Tuesday, October 10, 2000
11:00am - 3pm
North Shore, Ali'i Beach in Haleiwa
Avg wave face 2 - 4 feet
Sets wave face 5 - 7 feet
Partly cloudy/showers; Strong offshore winds
Even though we arrived at the N. shore early in the morning, we didn't
get into the water til late. First stop, Lani's - rough, choppy, blown
out - didn't even go down to the beach; next stop: Ehukai - some good
sets (some well overhead) but uneven peaks, closeouts and all agro
shortboards out there (Pipeline was almost flat) - sat and watched for an
hour; next stop: breakfast (LOL!) at Cholos. Lots of chatting.
By midmorning we were watching Ali'i; a bit disappointing, but we knew the
waves in town would be worse - and the high winds would be the same. We
paddled out easily - the sets were real inconsistant and there were some
real long waits between rides. One long boarder was really cute - she was
laughing with me about the conditions - "kinda bumpy" (she kidded as she
was bouncing along) - the current and wind was not only pulling us
parallel to the beach, but they even whipped up a 'counter surf' that
would splash against the incoming waves.
I stayed outside as usual, and my surfbud was catching all the leftovers
in close. After a while we switched boards and I had a chance to try out
one that I might buy (my little customX has dents, scratches and dings,
but mostly is not buoyant enough for me to get the speed I want - still,
it will be hard to retire her).
I caught a few nice sized waves - soared down the faces, but they closed
out on me every time. I got more and more brazen. If I couldn't get
distance, I was gonna get thrills!! LOL! I paddled back out after one of
my crazier takeoffs mumbling about how I was now demonstrating 'suicide
drops' - to which one of the other spongers responded, "Progression!"
The day was not quite what I had hoped for, as this was one of my rare
n.shore trips, but it was delightful just the same. There was a turtle
bobbing around in the middle of the lineup; the people at Alii once again
seemed like the warmest anywhere, and I got some thrills in. We ended the
day by checking out Ehukai again. The sets were larger and more boogs
were out. I was tempted - and almost gave in to the pushing/challenging
of my surfbud. I was relieved that I didn't. After sitting on the beach
for a while I saw some massive, monster clean-up sets come in, smash all,
send bodies and boards flying ... and all I could feel was ... damn, I am
not ready for that!
Sus
... sigh ... now we have a forecast for a no-surf south shore week ...
