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I was so restless about my last night and impending trip home that I woke up on the floor
of my hotel room at 5:30 a.m. before any wake up calls or alarms.
I obviously had gravitated there from the bed, with pillows and sheets
and comforter and me all jumpled up in a ball. And my back was killing me. No matter, though,
it was like being back in Waikiki, I was awake instantly, grabbed my gear in total darkness,
went down from the 8th floor in the elevator and got in the vehicle and headed straight
to Honolua to find what I knew I would find. Unfortunately, it was outright flat as a pancake, and that
was no surprise and not un-expected.
It was moonlit and glassy and beautiful. I waited 30 minutes as it started to get light
just in case, but I knew it was useless. Goodbye Honolua, I said outloud at the trailhead,
"I don't know when I'll be back, but I probably will be again some day." And I got in the car
and drove off with a purpose. I had waves and a plane to catch.
I checked out of the hotel and hauled all my luggage down to the vehicle, got DP from the store
room and headed out quickly for Hookipa (HO-oh-KEEP-Ah). I was alert and awake and going against
all the north bound traffic already - and it was only about 6:20 a.m. My side of the road was
wide open, and I pretty much went as fast as possible to get back to Paia (Pah-EE-Ah). I was there
in about 45 minutes, 15 minutes faster than yesterday.
I was a bit nervous about having all my
bags and DP in the car while I was out surfing, but there was no other alternative. So I slipped
into a rash guard and the reef walkers, hardly without checking conditions, which was actually
pretty funny because the swell had indeed come up a bit to abut 4 foot (Hawaiian). And the wind
was a very stiff offshore and was blowing hard against incoming waves. I looked up and saw
a set as I was getting the Rocket out of the back and thought that I was almost right yesterday.
With more size, the wave seemed to section out just as it had in the smaller range of surf. The only
difference was that it was now overhead surf and it was doing the same thing. I thought that
the left coming off of Needles looked better than anything else, even the right point break looking
place that I avoided yesterday. So that's where I decided to paddle out. I saw people getting
into the water from a small sand keyhole closer to me than the one all the way down at Point, so
I got in the water from there instead and made it to the outside with no problems.
The first thing I did was sit up and look at my watch, and it said 7:45 a.m. Not bad at all, I had a solid two hours
to catch some surf, get out at 9:45, allow about an hour to get back to the car, pack up the board,
put the wet stuff into plastic bags, change into travel clothes and get moving, 30 minutes to the airport
and top off the tank, check my bags in at the curb before returning the rental car and then take
a shuttle back to the terminal from the rental car, go through security checks and...make the flight
at 1:45 p.m.
And this is why, like a kook, I was over amped and wiped out on the drops of my first two decent
sized waves. Because all that was running through my head, I was worried about the timing and not
paying attention to what I really needed to be paying attention to. I said that before, probably on
the entry for the 19th, I think. You can't be thinking about the bills or the car or the kids or the
girlfriend or flight times in the water because the water needs your full attention.
I somewhat cursed myself for blowing two really nice looking lefts at Needles. I got hung up in the lip
with spray flying all over the place (and by the way, these were the FIRST two lefts I attempted
on both islands! That might have had something to do with it as well, which is pretty interesting
to think about) and I did not paddle hard enough to get in and stood up too soon. On the first one I
kinda fell mid-face and escaped out the back. But the second one I went down pretty hard after making
half the drop and ate shit at the bottom and got worked to the inside.
I paddled back out and was really mad at myself. Here it was the last few hours of surfing in the islands
and I was totally kooking out. I knew why - I was upset, distracted and also very, very tired. So I just
sat out two sets and gathered my thoughts and tried to re-concentrate and to STOP looking at my
watch every five minutes. That was the one thing that was really distracting me, was watching the
time too much. So I told myself NOT to look at it for at least 30 minutes at my own best guess. Well,
that technique worked wonderfully, because then I looked at Haleakala and the sun coming up again
like yesterday, and also noticed that "Pablo" was out at point one break over, doing his furious
wave catching frenzy dance again.
And since I blew the two lefts back to back, I wanted to set up for a right, where I knew if I made
it then I'd have a nice confidence boost, which is exactly what happened. Pablo actually caught the
same wave over at Point and took it left toward me, and he kicked out and I straightened out to avoid each other when we
were coming head on. I paddled back over to Needles and then managed to get a nice left. I really
wanted one of the lefts because they were not closing out and would break into a better
channel than anything over at Point. So now I had my requisite three waves and had somewhat recovered
from the two bad waves that started my session. It's kind of amazing to me how well someone
can turn something around like that, you know? You just have to put everything else in a box
and shove it in a dark closet of your brain and just concentrate on surfing. I think it's a good
skill to have, to be able to do that.
I looked at my watch and it was 9:00. Maybe I should not have looked! Yeah, because it freaked
me out again and I worried about packing the board and making it to the airport. But again, I said,
well, treat your last 45 minutes here like it's some pro contest with a single heat and see how many
waves you can catch. And I kind of started following Pablo's path behind him. I mean, who knows
better than the locals, it's been true the whole trip.
So he would take off and then I would take off behind him on the next wave. No one else could keep
up with him, I barely could. I moved over to point after I caught another right from Needles to do this. So
Pablo and I are trading wave for wave. The place is still sectiony and dumpy and closey with the increase
in size, it was just a matter of luck how far you got to go on the rides, while the bottom still remained
the same depth. Maybe Point would straighten out and rifle down the line on a bigger swell or different
direction, but those thoughts were kind of useless to me. I just wanted to catch a half dozen more
waves, now that I was tuned in and flowing behind Pablo. It was also more crowded then yesterday,
but this didn't seem to be a problem because everyone was letting Pablo go, and then I would
always be on the wave right after his. The technique actually worked phenomonally well. It was
like drafting in car racing - where one car tucks in bumper close to the one ahead of it
to cut down wind resistance, reduce fuel consumption and increase speed and power.
I caught a pretty decent right somewhere between Needles and Point (Pablo was just leading
me everywhere around the edges of the two breaks), and you know, it felt like my last wave at
Ehukai - it was pretty decent, was a pretty long ride, I had been sprint surfing for about the last
45 minutes - it was unfortunately, time to look at the volcano and the sun and then get to the rinse-off
shower and pack the Rocket up and go home. I paddled to the sandy landing area in front of the
lifeguard tower like yesterday - at the complete opposite end of the little bay as I started out
from - and it was over.
Before I went in to the beach and showered, I got off the Rocket and swam a few strokes
in the water, dipped my head under and took a last look, swam down to the bottom and touched
the rocks near the shore, came back up into the sunlight, and realized, at that moment,
that I was going home and was going to have to trade my boardshorts and rash guards
and reef walkers for a full wetsuit, booties and a hood. That the water temperature
was going to plummet from 78 degrees to 58 degrees in the span of a six hour plane flight.
The tropical water -
I just cherised being in it on both islands. I loved wearing rash guards that stayed wet and kept
your skin cool while the air temperature was so hot and humid. I loved how the rash guards
protected me from the sun and kept me cool. I really enjoyed the feel of the lycra sliding around
on my skin, long sleeve black or short sleeve blue, and how my muscles bulged them out
around the arms. I loved both my rash guards. The blue one
felt the best, but the black one protected more. So I guess I liked them both equally. And they,
now, smelled like a combination of salt and ocean and sunblock and me. Because of this, they
are still hanging in my bathroom here in San Diego, eight days after I got back home. I really miss
that water. Paddling was so friggin' easy with no wetsuit. God! It was how man was meant
to surf!
So I ran through the parking lot to the vehicle and toweled off and took the travel board bag
and the Rocket over to the grassy area, took the fins off, put the pipe insulation all around
it, taped it up, stuffed it into the board bag, put the fins in, padded the nose and tail areas
of both boards, zipped it up - and voila - the boards were packed in a flash. Just as I was finishing
up putting the boards in the bag, about 10 a.m., Pablo was walking past me. And I say,
"Pablo!" And he looks at me. And I say, "You rip the point bruddah, it belongs to you!"
And for a moment he must have been like, what is this white guy talking about, then I give him the
shaka and say, "You rip man!" and then he smiles and confirms he recognizes me from the last
two days. "I'm going home right now, but I liked surfing with you! Thanks! Gotta catch a plane,"
and he smiles again and says, "You leaving?" and I say yes, I have to go back to San Diego, but
it was really nice surfing here. He gives me the shaka hang loose bruddah hand signal back and
I put the two boards in the back of the Cherokee Lancer, re-dress the wound on my toe so that
it's dry, slip into my travel clothes, put the wet stuff into plastic bags, stuff them into the travel
bags, and have a few minutes to take a look back at the break and watch for a bit.
Well, you know, my whole vacation flashed before my eyes in that short five or seven minutes
that I was contemplating. You know, my first wave at Sunset Beach. It wasn't a wave. It was
an atomic bomb for all I knew, and if people say my life changed as a surfer by coming over here,
it was that first wave at Sunset that set me on fire and did it to me. Flying and surfing on THREE days out of 11 - San Diego to Honolulu
and then Ala Moana, then Honolulu to Maui and getting Honolua, and now a two hour closing session
at Hookipa and off to San Diego. I thought right there, that was a pretty incredible thing to accomplish
and I'm really proud of that. I calculated it into the whole picture even before I got on a plane, and to
be at the end of the journey was pretty sweet.
I think in some of my other pre-Hawaii trip entries, you know, I spelled out some goals, and those
were running though my head, about how satisfying it was for me to reach those goals. One was to
be very careful because I was alone - no support at all. And I stayed out of the water for one day
because I just didn't like the look of things. Of course I had surfed at virtually every spot
I wanted to, which I also thought was bloody amazing. And not only that, it was a goal to get at least
one photograph of myself for the record, and I really couldn't ask for anything more than what I got
at Ehukai or Sunset (which most people have not seen yet). I didn't get in any hassles, which
my friends back home thought would almost assuredly happen to me, but it did not. I got dropped
in on plenty of times, but I never once dropped on anyone else, and I was really stoked thinking
about that. I really didn't feel like a thing went wrong, although getting the rental cars and stuff
was definitely the biggest hassle of the trip for some reason.
I was safe, unhurt, didn't drown, didn't hit the reef, had a bad case of Goon Rash and a lava rock cut,
felt strong as Superman, visually fell in love with some female in Waikiki every night when I went out for dinner,
and surfed at Ala Moana, Waikiki, Laniakea, Sunset Beach, Ehukai, Honolua, Windmills and, Hookipa,
pulled a couple of double surf days and had three surf 'n fly days. Good lord have mercy. I took a last
cigarette out and smoked it with a great amount of satisfaction flowing through me, and had a pretty
girlie in the parking lot take a last photo of me in the islands. She was really hot!
I also thought, after the photo, how I had managed to blend in with people, most of which were
all local surfers. I made it a point to be able to identify those people. Why would I want to
hang out with other people from the mainland? Nah, that would have meant nothing. Plus, look at
all the characters and former pros and hot locals I was able to meet, and all the stories about
the interaction with them? I mean, what more could I have wanted. I also came over here with people
telling me how crowded the places I wanted to surf were going to be, and I quickly learned how
to avoid this, and where to go to avoid it, what time of day, what spot, what conditions.
I mean, I scored some ridiculously, incredible, uncrowded waves, which was mind bending to me.
One of my last thoughts, sitting in a parking lot at OGG (Maui Airport), rental car returned, luggage
paid for and checked in, taking in the last gasps of humid air and powerful sun,
was that, you know, I just don't know anyone else who pulled something like
this off, or anyone who could actually pull it off like I did. I mean, who stuffs two boards in a bag
and goes over there and rides an 8-6 gun on most days, alone and scores? I mean, it wasn't gigantic surf,
but it sure was big at times, it wasn't 50 foot, but it was in the No. 1 or No. 2 spot for the largest,
most powerful surf a mortal, average surfer could ever want, really. I looked at the palm trees in the lot,
looked skyward, looked at my watch, and decided that it was all over. It was tough coming to that
realization, getting up and going through the security check. But true to myself, I was fresh out of the
water, salty, a bit sweaty, and well, that's how it ends when you leave the islands. To me it was
the only way to leave.
I think what happened to me every day went far beyond what one would call "proving yourself
in Hawaii as a surfer." I think that I surpassed that not only in the water but out of it
as well. I think maybe straight up it was just a miracle. The further away I get from the experience in time,
and the more I look back at how much I gave to other people and how much they gave to me,
you know, that just doesn't happen in every day ordinary life. Everything was just too perfect
if you ask me.
Hopefully everyone who knows me or met me and who has followed me along on this journey - family, friends, photographers,
readers of this stuff, surfers I met in and out of the water, everyone who I surf with and hang out with
here in San Diego - people who contributed to my trip and reaching these goals I set - I hope everyone really
enjoyed living through my experiences, the live updates were
pheonomenal to do for me and I'm so blessed that I had the ability and skills to do that. Everyone from family
and friends to the computer guys on Oahu to the crew in the water at Sunset Beach, I just want to say thank you
to everyone because I had a better time and experienced so much on this trip than anyone else I know on any trip I've
ever heard about. I just don't
know anyone, anywhere, who did as much as I did on a surfari. And the lessons, perspectives and knowledge I gained
from these 11 days in the beautiful, powerful waters of the North Shore - everything else will pale in comparison
for quite some time. People wanted postcards and t-shirts and stuff, but I give you my photos and words,
and I know everyone was completely stoked on keeping up with me and what I was doing every day. I've never really seen
anything like the daily updates going down on the web, so, I pretty much outdid myself in all respects.
Again, thank you for reading and enjoying, and there will be a few more entries to post of tons more photos
and some descriptions of the things that I still want and need to write about and share with everyone. I don't know
how I'll outlive this one!
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