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September 2000

Friday September 1, 2000
5:45p - 7:45p
South Shore - /LL/
Avg wave face 4 feet
Sets wave face 5-6 feet
Overcast; Moderate side-offshore winds

Boat run with L out to "his" spot. No other surfers in sight. Disorganized & lumpy waves, improving as the tide dropped. Surfed ok; New stick is good, but still learning it.

Saturday September 2, 2000
6:30a - 9:45a
South Shore - /dhl/
Avg wave face 3-4 feet
Sets wave face 4-5 feet
Overcast, clearing; Moderate side-offshores

Solo run. Waves better as the tide dropped. Weird angle coming from the channel that made for some decent bowls. Had several solid snaps on a nice little left and was floored when some guy paddled up and complimented me on it. Still not confident enough with the new stick to go leashless here.

Sunday September 3, 2000
7:15a - 10:30a
South Shore - /dhl/
Avg wave face 2-3 feet
Sets wave face 4-5 feet
Overcast, clearing; Moderate to strong side-offshores

Solo run. One guy out, waves looked real bad from shore, sat in the car for 15 minutes almost convinced myself it wasn't worth it. Ran into Darrin on shore as the one guy out paddled in. Struggled in the crap for about 1.5hrs the waves started to improve. Darrin said yesterday at peak low tide was real nice. Waves got better started getting a few sweet rides.

Saturday September 9, 2000
7:30a - 10:45a
South Shore - /dhl/
Avg wave face 3-4 feet
Sets wave face 4-5 feet, occ 6
Sunny & clear; Light to moderate side-offshores

Rich back from 45 days at sea, he caught a couple great sessions in Cali. 0615 we drove over to NB then PR, it was microcrap. Booked over to DHL- was waist to chest sometimes head high. Conditions were surprisingly good and the waves were super fun, almost like there was a small swell. When we got there, 0730, the dawn patrollers were coming in and me & Rich had it to pretty much to ourselves till about 0900. Clean, sunny & no others till late morning. Low tide coming high is the key.

Rich getting the feel of his new board & surfing well. This was my 5th outing on my new stick -  s t o k e d - excellent
session for me. Tagged countless waves. Surfed out spaghetti arms then a pau surf feast at I Love Country Cafe.

Sunday September 10, 2000
7:30a - 10:45a
South Shore - /dhl/
Avg wave face 3-4 feet
Sets wave face 4-5 feet
Sunny & clear; Light to moderate side-offshores

Rich pickep me up again, headed straight over to DHL, trying to time the low tide/coming high and hoping for a repeat of yesterday. Neal was already in the water from dawn, MM paddled out about 9:15 or so. Surf was a bit smaller & less consistent than yesterday, but conditions were good for windslop and it was sunny & warm.

Rich & MM went leashless. Even after a super session yesterday, I opted for the cord again today; new board jitters.

Wednesday September 13, 2000
4:15p - 7:30p
South Shore - /LL/
Avg wave face 3 feet
Sets wave face 4-5 feet
Mostly clear; Light to moderate offshore winds

Boat run with L out to "his" spot. No other surfers in sight. L took the boat back in to pick up friend El. Tiny surf but great conditions and good fun. I surfed poorly felt out of synch. Rich saw the resident shark twice, which kept us on our toes, especially after it was dark. Super sunset & full moon. Locked out of L's van on the boat ramp....

Friday September 15, 2000
5:35p - 7:30p
South Shore - /LL/
Avg wave face 4-5 feet
Sets wave face 6 feet
Mostly clear; Light offshore winds

Boat run with L & El again. No other surfers in sight. Swell direction not the best but surf & conditions were great. El on borrowed board. No shark sighting today....

Saturday September 16, 2000
11:15a - 1:45p
South Shore - /dhl/
Avg wave face 4-5 feet
Sets wave face 5-6 feet, occ 7
Blazing sun clear skies; Light to moderate side-offshores

Me & Rich both leashless, surfed well, no swims. Waves were a blast, nice double-ups and some good walls.

Sunday September 17, 2000
8:30a - 9:30a
North Shore - /Ehu/
Avg wave face 4-6 feet
Sets wave face 6-7 feet
Clear skies; Light to moderate side-offshores

I drove, me  & Rich met MM, waves were lumpy and backoffish. Summer sand big steep beach. Left and went to Lan.

Sunday September 17, 2000
9:40a - 11:45a
North Shore - Lan
Avg wave face 5-7 feet
Sets wave face 8-11 feet, occ bigger;
(Dropping to barely head high by noon)
Clear skies; Light to moderate side-offshores

Toady capped a week full of head high surf sessions on the south shore with the much anticipated first swell of the north shore winter season. Buoy #1 had been ringing up 5-8' at 14-20 seconds for nearly two days straight. Even though I was burnt to a crisp and my arms were sore, I was anxious to get my new board into some nice big walls.

Sponge had to bow out at the last minute.... MM was already on the way up to the country when me & Rich headed out at 7:30am. Exchanged several calls with RA (a friend of Southoz), visiting from Australia, trying to coordinate a time/place to possibly meet, but it didn't pan out. Talked to him this evening and found that he caught a few at Lan/Hol, then drove down to check out the scene at Pipe, where his rental car was promptly broken into. Welcome to Hawaii :-/     Another incoming swell midweek- we'll try again.

MM called from several spots as we were driving out, giving us a play by play of the surf situations via mobile phone. We met him on the beach at Pipe and the three of us paddled out to Ehu a while later. The waves turned out to be disappointing and it wasn't 45 minutes before we decided to head back and hit Lan.

Swell was kinda hitting all over the place, only sometimes coming through at a good angle for Lan. Hol caught most of the bigger sets, but not it was not quite big enough to connect with Lan. Still, me and Rich each started off our Lan session with back to back smokers. We snuck through the channel just in time for a set of nearly double-o waves with no one else around. I took the first one deep and came around a long section that my brother was paddling into, intending to ice me. Naturally, I put my snap as close to his left ear as I could, and he pulled back, giving me a loud hoot as my fan pelted him. I worked it almost all the way across..... when I kicked out, I saw that Rich had scored the very next wave and was milking it too, blasting the lip time after time. The light winds and solid surf was gave us huge smiles as we talked and paddled back out. After changing fins, it wasn't long before MM appeared in the lineup and joined the fun too.

For the first hour, certain sets were epic, plus I was having an "on" session. But by 11am the sets were few. After a long flat spell, I caught a nice 8 foot face from the middle section, fired off a couple snaps then raced it towards the inside where it doubled up. I made it over the ledge and pulled into a gaping stand up barrel. Spent a few seconds in the green room looking out at the crowd on the end. When it began to shut down, I bailed forward & away from my stick. Surfaced to find my brand new board about a third shorter Pic 1  pic 2 Felt like crying.

Seems I'm starting this winter the same way I ended the last one. Faaak!

Good surfing to you,

Bud

Wednesday September 20, 2000
2:30p - 5:30p
North Shore
Avg wave face 6-8 feet
Sets wave face 9-11 feet, occ bigger
Clear sunny skies; Moderate offshore winds

Booked out of work early and hopped in with MM for a run to the country, aiming to catch the incoming swellage as it peaked. With 3 boards already in his vehicle, he was fully prepared for almost any situation.... including a spare seven-oh for me to
borrow if I wanted! I added my old back up 6'3" (I am "between boards" again) to the pile and we blasted away.

Except for a few spots, the surf looked pretty solid all the way up the coast. Chuns Reef was a complete zoo- both sides of the road crammed with cars; Plus a fire engine, lifeguard truck w/rescue jet ski and an ambulance slowed traffic to a crawl.  Small crowds of surfers were tagging nice looking well overhead waves at all the spots along the coast, even Pinballs.

We had our sights set on Sunset. No sooner did I mention that I had not heard from Ross (Coffinspit's friend, visiting from Down Under), he called my cell as we pulled into a space near the guard tower. He was calling from the diner right down the street so we were shaking hands with him a minute later. Even though he has strange sayings and talks funny ;-) I already knew from email and previous phone calls that he was a good bloke.

Sunset was showing some magic- great direction and conditions- some decent sized sets even. But as usual, it was completely packed; And as usual a great percentage of surfers were in over their heads. no kidding- some of the guns people were riding would make you think it was a 30 foot day.

We jockeyed for a while at the north peak before paddling down to sample the semi-close outs at Backyards. On the way over Ross was run over by a "guy on a boat"; Then a few waves later he took a spill was bounced off the bottom, a nicely bloodied arm to show for it. 'yards was firing some freight trains and the reef was hungry for more of my flesh too (it got some later). The direction made for many closeouts, but it keeps things interesting and keeps the crowd to almost nil- a good trade off in my book. Fast Meaty Barrels + no channels = small crowd & good fun for Bud.

Several times I raced some walls to be faced with a heavy suck out tube section over Boneyards, but looking down through clear water at very shallow reef and the wave trough seemingly dipping below sea level, I opted out. Ross and I took some serious drillings by sneaker sets, but all in all a good time was had. The board I'm riding is a back up and it has a serious crease/crack in the glass on the bottom, I could feel it flex and it actually pinches my fingers when I duck the impact of a thick lip. It's not much longer for this world, I think.

Later, I said goodbye to Ross and paddled back down to Sunset. It was after 5, knowing that MM wanted to be home around 6, I was worried that he might be waiting for me on the beach. But no, he was fully charging the West Bowl and the insane pack. When I finally ID'd him in the crowd, he was all smiles and looking for "a couple more."

A Good Day of Surfing!

'loha,

Bud

Saturday September 23, 2000
7:40a - 10:30a
North Shore - Lan
Avg wave face 3-4 feet
Sets wave face 4-5 feet
Overcast; Light to moderate side-offshores

Solo run to Lanis

Sunday September 24, 2000
1:30p - 4:30p
North Shore - Lan
Avg wave face 4-5 feet
Sets wave face 5-6 feet, a few lil bigger
Mostly sunny; Light to moderate sideshores

Me & Rich timed it for low coming high tide. Super fun rippable surf. Franny Palea & nephew Sean.

Thursday September 28, 2000
7:00a - 9:30a
West Shore - mpt
Avg wave face 5-6 feet
Sets wave face 7-8 feet, occ bigger
Mostly sunny; Calm, turning to light offshores

Solo run. Country big WNW- was expecting solid surf out west - headed straight for Stinks but it was a bust. Almost didn't surf, ended up at mpt for a below avg session. Kept falling and making dumb mistakes. I got a bit better toward the end. Ran into Colin & Richard
 

Saturday September 30, 2000
7:30a - 10:45a
North Shore - Jox
Avg wave face 6-7 feet
Sets wave face 8-11 feet, a few lil bigger
Sunny & clear; Calm, turning to moderate side-offshores
 
Me & Rich left early, scoured the coast looking for best choice, found Sponge at Pipe. Three of us left Ehukai, parked at Lanis & paddled out to Jox from Holtons side. Fairly solid surf, crowd not too bad- one guy was non stop hooting. Sponge had a marathon sesh from before sunup. Rich (GlucosamineSulfatePosterBoy) paddled down to Chuns the last hour, we saw him killing it from across the channel.