back and jogged down to the north end of the beach.
Paddling out through the "shortcut" between the
adjoining break was risky, but I squeaked past between sets without getting
drilled; That put me right at the outside peak,
and of course there was Neal, deepest and furthest out as usual! He grins
at me and says "I guess it's a *little* more than a
couple feet overhead!"
Lacking a bit in the foam department left me sitting a few yards under
the small pack at the peak, but wide open for all the
beauts that shifted, reformed or slipped past them. Happens a lot here and
it's easy to see who surfs this spot regularly; Tricky
waves- plenty of people paddling their asses off for waves that look like
they're gonna pitch, then it suddenly backs off, shifts
to another bowl and throws.
The slight onshore winds made many of the waves from the outside bowl much easier to catch than normal, often allowing early entry even on a smaller board. Once past the peak though, the walls just jacked, standing up across the middle section. That's where all the hoots and broken boards were coming from (saw another on the paddle out). My first wave a smoker that I tagged a few minutes after seeing Neal. A solid set that (I felt) I carved up pretty well, all the way to the inside.
Hanging out in the impact zone during the lulls, I took more than a few beatings myself, and kept wondering if I was gonna break my stick or bite my tongue off. Constantly feeling to make sure it was still all there or spitting into the foam looking for blood. One time I was scrambling to avoid a pounding when saw Neal skitter down the face of a nice big one, probably over 2xoh, so I stopped, sat up, and whipped out the disposable camera. I was hoping to fire off a shot while he dropped in and make it over the shoulder before it crushed me. The damn camera wasn't wound and I lost precious seconds. By the time I was able to take a shot, Neal had passed the initial drop and was just flying to make the next section; He and the wave were now about to plow over me. I was sitting up at ground zero with Neal about 20 feet away, on what looked to be a collision course. I caught a glimpse of the concerned look on his face as he whizzed past me and the fat lip bearing down on us. Phew! Of course there was no time for me to duck properly, all I could do was stuff the rubber band strap in my teeth and take the blast mid-duck. Board ripped from my grip, ragdolled to the bottom and then dragged to the inside section. Ouch... not fun, but survived with board, camera and tongue intact. Hope a decent pic comes from it...
Before the sets starting tapering off, it seemed like every friend I ran
into was having big fun (as I was). Hiram, Rick, Glenn M., Rick W., Eric
O. and many others were all smiles and hoots. Couple other pro kids were
on fire. With solid swell the spot is spread wide and can handle a big crowd,
especially when there are consistent waves. Wasn't bad at all until the sets
became too far between and the after work crew filled in. Watched a guy drop
in on another guy on a big set that resulted in a
destroyed board board and nearly a fight. By then I was ready to go in anyway
- so exhausted from surfing and hunger that I had only visions of cheeseburgers.
A memorable day, for sure.
Good surfing to you,
Bud
Saturday October 6, 2001
7:30a-10:00a
North Shore, Gas Chambers
Avg wave face 4-5 feet
Sets wave face 6-9 feet (NW)
Overcast; Moderate side-offhores
Met Neal & Justin, saw Colin. Average-poor session for
Bud; Solid backside underlip snap at Rockies.
Saturday October 13, 2001
2:15p-5:00p
North Shore
Avg wave face 5-6 feet
Sets wave face 7-12 feet (NW)
Partly cloudy; Light side-offshores
Long week of no surf for me I was jonesin. Checked up to Sunset hoping
to catch 'yards but not happening. Sunset was sweet but was completely overrun.
Chuns was going off and fully packed too. Jox was firing with some double-o;
Himalayas had a few sizeable sets. Not in the mood to deal with crowds so
I paddled out to Holtons/Jox for a few... then wandered down to catch the
mostly closing out waves at Lanis. After a slow start, I ended up having
a great time. As the tide dropped the waves improved dramatically. Only about
a dozen people spread out over the whole break, most of them sitting on the
very end. Colin and friend Rich were out with the same idea as me. Plenty
of the makeable walls to go around for the few of us willing to take the
punishment - only shortboarders here today. Dialed into several nice barrels
across the middle. Wave size slowly dropping all afternoon.
Sunday October 14, 2001
6:45a-9:45a
North Shore
Avg wave face 5-6 feet
Sets wave face 7-8 feet, a few little bigger (NW)
Partly cloudy; Light side-offshores
I parked next to Sponge's car in the lot at Ehukai and Justin pulled in
in next to me as I was waxing up. We thought we saw him out at Pipe and since
there weren't too many out we jumped in right away. It wasn't Neal but we
stuck around for an hour until the pack grew out of control. Justin went
down to Gas Chambers to look for him and I followed a few minutes later.
Neal said he was having a sweet sesh out there but was going in to grab his
camera to shoot Pipe, and that he'd be over later to try to shoot us too.
Still in kind of a "blah" mood so I just drifted around, picking up a wave
here & there... finally finding a nice niche over at Rocky Rights with
about 2-3 others. Mostly closing out, but lots of excellent waves coming
through if you were in the right spot at the right time. I hung out in front
of the rock that sticks out in the middle; Short, but high quality rights
& lefts heaving over the shallow reef shelf. I felt a bit out of synch
but of couple sweet tubes made my day.
Thursday October 18, 2001
9:15a-12:15p
North Shore /kea/
Avg wave face 4-5 feet
Sets wave face occ 6 feet (NE)
Sunny; Light offshores
Easily the worst episode of surfing for me in a long time. The waves were pretty good... gutless but clean with good direction. Usually 3-5 waves in the consistent sets too. Paddled out with Matt Wong, then saw Larry Mcguire in the lineup. Hookano, Miranda, Valentin and about 3-4 other pro "performance" longboarders had a lock on every good wave. Any one of these guys would have been a one man crowd in himself, but with a half dozen of them...... jeez. But what really burned me up was, after taking a set, they'd often ride only some of the wave, then kick out to be back to dominate the peak within seconds. Or they'd be riding at the top of the wave, see that the next one was better and kick out to catch it too.
Lance and Dino I know from way back and were cool, letting some go by for
me. But I surfed so bad that it didn't matter. Eventually I slinked over
to the lefts, where I promptly continued my Wilbur Kookmeyer streak. Dunno
what was wrong. I simply could not do anything right and felt like I had
regressed to a beginner state.
Sunday October 21, 2001
10:30a-1:15p
North Shore
Avg wave face 4-5 feet
Sets wave face 6 feet, occ bigger (NE)
Partly sunny; Moderate side-offshores
Last night I was thinking to myself how well this board has held up over this summer. I pulled it off the rack with the intent to strip the wax when I saw a 4" section of crushed & cracked rail, right where the toes of my back foot would be on a bottom turn. Faaak. Slapped on some duct tape to keep my feet from getting cut and put it back up.
Ran into Colin at Lanis - said that Pupukea was bigger w/less crowd so
I met him up there. Waves were very nice, and for a while just a few of us
out. The lineup crowd fluctuated, at times close to twenty some people then
it would thin out for a while, and so on. The waves were fairly consistent
and most of the pack was made up of beginners flopping around. I felt right
at home, as the streak of kook sessions for me continues. Half the time I
could barely stand before I fell...................
Saturday October 27, 2001
9:30a-12:45p
North Shore /kea/
Avg wave face 7-9 feet
Sets wave face 10-12 feet, some bigger (NE)
Overcast, raining; Strong sideshore winds
finally, a smoking good session!
Sunday October 28, 2001
8:15a-11:30a
North Shore /kea/
Avg wave face 7-8 feet
Sets wave face 9-11 feet, some bigger (NNE)
Overcast; Moderate sideshore winds
neal.... my leash yanked
off. below avg sesh for bud
Wednesday October 31, 2001
7:30a - 10:30a
North Shore /kea/
Avg wave face 4-5 feet
Sets wave face 6-7 feet (NNW)
Partly cloudy; Light offshores
Larry Mc, Jaquias, Glenn P.....
Poor sesh for bud