Surfing Waves

Ok Ok this has probably been asked before but Im off to Hawaii (Oahu) for the first time in March 07 and really know very little about where to surf.
Forget the b*llsh*t about Pipe, Sunset etc , I would like to return alive and with all my bodily parts in tact. Im just your average bear looking for a fun wave for my first trip to the island.
Thanks in advance.

farside wrote:Forget the b*llsh*t about Pipe, Sunset etc

aah thats the only reason we go!


Try most of the south coast. Hope you don't mind reef...you have't go much choice!

Yeah...thats the scary part..... zero experience on reef...nothing like jumping in at the deep end though.

Every decent break in Oahu is a flat bottom, lava rock reef. As long as you buy some booties and don't jump into any breaks you don't know about you'll be ok! They don't tend to be really shallow.

Good Luck

look for rocks sticking out and dont kick downward when youre in the water. in medium surf, when you wipe out just relax, dont start fighting it because you could be 2 inches from a rock and not even know it. nothing like kicking a sharp lava rock, barefoot, full blast. i used to get pieces of broken rock stuck in my foot, with the texture of glass.

so is it normal to wear boots even when it's MEGA HOT? just wondering.

Whats happening in Hawaii lately, just readiing Surfers Path and with all the 40 days 40 nights rain earlier this year, are some beachs still toxic and off limits?

no thaya ive only seen someone wearing boots once in my etire experience and i thought he looked silly. you get used to the rocks. i havent cut my feet in 2 years, (not counting the low tide times when i get stuck in 2 inches of water, so we have to walk across the reef) but my first 2 years of surfing i cut my feet once ever 3 trips.. its hard to learn not to kick your feet when you feel like youre drowning.

thats another thing you should watch out for. low tide and huge areas of reef to shallow to sswim across.

the water is fine. a few people are still paranoid but theyre idiots. its been fine since the rain stopped.

I wear booties when my local reef drains and you have to cross the shallow reef.

Also in the mentawai islands when you jump out the wave it tends to be pretty shallow and nasty so I wear it then.

Good luck.

And HSES' I might be seeing you in December. Do you surf the North Shore much?

awesome. i do when its smaller in the winter. smaller being under 10 ft. when the waves are huge id go up there to look at them, but the traffic is awful. are you staying up there or in town?

farside wrote:Ok Ok this has probably been asked before but Im off to Hawaii (Oahu) for the first time in March 07 and really know very little about where to surf.
Forget the b*llsh*t about Pipe, Sunset etc , I would like to return alive and with all my bodily parts in tact. Im just your average bear looking for a fun wave for my first trip to the island.
Thanks in advance.

I'm going to Oahu in the first week of March, too!