The ancient Kahunas‘ hang out?

[oldmansurfer]

this is a couple of surfing related stories about Hanalei. First was on a day that was 6 to 8 feet (12 to 16 foot faces). I was surfing and my leash didn't hold. The Velcro released. My board was white so I couldn't visualize it but bodysurfed in and as I got close to the shoreline I saw another surfer paddling out and I asked him if he saw a white board. He answered "Do you mean the one that's out there" pointing out back out to the channel. There it was maybe 200 yards away. I was in good shape so I swam out to get my board. As I was paddling I started hearing the music from the movie Jaws which I had just seen. You know the music right before the attack? I knew it was all in my mind so I just kept thinking "stop it. Stop it. You are doing this to yourself just stop it" Eventually I got my to my board but by then I was all the way out to the break. I rested and caught a wave in. No sharks seen. LOL

One time I went surfing at Hanalei with my wife. It was a small day maybe only waist to shoulder high but not many others out. At one point we were the only ones left and there was a fairly big shark fin outside of the break. Normally I would have stayed out but decided to go in for my wife's sake.

[oldmansurfer]

This is about my worst wipeout and the only time I surfed Hanalei alone. I was surfing at Hanalei and in real good shape at the age of 20. I could hold my breath for 2 minutes easily
and swim 4 laps (100 yards) in the Kapaa pool underwater with one breath. The waves were fairly large and I had
my largest surfboard which was a 7 foot 2 inch Progressive Expressions board which really was too small for big
waves but that I loved that board. From the beach you can't see the waves so usually I would stop on a cliff on the edge of the valley and look at the waves but that area had the most cars I had ever seen there so the waves were good I thought. Paddling out I couldn't tell how big it was but the current going out was strong so while the paddle was twice as far as the usual long paddle it was similar in effort required because the huge waves pushed water over the reef and it had to go back out , so it did so in a rip current right beside the waves coming in. You could just get into the current and wait and it would take out fairly quickly. I was
fairly sure I had never surfed Hanalei at this size before because the current was so strong and as I got to the outside it was huge with faces around 30 to 40 feet. 15 foot waves (30 foot faces) was the biggest I have surfed Hanalei prior. It looked like the waves should be make able and there were only 6 people out. These 6 guys were sitting on the edge of the break. I was so excited and scared. I talked to them and no one had caught a wave yet. They were trying to figure out if they were going to. I asked them if it was 17 foot because I was certain it was bigger than 15 but not sure how much bigger. They answered back "yeah somewhere around there". They may have been the same six guys who were out early in the morning the time I tried to be the first one out at Hanalei.

I couldn't believe they didn't want to surf it. The waves were so beautiful. It's possible that I would have not paddled out if I knew how big it was prior to paddling out because I was not a big wave surfer and these were in that range but sitting on my board in the water there was no way I wasn't going to try to catch some waves. It was calling to me. What I did in bigger waves is to paddle to the safest place to takeoff and try there. If I can't takeoff there paddle a little deeper. I kept repeating this until I can catch a wave. It seems rather counterintuitive to paddle deeper in these scary waves but I did find a place that would allow me to catch waves. The first wave I caught was so exciting. Hanalei has these huge walls that stand up and at size it's just so scary to me. I did these huge speed turns going way up the face and dropping back down and because the wall went out so far I could get far away from the break. I think my first wave when I cut out I was like 50 yards in front of the break LOL. That's how scared I was. When I cut out then by those 6 guys I felt so alive. It felt like I was never alive before in my life until that moment. That was the last I saw of those guys in the water. I guess they caught the end of the wave (12 foot faces) and rode it in. I was surprised and disappointed because I showed them it was rideable and they went in.

I caught a few waves and did ok but the takeoffs were hairy. On most of the waves I would paddle and stand up
and drop down about 10 or 15 feet only to start coming back up the wave as the bottom dropped off the wave and it
pitched up higher and higher and steeper and steeper till I finally either came back over the back of the wave
thereby missing it or the water would release it's grip on my board and I would fall with the board barely
touching the water down to the bottom. I felt horrible on those waves where I was pulled up and over the back
missing the wave. I got mentally and physically all geared up for the massive drop only to have the wave pass
me by, leaving me futilely standing on my board on the back side of the wave. It was such a drastic
disappointment. All that fear and excitement for nothing. Taking the drop was incredibly scary. On those
waves I could drop down it was almost out of my control. As I dropped I could feel my board flutter back and
forth under my feet which meant it wasn't firmly in the water. Everything went into slow motion and the drop
seemed to take minutes when in reality it was just a couple seconds. I could see the individual drops of water
coming off the tip of my board and floating away in slow motion. When I reached the bottom, the board gradually
started pushing up into my feet firmly and as I started my turn at the bottom I would look up and see this
massive wall of water. Now I had surfed other places this size but at Hanalei it was different. The other
places I had surfed the size of the wave tapers off fairly rapidly but at Hanalei it stayed the same size for a
long ways. I poured on the speed trying to get well into the wave which resulted in me going well in front of
the break. As I dropped down the wave doing these huge speed turns. It was so steep looking down I was fairly sure my fin wasn't in the water and could feel a forward push when it engaged near the bottom of the wave. I remember thinking "If I hit a chop I am done for." I would have lost my rail and wiped out if I hit a chop but these waves were perfect. No chops. I also recall feeling that dropping down the face in these huge speed turns felt like riding an elevator going down.

After a while I realized I didn't need so much speed so I tried on the next wave to slow down a bit. I had not been tubed although I noticed the shadow of the lip covering me. There was no way I was going to avert my eyes to look anywhere but where I wanted to go. Thus made a mistake. I probably should have slowed down after seeing what the wave was doing and instead took off and didn't do as powerful of a bottom turn as I could. That was the one that caught me off guard and broke in a section in front of me. It's hard to describe the feeling of seeing this massive section break in front of me...just horrific. I had to straighten out and try to ride it out because I was too low on the wave and couldn't make it to the top in time before it broke. The powerful whitewater from the breaking wave came up behind me and blasted me off my board and then after a little bouncing around under water I began to be towed by my surf leash under water. The wave caught my board and pulled it dragging me by the cord under water. The board was doing what you call tomb stoning. It was upright and being pushed by the whitewater and thereby towing me. If you could see it the board was upright going along in front of the wave and you would know a surfer was on the other end. I had experienced this several times before but this time it went on for a long time. It reminded me of when I used to hang on to the handle on the towline of a ski boat in Wailua river and have it tow me behind under the water. It actually was exciting with all the water rushing past you. There was nothing I could do but wait since the force of the water did not allow me to reach down and release the ankle wrap although I briefly tried. The amount of force on my leg increased in the beginning to where it began to be painful. I remember thinking that my leg was going to be ripped off and people will find it attached to my surfboard and mistakenly conclude I was bit by a shark. LOL I guess you have time to think these things but eventually the amount of force lessened and was no longer painful. It must have been about 30 seconds that I was towed until the Velcro gave up it's hold on my ankle. Then I got bounced around a bit more for maybe another 30 seconds.



Finally I was able to swim the surface only to find the surface was covered with about 2 to 3 feet of foam like the foam on the top of a beer. I had been catching waves in the ocean for a long time and never seen this situation before. My first thought was this foam would dissipate and then I would be able to breath so I waited and got hit by a couple more waves and bounced around and held under for another 20 or 30 seconds each wave. Then I realized it wasn't going away and I needed to do something. I tried to swish the foam away and could make a cone shaped temporary opening in the foam but I got hit by another wave so while I was under the water once the wave had quit bouncing me around and I could come up to the surface I let out all the air in my lungs came up to the surface swished the foam away and breathed in only to suck in foam which made me want to cough. I had coughed in the water before and you automatically suck in water after the cough and this is how you can drown. So I mentally fought the urge to cough and got hit by another wave.



I was concentrating so hard on not coughing that I lost track of anything else. I have no idea how long it was
but I was brought back to reality when I felt something rubbing on my back. I opened my eyes and realized I
was laying on my back on the bottom of the ocean in about 15 feet of water. Because my lungs were empty I had
no buoyancy and had sunk to the bottom and it was the reef rubbing my back. Everything looked brown and I was
surprisingly calm. I thought to myself "So this is what it's like to drown. It's not so bad." I always
thought drowning would be some horrible thing with your lungs burning as you breathed in water. I just lay
there looking up at the surface almost like I was drifting off to sleep. Suddenly I realized there was a dark
spot on the surface of the water which represented an absence of foam. I pulled myself together and swam for
that spot. My consciousness was fading fast. The ocean disappeared and all I could see was a black tunnel full
of water with the dark spot of water at the end. I used every bit of remaining energy that my faltering brain
could force out of my faltering tired weak body. But I made it to the dark spot and got a breath of air only to
be hit by another wave. As I bounced around under the water the darkness that had overcome me lifted and I
knew I wasn't going to die that day. I smiled as I was bashed around. After the wave let up I took another
breath. I remember thinking "should I try to take another breath" and decided not to get greedy and was hit by another wave. I resisted the urge to laugh. I was elated. I was visited by my old friend death once again and he had decided to let me live once again. I have had many close calls.

So there I was 0.75 miles out to sea with no surfboard and these huge waves pushing me toward the shore. At first I just made sure I had enough oxygen in my body so that I didn't feel like I needed to breath. Then I started swimming in between the waves. A huge whitewater would hit me and push me in a bit then I would surface and take a breath and swim toward shore. Then fortunately this phenomenon occurred where a wave started to reform beneath the whitewater. It got good enough for me to catch it bodysurfing and I caught about 4 different waves for a couple hundred yards each and ended up in the shallows right where I paddled out. To my surprise there was my board. YAY! There was a kind of calm area with little current that it had floated into. I grabbed it and walked to shore. I had lost my board before and it usually gets sucked out to the channel so I was very happy to have my board. The 6 guys who were out there ran up to me saying "We are so glad to see you are alive. We thought you drowned. " I asked "Did you see what happened?" and immediately realized there was no way they could see. They responded "No, your board came in without you." I said "Yeah it was a close call" and continued to my car to digest what had just happened to me.

I am fairly sure there were other surfers who wanted to surf that day. Some of them were probably parked on the edge of the cliff overlooking the bay planning their surf session. But I did get the bay to myself for a while and caught some fantastic waves although I am sure better surfers would have stayed closer to the break than me. It was so exciting including the almost dying part. I can see why big wave surfers do what they do.

[oldmansurfer]

When I was paipo boarding at Pine trees, I found an unusual phenomena that occurred. I would get tubed and go high on the wall because it was fast and ended up with my board pointing down the wave at an angle instead of just down the line as would occur on normal tube rides. It looked like I was going to surf into the lip covering me but instead I moved very fast sideways down the line. While I never surfed pine trees as big as I paipo boarded it I did surf it at around 10 foot faces and experienced this same thing surfing. I have also experienced it at Kealia and Wailua. It seems like once I get to that power pocket I will make it out of the tube automatically. On a side note I don't think I could have surfed at Pine trees on a day as big as that paipo boarding day simply because of the constant cleanup sets coming in and they break too far out to paddle over them. Maybe I could have learned to see the sets in time to paddle over them but it's like 20 yards further out you have to paddle and none of the surfers who went out there that day successfully did that.

[oldmansurfer]

Once in the summer my family went on a camping trip to the north shore of Kauai. I debated whether to take my board or not because it was the most valuable thing in my life and I didn't want to risk it being stolen or damaged due to unexpected things. I also had been surfing daily and it was going to be 4 days. I thought "Four days without surf? AIEEEE...no no no no". So I reluctantly took my board fully knowing that there wasn't much surf in the summer on the north shore of Kauai. I had some time on the second day there to surf and went to Hanalei and found perfect little tubes at Pine trees. It was about waist to shoulder high but I got tubed on every wave. Perfect surfing fix to hold me off for a couple more days till I could go home and surf.

[oldmansurfer]

In the middle of the bay at Hanalei there is a break we called Middle of the Bay, Yeah another creative name LOL. The only break I helped name was Brassieres but only me and my friends used that name. I only surfed there once and it was too great but it does get good. It's just that when I am checking out the surf there is always somewhere else that looks better to me. I went that day with a friend to keep him company.

On the other side of the bay is a break we called Waikokos. I think it is still called that. I also surfed the next break over and I am not sure but it is likely they have a bunch of names for that one area we called the same name. Waikokos main break is over a reef next to a cliff. The cliff can be handy to block the waves partially when you paddle out. The better part of the wave is a left but there can be a decent shorter right break as well. When it gets bigger it kind of shifts over to the next reef over and breaks left only but it is a fantastic break at 6 to 8 feet. Just like Pine trees there are 10 foot cleanup sets that come in but it's manageable. I learned when I was paipo boarding that you cold see the cleanup sets as they hit the shoreline further up the coast. There is an area where the sell will rise up only if it is a set wave. From the lineup it is way over to the right away from the bay. That was of assistance to me when I tried to surf it at that size. Also I figured out as scary as it can be in that size of surf timing and hugging the cliff on the way out is the way to go. Don't want to be caught there when a cleanup set comes in but otherwise it's easy to do. Days like that I would get tubed a long distance backside. Surfing that break is what made me want to do the backside under the lip speed turn although I never did it there. I had a few waves there where I was tubed and tried to do a speed turn in the tube because I was getting too far back from the lip. I would go too high the lip would touch my head and start to pull it down. I never figured out a way to stop it from pulling me off the board and that is what it slowly did just pulling my head lower and lower till I couldn't stay on the board anymore. On a smaller day I had that happen and it drove me down into the reef head first. Fortunately I put my forearm over my head and did a judo roll on the reef escaping any injury but that was the final straw. I had to figure something out. That wave however was too small to do that maneuver. It was maybe a 4 to 5 foot wave (8 to 10 foot face).
Prior to surfing there I paipo boarded there a few times and it was empty most of the times I went out. It was empty as well most of the times I went surfing there. I think it's much more popular these days. There was a guy who lived on the beach and he an his friends would surf there. He was a teacher although I never had him as a teacher, his wife was a nurse who took care of me one of the times I ended up in the hospital. Anyway that was the only surfers I encountered there. One particularly good day while paipo boarding I did a cutback into the tube which is not that hard to do on hollow waves like that day on a paipo board. What a fantastic paipo boarding day that was too. When I went out on the bigger days I used to prank my friends that I took along with me. I knew how to spot the cleanup sets and usually would call out to them to paddle out. This actually worked pretty good but I would play with them like start paddling like crazy for the outside and then stop and laugh at them scrambling to catch up. It's no wonder they ignored me when I said there was a big shark at Hideaways.

[oldmansurfer]

Lumahai beach is probably the next break I surfed. Prior to surfing it I had bodysurfed and paipo boarded that break. It's next to a stream and can be affected by excess rain which happens there but I never had that problem. It's fantastic for bodysurfing , not too shabby for paipo boarding and okay for surfing. The day I surfed it wasn't the cleanest waves but it was fun however that is like an hour drive for that.

The next break that I surfed is called Tunnels and I went out there on a day that wasn't too good. I went with a friend and we decided to surf it because we had come so far. It wasn't a break I wanted to surf because almost everyone that I knew who surfed it often had huge scars on their back from getting dumped onto the reef. The other nickname for it is Dumptrucks because it dumps you on the reef. Nothing to mention about the day I surfed it. No scars to show for it. It was about 6 foot faces and kind of choppy.

The next break I surfed is called Canons because it is a tubing wave that spits with force. I have wanted to surf this break because I wanted to get spit out of a tube. It's a left breaking shallow reef so not my favorite type of break. The reef drops off in a cliff that is about 90 feet deep with sand as far as you can see out from there. I dove there. The first time I went with a friend who showed me where to park and where to paddle out. The waves were just a little bigger than head high and fun except for the shallowest part where you could see the reef clearly as you surfed along. I didn't get spit out of a tube but I did get tubed and the wave spit on my back. That was quite interesting because the spray hurt my skin like little needles. I can't recall any similar pain associated with a spitting wave and certainly not one as small as the waves that day. What I did not know is that I would get spit out of the tube numerous times at other breaks. However clueless I went back 2 more times. The second time wasn't as good as the first time, but the third time was great. I got tubed a bunch of times and got spit out of the tube finally. After that wave I went in because I had achieved my goal and didn't want to risk injury.

There are a lot of breaks that I know of that I didn't ever surf and most likely many breaks that that I don't know about. There was one break further along that requires hiking a fairly tough trail for 2.5 miles to get to it called Hanakapiai. I have only bodysurfed and paipo boarded it. Somewhere there is a video of me paipo boarding that break. It's a pretty good paipo boarding break and probably okay for surfing. It is however the most dangerous break I have ever entered the water at. It is a narrow bay and when the waves are 4 plus foot faces they push water in across the whole bay and it has to go out somewhere which is underneath the waves coming in. This results in strong currents in 1 foot deep water that will suck the sand out from under your feet causing you to fall and get swept out if you aren't fast enough to get back up on your feet.

Well anyway that's the all the breaks I can think of that I surfed on Kauai.

[oldmansurfer]

I remember a couple more waves from Wailua. There was a day when Wailua was breaking good so it was crowded. There were 30 or more surfers out as compared to the usual zero. I had saw a peak that no one was surfing prior to going out. So was there poaching waves inside of the crowd. Then this weird double wave came up. It was a little different from the usual double wave in that it seemed like two separate waves that had somehow combined. A female surfer had taken off on the back wave (going right) which was a little bigger than the front wave and no one was on the front wave and it looked good so I took off on it. The breaking part of the front wave was maybe 10 to 15 feet deeper to the back wave so I was surfing behind her. It looked like we both had a good ride and when I cut out another surfer paddling out said looks like someone got dropped in on. I said "I didn't drop in on her." He said "I thought she dropped in on you." You can see why because she was riding in front of me. Weird wave.

Another time I did a sideslipping takeoff like I have described before with my quad finned 8 foot oldmanoverweightoutofshape board. The wave was between waist to shoulder high and I could tell it was going to break fast so I pointed the nose of the board down the line on takeoff and it resulted in me dropping sideways down the face. It was just a short drop so not the same and I could feel the inside fins trying to hold so not the same but similar. It was and effective method of taking the drop on that wave. I had a good ride but don't recall much about it other than how surprised I was to do a sideslipping takeoff with a quad.

[oldmansurfer]

The only other place I surfed was on Oahu while I went to University of Hawaii. Originally when I started school there my surfboard stayed at home because I wasn't sure how safe it was for my board in school. Was it going to be damaged or stolen there. My surfboard was the most valuable thing in my life. I started hiking up Manoa valley on a trail that starts right next to the university. It was just across the street from my dorm. Great exercise and soon I became very familiar with the trail. It had a great view of the Manoa valley and at the right spot you could see the ocean since UH is less than a mile from the sea. One day I get all the way up to that spot and see sets coming in at Waikiki. I was so stoked and ran all the ways back down jumped on a bus and went to Waikiki.

The waves looked like 6 to 8 feet perfection (12 to 16 foot faces). There was no one out!!!! I was so drawn to the waves I figured maybe rent a board there since they had rentals all over. I found a surfboard rental place and asked to rent a board. The guy there said "No. We are closed due to hazardous conditions." I was jumping out of my skin and said "What do you mean hazardous conditions? That is prefect." He looked at me and cocked an eyebrow up and said "Are you a surfer?" "YES!!!" I answered. He said "Okay. So just take on of the boards and bring it back when you are done. No charge." I was wearing my surf shorts for the hike so dressed for the ocean. That was still my standard attire but I had brought a wallet with me and asked him what to do with that. He pointed to some small slotted shelves for the tourist to put their stuff. All of the boards were these red huge fat longboards with a glassed in keel fin. I grabbed the shortest I could find probably 8 or 9 foot long (no leash)and headed out.

The first wave I caught I dropped down and fell flat on my face when I tried to turn. I leaned but the board kept going straight. I did this maybe three times and then when I went in to get the board the beachboy who had allowed me to take the board came up to me and said "You never rode a longboard before." Not so much of a question but an observation and I admitted I hadn't so he told me to use my ankles first to get the board turning then lean into the turn. That fixed the problem and soon I was carving up the waves on this log. I even got to where I was doing cutbacks and off the lips. What fun and no one out. There was another surfer way outside but no one at the break I was surfing. I talked to the guys in my dorm and found a couple surfers among them and they both had their boards in their rooms so my next trip home I brought my board back with me wrapped up in a sleeping bag and cord. I never saw waves like that again at Waikiki. Very glad I got to surf them. Such perfection!

[BaNZ]

I really like how you remembered it clearly when it was so long ago. I also envy that you also get to experience that kind of experience and crowd. Where the only times that we get to experience being alone in the water is like maybe when there is 30mph onshore wind.

[oldmansurfer]

Yeah why do I remember certain waves so well? I didn't think I was alone with this ability until coming to this forum. I guess for me it's a matter of the significance of the waves to me. This might be a condemnation of myself for having so much importance for some of the waves I caught but as near as I can figure that is it. Waves have been an important part of my life. I remember other important parts of my life some from when I was much younger maybe because I had nothing else of importance to me other than my family. I don't know but I know I was lucky to get to surf Waikiki alone in perfection even if it was on a log with a keel fin. I have a great affinity for the ocean and waves. It wasn't always as i can recall being scared by the ocean when I was 3 or 4 years old. We were on Maui at a beach and I was wearing my red overalls (like Dennis the Menace) and had wandered unwatched to the oceans edge and a wave came up and splashed all over me getting sand up my pants and getting me wet but not knocking me over. I cried at the discomfort of the sand in my pants and the surprise of it all. Hell maybe even then I was drawn to the ocean as I wanted to see it much closer.

[oldmansurfer]

There was a break by Magic Island called Ala moana bowl. It is supposedly one of the classic Hawaiian waves so I had a n interest in surfing it but never did. It was always crowded when I was there and not only that but the crowds were hostile with fights breaking out nearly every time I watched the surf and I didn't understand what the special thing is about the bowl. It never looked very good and I don't like crowds especially rowdy crowds. Oh well. Next to that is Kaisers I think and threes and fours. Kaisers also seemed to be a place of aggression and hostile competitiveness but Threes by channel marker 3 and Fours by channel marker 4 were okay. The jerks from the bowl will go to kaisers and if they get kicked out of there they go to Threes and on rare occasions they may end up at Fours which was a break with a bunch of mellow surfers. I liked Fours and used to go there often. I became considered a regular there. We were all low key surfers happy to just be catching some waves without big crowds (4 to 8 surfers there usually). To get to Fours I had a path I walked from the dorm at UH. I figured it out from trying a variety of different roads and crosswalks and shortcuts. It took me about 20 minutes to get there walking but I am a fast walker. One particularly funny incident that happened there was a bunch of use were done for the day and paddled in. We were just hanging out talking and a helicopter pilot walked up to us and asked us to wave at him as he flew by and he would let us look up the skirts of the women he was flying in his glass domed helicopter. We were like okay whatever. The next day unhappy with our waving asked us again. I said "Listen, we don't care to look up the skirts of your passengers. How about a case of beer?" He agreed so we all waved wildly the next day when he passed by and got our case of beer when we went in. The waves weren't that great but there was usually some waves and a bunch of friendly guys to share it with.

[oldmansurfer]

One day while at University of Hawaii I grabbed my board and walked to my usual break Fours. Both 3's and 4's weren't breaking right for that swell but I could see the Ala moana bowl was breaking so I paddled across to Magic Island and the bowl was too crowded with guys breaking each others boards. On the far side of Magic Island was a break with only 5 guys out and it looked nice so I went out there. I heard it was called "Concessions" and later that it was called "Tennis courts" still not sure which one. Anyway it was right breaking wave and was about 4 to 6 foot that day which would be wave faces up to 12 feet and real hollow, tubing out but kind of weak slow waves.

I was so stoked to get a break with only 5 guys out and nice waves and paddled out assuming my place in the lineup. But these 5 guys were being possessive about the waves. One guy would paddle around me and another on the inside of me. Now it isn't cool to paddle around someone but it is their lineup so I just went along with it. By convention I had to let the surfer in the more critical position take off but when I backed off, the surfer in the more critical position backed off too and the other surfer to my right in the less critical position would take off. I was pretty good at late takeoffs so I positioned myself at my limit which was likely beyond their limits and I kept paddling until the deeper guy had to take off. He didn't a couple times and I caught those waves but then he went for it on most waves. He usually ended up wiping out and I did this repeatedly but I think at least one of them got real tubed on at least one wave. That was fun for a while but I still didn't catch many waves.

I noticed there were bigger sets ( 6 to 8 foot) coming in that broke outside about every 15 minutes and no one was riding them so I paddled out there and sat and waited. On the first wave that came in I paddled and popped up and the wave immediately covered me in a moist tube. It was unanticipated and alarming how fast I was covered by the wave but soon found myself coming out of the tube. Right where I wanted to turn was one of them paddling up the wave so I cranked a hard turn right next to him spraying him with water in a sort of fade back/cutback maneuver where I turned hard below the lip and turned back outside of the breaking lip. It turns out this was exactly the right maneuver for those waves and by accident because that guy was in my way. I didn't even know I could make a bottom turn in front of the lip so on the beach side of where the lip was coming down. The turn back to down the line was the quick direction change turn I did when I was cutting back into the tube and spraying myself on the cutback that i had described earlier. The fade back turn slowed my board and I got in the tube again and when I came out another one of them was paddling up the wave so I cranked another turn and sprayed him and got in the tube again. When I came out a third surfer was paddling up the wave so I figured what the heck and sprayed him too and got in the tube again. This was turning into a great wave and as I was in the tube for the fourth time I found myself wishing one more of them was there when I came out and my wish came true. I sprayed him too and got in the tube again. When I came out there were no more surfers but I cranked a hard turn anyway and got in the tube again. These were not clean tubes and each time I was completely covered in foam and also completely covered by the tube I am sure no board visible from the beach. The cleaner tubes still had small chandeliers falling from the top, not clean but I was deep and the wetter waves I was covered completely in the foam ball. The end tube ride collapsed on me but all in all it was a fantastic ride which still remains one of my best waves.

I paddled back out and the group of them paddled toward me. I thought ok now I am going to have to fight them. But they just talked to me and asked me if I was from there. I said no I was from Kauai. They said "Oh! That explains it. We just wanted to let you know we were going to let you catch waves now." And just like that they quit trying to hog the waves and we enjoyed the rest of the day surfing together and talking story. They were basically good guys but hated the invasion of surfers from elsewhere pushing them out of the spots they surfed since they were little kids.

The waves were slow weak thin lipped waves but real hollow and great for getting tubed. I never surfed this break again but I was glad I did this day. This had to be one of my best all time waves because I intentionally repeatedly got completely deeply tubed and also for the satisfaction of spraying those guys who were trying to hog all the waves. The whole rest of the day I didn't catch another wave like that one but then I never went for the set waves again. Take away from this to me was that other surfers often push me to excel. If they weren't there hogging the waves I wouldn't have caught that one wave or if I did I might not have made the right turn to get tubed again. Just lucky it all went down like it did.

[oldmansurfer]

I didn't have a car when at UH having sold my car to pay for my 4 years there. I went surfing one time with Dave and a lot of times with Greg both who were surfers staying in my dorm. Once Dave accompanied me walking to the beach. While we were walking some young women were leaning over the balcony of a hotel and yelling stuff to us inviting us up there. Dave yells back " I don't think I can afford you." That is when I realized they were hookers. LOL He was from there. Most of my surfing was alone walking to fours or some of the other breaks in the area which I am clueless to their names. But Gregg took me to a bunch of breaks.

Just around the corner from UH is Diamond Head. It has a bunch of breaks but I never heard their names only Diamond Head which is the name of the mountain next to it. From the road there is a big parking lot and a trail that goes down to the beach. In those days not too crowded but the nice breaks were usually crowded. We surfed there 3 times but one particular day sticks in my memory. As we approached the bottom of the trail there is a clearing and this day there was a completely nude girl laying flat on her back with her mouth wide open. That was so bizarre, I thought maybe she was having some kind of medical problem a seizure or something so I went over to her and asked if she was okay. She said she was and was just tanning herself. I told her I thought there might be something wrong with her because her mouth was wide open. She said no she was doing that to tan inside her mouth. I was used to people doing all kinds of nonsense for their health having lived for about 2 years on a commune so I didn't try to explain how sunlight can cause cancer. She had a perfect tan as far as I could tell except inside her mouth LOL.

We paddled out and there was a small left break that no one was surfing and it was tubing out so we paddled over there. I caught multiple waves getting backside tubes on about half of the waves. Gregg said I was hogging all he waves but I said he was staying inside and should come out to where I was because I was about 15 or 20 feet further out than him. Apparently he was afraid of the spot I was in having had a bad problem there which he didn't want to explain to me. So I had a good amount of waves already and told him I would go in and let him catch all he wanted to.

On the shore were a bunch of local surfers hanging out drinking beer. I said howzit to them and they invited me to have a beer. So I sat with them and drank about 3 beers and talked story with them. They were keeping an eye on Greg and told me he wasn't catching waves. They started talking about the nude girl upset she was doing her nudist thing here at their beach. The conversation shifted to should we rape her or just beat her up so I decided maybe I should try to intervene and get her to leave. I looked over and she was standing on her head with her legs spread wide open. No need to ask why LOL. So I thanked them for the beers and left. I went up to her and told her she should leave the beach now. She said why and I told her that those guys were upset with her for being nude there and she answered that she hadn't had problems before there. I told her that was about to change and she should leave now. Reluctantly she agreed to leave and put her clothes on and walked up the trail. I accompanied her because I wasn't sure if those guys would follow her or if they would just be happy she was gone and I wasn't sure if she would actually leave. She left and I waited at the parking lot for Greg. He never caught a wave. It was because he was lined up in the wrong place to take off trying to take off on the shoulder when he should have been at the peak. No clue why no one else was surfing that break but lucky me.

[BaNZ]

I love the stories. You do have some wonderful encounters.

[oldmansurfer]

Thanks I should mention that those guys were just like the guys I used to hang out with on Kauai. I felt so comfortable with them. If they were just like the guys I used to hang out with, the talk about the nude girl was just blowing off some steam but if they got drunk enough who knows. They were very hospitable to this haole.from Kauai. It made the wait for Greg a bonus instead of a hassle. I asked them why no one was surfing that break and they mentioned the names of a couple of surfers who did surf that break but they weren't there but never said why no one else surfed it. Lucky for me (not Gregg) I was a complete bone head about Gregg. It took me a long time to figure out he wasn't a very good surfer but he took me to all of these great breaks for whatever reasons. I will mention more when I get to where I realized it LOL

[oldmansurfer]

Greg took me to a couple of the great breaks on the north shore of Oahu. First we went to Sunset beach and it was crowded maybe 100 surfers out. Inside of Sunset was a little reef break that was tubing out and no one was surfing it so out we go. Turns out it was a very shallow reef like knee high in areas but it was tubing out and I got tubed a bunch of times there. So I guess I can say I got a bunch of tubes at Sunset LOL. This day Gregg went in early and said I could stay out as long as I wanted. I kept surfing till my board got a deep scratch from the reef and i got a shallow scratch on my leg. Fun but I could see why no one was surfing it. They weren't hard up for tubes like I was LOL

We never went to Pipeline although I wished there was some way I could surf that break by myself LOL we both knew the crowd situation was insane there but I still didn't know it was beyond Greg's skill level. He took me to Haleiwa one day and it was breaking really great with only about 10 people surfing. It's a right breaking wave and that day it was 5 to 8 feet with 9 foot sets. I surfed it very conservatively as I usually do the first time anywhere. The outside break was tubing but I never got tubed there because I was learning about how it broke. On the inside was a shallow section that I did manage to get tubed a little there which was just by chance as it was a timing thing. Too slow and you don't make it through that section and too fast and you won't get tubed. What a great day that was. Really nice waves. I was in position for one set wave and paddled for it. I could hear everyone cheering me on. Unfortunately I could not get into the wave and it passed under me. I was so intensely disappointed for letting the wave go unridden and also for letting down all those who were cheering for me. I could see that if I surfed that break a bit more I would have enjoyed it even more (except it is probably crowded most days). Surfing is about learning to ride the waves that are there but at a given break the ways that waves present are much more limited and you can learn the shapes and conditions that allow good surfing at that spot and how best to take advantage of that. If I had surfed that day more I would have tried to paddle sooner for the set wave if given another chance. Another lucky day for me to surf a popular Oahu north shore break at size with a small crowd of friendly people. I didn't know it but that day was beyond Greg's skill level.

[oldmansurfer]

One day we were driving around the island looking for surf. There wasn't any good options. The only places with waves were extremely crowded. We passed Rabbit island and noticed waves breaking along one side of that island probably about three fourths of a mile out from shore. We kind of both said we would keep that in mind if we strike out everywhere else. Turns out we struck out and returned to that break. It was about the distance I paddled when Hanalei was big so I figured what the heck. We were about half way there and a boat with 4 guys come up to us and said they will give us a ride to the island. We weren't sure as we were both haoles and they were locals and thought it could be bad but I said he could get in the boat first then I would hand him the boards and if any problems we would jump off LOL. They were totally cool just being nice. The waves were about waist to shoulder high and at least something. Really not too bad probably worth it because we had no other options. I had classes to attend so we paddled back.

We went out again and this time we paddled all the ways out. I was sleepy because our dorm had a party and I was on the setup and cleanup committee which meant I partied till about 3 am. After surfing for an hour I went on the island and found a nice flat rock to lay on and slept a bit. The guys on the boat showed up. I guess because they knew I was tired they offered to give us a ride back. I think the majority of surfers I ran into on Oahu were awesome people.

[oldmansurfer]

One day we were driving around the island looking for surf. There wasn't any good options. The only places with waves were extremely crowded. We passed Rabbit island and noticed waves breaking along one side of that island probably about three fourths of a mile out from shore. We kind of both said we would keep that in mind if we strike out everywhere else. Turns out we struck out and returned to that break. It was about the distance I paddled when Hanalei was big so I figured what the heck. We were about half way there and a boat with 4 guys come up to us and said they will give us a ride to the island. We weren't sure as we were both haoles and they were locals and thought it could be bad but I said he could get in the boat first then I would hand him the boards and if any problems we would jump off LOL. They were totally cool just being nice. The waves were about waist to shoulder high and at least something. Really not too bad probably worth it because we had no other options. I had classes to attend so we paddled back.

We went out again and this time we paddled all the ways out. I was sleepy because our dorm had a party and I was on the setup and cleanup committee which meant I partied till about 3 am. After surfing for an hour I went on the island and found a nice flat rock to lay on and slept a bit. The guys on the boat showed up. I guess because they knew I was tired they offered to give us a ride back. I think the majority of surfers I ran into on Oahu were awesome people.

[oldmansurfer]

There is a break we called Maili point on the west side of Oahu. My friend Greg somehow knew when this spot was going to be good. At the time there was no forecast or surf report for this spot but Greg knew that if another break was happening (Can't recall what other break) Not only will Maili point be breaking but also less crowded because everyone would be elsewhere. We went there twice. It is a left breaking reef break and both times we went there it was tubing out around 12 foot faces. This is a break that I could learn to surf really well given time. There is an inside reef that is extremely shallow often out of the water. It serves as a barrier from the waves so I would paddle out inside of this reef and wait till a break in the surf then scramble over and paddle out. We only went there twice but that seemed to work really well. then there is a channel with no waves that you can take your time paddling out. There were 2 parts to the wave the out side and inside break and what joined them together if you wanted to do that was a super shallow reef section that lurched up and tubed out. The outer part was a fast hollow wave and offered the opportunity to get tubed and make it out. For me that was not every wave. The waves were beautiful hollow tubes but some of them broke too fast for me and I took some poundings on quite a few waves. They were fairly powerful waves but I wasn't ever injured. Wiping out in the tube is in my experience the best way to wipeout. There are so many worse ways to wipeout on waves like that. But I learned by the end of the first session which waves to go for. On the waves that I made to the inside section, I had not figured out how to get tubed there in the shallow section between the two however even though the inside was a more mellow less steep wave mostly good for carving some turns I did manage to get tubed there a little on the waves that I made past the shallow section. Both times we went out the same local surfer was there and both times he said " I don't want to see you on my waves. What I mean by my waves is the waves I am riding. I don't care if you took off first or deeper to me, if I am riding it then it is my wave." I had heard this nearly exact same dialog from local surfers on Kauai. We did what I did there, let him catch a wave then catch the next one.

The second time we went out I had the outside wired and figured out the timing for the middle shallow part. It was a great day of surfing for me. I loved this break. One time I paddled out and Greg was sitting waiting for a wave. You might think this happened a lot but amazingly it didn't there was a continuous flow of waves one after the other. I rarely saw either of the other two guys surfing there. Anyway having figured out which waves to catch I watched Greg let one go by that was perfect. So I said "That was the wave you should have gone for. It was perfect." He said "Not that one I am waiting for the perfect wave. " So I thought I would take a break from surfing and see what he thought was perfect. In about 5 minutes this mush burger wave comes in which I had not noticed and he said "Here's the perfect wave" and took off on the only wave I wouldn't ever consider riding on that day. When he paddled back out I asked him why he didn't want the tubing waves and he said they were too dangerous. So I asked him about the day we went to Haleiwa and it was even bigger hollow waves and he said he didn't catch a single wave that day, just paddled out and back in.

I am such a bone head sometimes. I didn't realize he couldn't handle those waves especially since he set me up with them. I think for him it was just fun to be out if the fray. I would say I never knew another surfer like that but then I surfed with him for a year before I recognized he was like that LOL. I guess for me I assume everyone is like me or the guys I surfed with at Kealia and Hanalei and Pokamoe although I wasn't keeping track of if they were ridding waves or not but would see them surfing on some waves as I paddle back out.

Coming to this forum greatly expanded my view of the variety of surfers that are out there. Also in my time out of the water I have read a lot of books about other surfers and that has expanded my view of other surfers. Surfers have one thing in common, they surf.

[oldmansurfer]

I was thinking about my first encounter with the ocean. It's the first one that I can recall but I do remember more details of that encounter. What attracted me to the ocean was sparkles on the surface of the water and the whole fluidity and changing and yet sort of staying the same. I guess it was close to mid day (not sure about that) and the sun was glinting off the tops of ripples in the water and waves. It was amazing and pretty. Not sure what words were in my head if any but as I can recall it amazing and pretty are close. I wanted to see it up close maybe even right next to it. The beach in that area had a steep bank and I was right where the slope went from flat to steep thus the water up my pants and not knocking me over which was a good thing because if I took a tumble down the slope I would have possibly drowned. The other detail was I was wearing diapers under my overalls so not sure if that changes my guess of the age I was or maybe if I wore diapers longer than most kids but most likely I was younger than 3 or 4 years. So can any of you recall stuff from that age? I don't know why I can. Anyone remember their first encounter with the ocean?