The ancient Kahunas‘ hang out?

[oldmansurfer]

The second time I surfed storm surf at Kealia I had a lot more experience under my belt and although it was similar to the time before I chose to not go to the perfect A frame because the other side of the bay was calling to me. There was a singe surfer out at the A frame and no one else out. Pretty sure it was the same guy who was there he last time. But I had a few more days of larger surf by then and the scarier other side of the bay was way more interesting. On the right side of the bay there is a small rocky cliff with a boulder shore line all the way in to where the shoreline turns to go along the sandy beach. A small river enters the bay shortly after the sand starts. This area usually only breaks in the sandy area except for the storm surf. On this day there were five different sections of the wave, each one with it's own different characteristics (all of them breaking right). The outside break which was all the way out past the far right side of the rocky shoreline was absolutely beautiful. It was around 30 foot faces and breaking in this huge super hollow tube which made a gigantic spit at the end of that section. The next section was a freight train right probably around 20 foot faces that was super fast and I really wanted to see if I could surf that part. However both of those parts broke onto the rocky coastline and it didn't seem safe. I tried to imagine getting caught inside after wiping out and the only thing came to mind was disaster. But the third section was a nice slow tubing wave around 15 plus foot faces that looked pretty mellow and looked like I should be able to make it to the sand beach to exit if I got caught inside and most of it was in front of the sandy portion of the beach. The fourth section was a much smaller freight train fast breaking wave with about 10 foot faces (my specialty) and then a the fifth part was a really nice even breaking tubing wave with about 6 to 8 foot faces which would have been a good day surfing just surfing that part.

I got out through the shore break easily for whatever reasons most likely timed it well. Then paddled over to the third section and went to where I felt was the safest bet to catch the wave. I wasn't able to catch the wave in that place so I edged deeper into the lineup. Something I learned was that in bigger surf there can be parts of the wave that are just too difficult to paddle into the wave but if you go deeper eventually it will let you takeoff. Kind of scary but I had heard that from other surfers at Hanalei. So I just kept edging deeper and deeper and was into the part of the wave that broke into the rocks but there was some distance to the rocks and enough that I should be able to get to the sand if caught inside, when it finally let me catch a wave. I dropped down and the lip in that area was scary. It was a yard thick and as I got to the bottom the sound from the lip breaking was overwhelming. It was so loud it scared me and I made a super hard bottom turn to run to the safety of the shoulder. It was an extremely loud cracking sound, like what I imagine a huge tree being broken in half would sound like. I got so far ahead of the wave on the bottom turn I was forced to do a cutback, at that point the biggest cutback I have ever done LOL. And I went so far back I got tubed which I didn't intend to do as I was so afraid of the lip didn't really want to be close to it.

I caught several waves and rode each one all the way through to the fifth section and maybe I wiped out there once or twice. But mostly fantastic waves and the same huge cutback at the beginning though I didn't always get tubed on the outer part I did get some other tubes there by mistake sort of. I was so afraid of that lip I really didn't want to get close to it but I did want to get tubed so maybe partly by intention but never as deep as the first time. I was careful not to go too far back.

Another day with only me out, well actually there was another surfer on the opposite side of the bay.

[oldmansurfer]

The next time I surfed storm surf it was different besides having a few surfers out. There was a big left breaking outside of the landing area of Kealia. It probably was around 8 to 9 feet (16 to 18 foot faces) and very stormy and messy waves breaking in huge sections. When I got to the beach 2 guys were about to paddle out. They both went out at the usual place and I walked down the beach all the way to the landing area where it was sheltered from the waves by the huge boulders put there to create a sheltered area for the boats to anchor long ago. The waves were breaking outside of the boulders but I paddled to the end of the protected area and waited for a break in the surf. Once there was a break I paddled quickly out to the break not having to deal with any waves at all. There were 2 surfers in the lineup and those weren't the two who paddled out at same time as me, they were still paddling. But these surfers said "You can take the next wave" I responded "What?" That wasn't common at this break. They said "we are tired from paddling out and need to take a break before we catch a wave." So I took off on the next wave. I had taken my slow board with me not knowing how big it was going to be but oh well it was still a good board. I got tubed a few times as these huge sections would throw over the top of me and then quickly I would emerge and another section would throw over the top of me. I am not really sure how many tubes I got but maybe 4 or 5 on that first wave. Super stoked and I was getting comfortable surfing backside on bigger waves. I felt at home in those waves on that day.

I had been working on a backside speed turn and I was sure this was a day where I would likely need it. I came up with this idea because when I try to get higher on the wave and do speed turns backside the shape of the wave is wrong for the way my body angled. Frontside i fit perfectly in leaning into the wave but backside my head sticks out and gets contacted by the lip which usually results in pulling me off the board. Once it starts pulling me it's very difficult to extract myself from the lip. It just keeps pulling my head down lower and lower until it pulls me off the board. So I had an idea that instead of making small speed turns do a big one where I am upside down under the lip and my body will fit the shape of the wave better then come down to a crouch. I had tried this only once before at Horners (the left break close to my home) and it had worked perfectly. I was actually surprised how well it worked but on this day I did that same turn 4 times on 4 different waves. There was a big section on the inside part of the wave it was still pretty big there but became smaller after that section. That was the area I did the under the lip speed turn. It was so unusual I was under the lip maybe in the tube already and at the peak of the turn my face was inches away from the water and I was completely upside down. On each wave I cut out or wiped out in an area with about 8 to 10 foot faces and got caught by multiple waves battling to get back outside of the break. But it was worth it. I caught some pretty awesome waves.

After a while a surfer paddled over to me and said "You're making it further inside that anyone else today." I thought that was strange as there were goofy footers there who were better surfers than me. So I said "It's probably that I am getting caught inside and being pushed in further. " He said "No that's not it. You are surfing further in than the other surfers". So I said "They probably don't want to get caught inside and be pushed in like what was happening to me on most waves." He said "That's not it either they want to go further but aren't". Kind of baffling to me so I said "How could you know? You can't see anything from out here." he said "They are on the beach keeping track of the surfers." I didn't recognize it at the time but perhaps this was their way of welcoming me to upper echelon of local surfers (I wasn't a beginner anymore). I think some of the surfers suspected it was my board and I had a good board but if I had my fast board 2 things would have been different. One is I would have made it even further inside and the other was I wouldn't have gotten tubed as much. This is the dilemma of boards. I like fast boards mostly because I can "make the waves" easier with more speed however this comes at the cost of less tube time. So I enjoy my slow board for it's ability to stay in the tube without effort trying to slow it down. The fast board I don't get tubed for as long of a time but I can make some really deep tube rides. I think even from the beach they couldn't see what I was doing or they would have recognized I was doing something different than all of them. Anyway still an awesome day surfing.

[oldmansurfer]

That maneuver that I did was one that I did mental imaging for. For at least a month before I attempted to try it, I imagined what it would feel like and tried to go through the motions in my mind while standing in my surf stance and trying to move my body and arms as similar as I could to what I imagined I would do. I did this nearly every day usually more than once a day. Then after I felt I was ready to try it, the next time a wave presented itself with the opportunity to try it was at Horners. I don't recall much about that wave other than I was very surprised how easy to do it was and how well it worked on my first try. My shaper was making me fast boards but I bought a fish (single fin) from a friend who shaped boards and I liked the way the board looked but it didn't perform well so I asked my shaper to make a board like that but one that worked. so he made a 7 foot swallow tail. At first I wasn't so thrilled with the board but after getting used to it I realized it was slower than my other boards and that was an advantage for tube riding (except for big or fast breaks) because my fast board often came out of a tube too quickly. I never developed good skills at slowing down the board enough to make up for the difference in the speed of my boards. But by the time I was headed to college it was part of my surfing to try to slow down in the tube when needed to have a longer tube ride.

One of the surfers on the day I was doing that under the lip backside speed turn wanted to use my board. I never let anyone else use my boards at that point in my life so this was the first time but eventually I agreed to let him use my board.
The dialog went like this:
Him; I like use your board.
Me: NO! I don't let anyone use my board.
Him: I like use your board
Me: My board is like my girlfriend and I don't let anyone use her. (this was a common thing surfers said to discourage others from using their board)
Him : I like use your board.
Me: I like use your board too.
Him: NO! I like use your board.
I thought about it for a while. He was one of the better surfers on Kauai and if he liked it, it might mean more business for my shaper. I was also a lower rung on the ladder of suffers on Kauai so I usually always deferred to whatever he wanted. I finally relented and let him use my board although the fast board is the one he should have tried. I think he must have contacted my shaper because a week later my shaper called me and said it was time for me to get a new board. I knew it was but still those boards were still working well for me although they were falling apart. The next board was even better.

[oldmansurfer]

I posted this one earlier but it was at Kealia as was the drunk surfing one. One morning I went surfing early in the morning at Kealia beach by the parking lot near the river mouth on the north side of the bridge. I hadn't tried this before (early morning surfing) but my friend talked me into it the day before. We were in the water before 7 am (about 6:30). There was absolutely no wind and the waves were small (3 to 4 feet - 6 to 8 foot faces) but easily overhead breaking top to bottom tubing out perfection. They were great waves and we both got tubed on every single wave. I took off and got deeply tubed on every wave and then either came out at the end of the wave or it collapsed on me. When it collapsed on me I usually managed to stay on my board and either continue on or cut out because the waves were so thin lipped they had little power.

My friend told me to look at the shore while in the tube and I did. The lips were so thin and clean I could clearly see the shoreline from in the tube. It was just like looking through a window. My friend wanted to know if you could see a surfer through the lip so he went to the beach for a wave or two to watch me. He came back out and said he could and told me to go check it out. I looked at the perfect waves coming in and thought about not riding them. My friend said " The waves not going anywhere. Going still be breaking when you come back out." So reluctantly I paddled in ran up on the beach and watched. On the first wave my friend wiped out and I started getting nervous watching all those beautiful tubes coming in unridden. I was thinking "I could be on that wave.....or that one....or that one!!!!" My friend wiped out again and again I saw the unridden perfection coming in. I yelled to him "Catch a wave already." He wiped out again. I yelled to him "that's it, I'm going back out." He yelled back "I going catch the next one....Promise!!" So I waited and was driven nearly crazy by the thought of all those waves going unridden. Finally he caught and rode a wave and it was amazing how well you could see him through the wave. However I couldn't stand it anymore so I scrambled back into the perfection. I asked my friend later and he said he was trying to drop his shorts and moon me through the wave and that's why he was falling. The first wave he had un done his shorts and when he popped up they dropped to his knees and caused him to wipeout so the next few waves he tried to take them off while in the tube and that caused him to wipeout.

After numerous waves it was the same thing over and over so I tried different things. The waves were so weak that I figured maybe I could do some different things. First I tried sticking my hand out through the lip and that was easily accomplished although I couldn't hold it there for long because my arms weren't strong enough. I figured that probably I could punch through the lip or go from in the tube through the lip to outside of the wave. The first couple attempts I fell but only after getting out of the wave. I figured it was from the wave hitting my board after I went through the lip so I made a stronger turn to the outside so I cleared the lip and was successful. Then I tried to go back into the wave. I fell again but after a few attempts I did it, Went from being tubed to punching through the tube to the outside and then punching back into the tube through the lip. I did that a couple times and then tried to ride with the lip hitting me on the head so that I was half way in and half way out. When you are on a wave and the lip hits you constantly if you get even slightly off balance the constant force of the wave pushes you more and more out of balance till you fall. While attempting to do this I tried to ride with one eye in the wave and one eye outside of the wave. The wave was just slightly too thick to allow this. I kept thinking I was going to adjust my head just right and accomplish that but I never did. I kept trying till I made a wave for the whole distance with the lip hitting me on the head.

I never saw conditions like that again. You always hear surfers talk about how glassy the waves were but these were the epitome of glassy. They were actually clear as glass. These waves while perfect tubes weren't too thrilling once I had a few. I mean it was just the same thing over and over again, perfect little tube after perfect little tube. They were weak waves and gave the impression there was no way you would get injured by them. Of course I might have been wrong but I never got into any situation that caused an injury and I was abusing the wave in all kinds of ways that I would never do in more powerful surf. Funny too because that was the only time I went surfing with that friend. He was about to leave to somewhere and wanted to do stuff before he left because he might not be able to do it where he went. I only ran into him because we had a mutual friend we were both visiting at the same time. We barely knew each other.

[oldmansurfer]

I was practicing doing cutbacks at Kealia one day and I was splashed by water unexpectedly. When I was paddling back out there was a surfer smiling at me. I asked if he sprayed me with water and he laughed and said "No, you did that yourself." I asked him how and he said what do you think? So I thought about it and realized I was kicking up a rooster tail making the cutback and switching back the other way quick enough to ride through it. I kept doing that trick just for fun as I was learning to surf but at some point I quit doing it. I think my style of surfing changed and where I was working on doing a more complete cutback into the whitewater and working on top to bottom turns in the area before where I would do the cutbacks instead of speed turns so it slowed me down a bit which led to a different cutback. I could still reverse directions quickly, just did it in different situations. I developed a fade back and did it at bottom of that turn. I imagine the reversing directions turn to bring the board back to down the line kicked up a spray as it was like a pivot suddenly changing directions unlike the cutback which was a drawn out turn.

[oldmansurfer]

When I graduated from college and got married my wife and I went surfing at down by the river mouth at Kealia beach. It wasn't much of a day but I love Kealia and had a lot of fun surfing there. My wife got poked in her leg by her fin. It kind of laid her leg open and she was bleeding. I had her hold the wound to stop the bleeding and carried her the 75 yards of beach back to the car. I was so tired by the time we neared the parking lot I thought maybe I was going to have a heart attack or something. Out of breath huffing and puffing. As I was putting her in the car another surfer comes up to me and says are you okay? I said "I think so." between gasps for air. He says "Not you. Her!" I could barely speak but nodded my head. He said , "Can I do anything for you?" I just looked at him trying to get more air. He said "Maybe I can get your boards?" I nodded and pointed down the beach where we had left them and continued huffing and puffing. Good guy went and got our boards and kept me from having to do so. I don't recall if I thanked him but hopefully I got my breath back and thanked him. Funny I only recall being too out of breath to talk to him but that was very considerate of him.

[oldmansurfer]

There are a few beaks between Kealia and Wailua. I have surfed only a couple of them. One is a break called Anchors because there was a ships anchor sticking out of the water in that area. I believe it is no longer there but this break is right in Kapaa town with easy access. I only surfed it 2 times because it is a shallow reef. But it is a spot that will break when no where else is breaking and the waves when I went there were awesome tubes. Both times I surfed it there were shoulder to head high tubes. It was a deceptively powerful wave. For the size it was powerful. It was such a quick break as soon as I popped up I was in the tube and sometimes even before I had completed my popup I was tubed. Each wave was a tube and most of them I made it out at the end where it was waist high and cutout. I was going so fast I could do 3 turns (like an S but one more turn) in the flat water over the back of the wave after cutting out. I hear it breaks well at bigger size but is particularly dangerous. At the size I surfed it I had zero injuries shallow reef and all because the waves were makeable. Just have to popup and make the right turn during the popup and it's automatic.

[oldmansurfer]

Another break between Wailua and Kealia is Mahelona bay which is just around the corner from Kealia on the south side. It's another break I went to when there were no waves elsewhere. I went there twice with the same guy who was the only surfer friend I had that I knew got a photo in Surfer Magazine. Now there might be others who have since then gotten their photo in Surfer magazine but he had it on his wall of his bedroom. I would-be proud of it too if it were me. This bay has a completely rocky shoreline, no beach. But there are these huge algae covered boulders that you can walk out on and jump off of into the water. Coming in is a little trickier but its rocky and not much reef in that area on the shore so finding the right rocks to exit and time it when you aren't getting hit by waves is the trick.

The first time we went there it was better than nothing but not too exciting. The second time my friend went first and I followed off the boulders. he did a clean entry but I slipped and rolled down this huge algae covered boulder into the water. It was pretty soft as the boulder was covered in thick algae so i thought no worse for wear and hoping no one saw that mistake paddled out. The waves were only about waist to shoulder high an not too special but beggars can't be choosers. I was sitting there waiting for the next wave and I saw a flash of something in the water. I saw it again and again and wasn't able to see what was zooming around underneath me. then a wave came in and it gave me a good view of a small shark with it's pectoral fins down and back arched. I haven't ever seen this display by a shark before but I think it was territorial aggression. I just knew it was likely not a good thing as they are usually just cruising around. So I yelled out to my friend "The sharks here are acting weird, I think we should go in." and my friend said "Yeah I noticed too and I agree we should go in."

We excited the ocean without mishap and were walking back to the cars and his girlfriend who was waiting for us shouted something that sounded like "Should I call the ambulance?" I asked my friend "What the heck is she saying?" He says "Look at yourself." I look down and there is blood everywhere. I guess I had tiny scrapes from falling off the boulder and the ocean was washing it off so I never noticed but it looked like I was seriously injured from a distance. LOL I didn't go to a doctor for those scratches and they healed fine.

My friend was also one of the few surfers I met who was bit by something in the ocean. I also knew a guy who had his leg bit off although I haven't seen him since then and met a guy who was bitten by a shark while on a Indo boat tour and I met the incredible Bethany Hamilton who had her arm bit off and continued competitive surfing after My friend was duck diving on a wave at Kealia and something grabbed his shoulder. The doctor he went to said it was probably a barracuda and he used to surf with a religious pendant so that would fit but personally I had no idea. Just know barracudas are attracted to flashing metallic things and I saw sharks all the time at Kealia where he got bit.

[oldmansurfer]

I was quite a mess as a youth. While still in high school I decided that I hated myself because I realized I was exactly the kind of person I always disliked. I escaped with drugs initially but managed to change myself so I wasn't that person anymore. I had no idea who I was but at least it wasn't that guy. I was incredibly shy and that just made matters worse but somehow after graduating from high school I met a couple women who made me feel I was a worthwhile person. Breaking up with the second one was overwhelming. She was so fantastic for my self esteem but then we broke up and the crash was too much for me. I became extremely depressed and to make matters worse I had my hand in a cast from a work related injury (a whole other good story LOL) and couldn't surf. I had quit doing drugs and had nothing in my life. You should never hang your happiness on another person but I finally decided to end it all I was going to Kealia and if there was surf I was going to surf with my cast on and if not then I was going to paddle out to deep water and dive down till I couldn't go any further and drown myself. I got to Kealia and it was flat as a pancake. No waves so I figured let me just go ahead and get this done and paddled out to deeper water but before I got there a small clean little wave came out of nowhere. I turned around and rode it. Another wave came in and I rode it too. After several waves I was feeling much happier and decided I was going to be okay and went in before my cast turned to mush. I dried out my cast and the next time put a plastic bag over it before I went surfing. So I felt like Kealia had saved my life. I wanted to do something for Kealia so I went around picking up trash. At first it was mostly broken bottles and not too much other trash but Kealia started to become more popular and there was increasing amounts of trash. The last cleanup I did I filled more than 50 large trash bags with trash. Fortunately for me a friendly local guy came by and asked me what I was up to and offered to haul away the trash in his pickup truck. I had a VW camper van and it would have taken me many trips but he was happy I did all this work already and was willing to finish the task for me. Awesome, don't remember who that guy was just he got the idea of what I was doing and wanted to help.

[oldmansurfer]

There is a couple of stories about Kealia that aren't exactly surfing but problems that can occur surfing. The first one is about a waterproof watch my parents gave me for graduation. It was self winding and had a metal clasp band. Not sure why they chose this but obviously they weren't aware of what kind of watch to get a surfer but then neither was I. It was guaranteed to be waterproof to 333 feet. Now I was still paipoboarding so they didn't realize I would wear it surfing but then again if I wore it paipoboarding I would have lost it then. Instead I was going through a wave and one of the ways I go through waves is to push up off the board and allow the whitewater to go between me and the board. I did that and kind of got knocked off the board as the whitewater was a little more powerful than I anticipated. I climbed back on my board and felt something under my chest. I lifted up my chest to see what it was and it was my watch which proceeded to slide off the board. I dove down in an attempt to find it but the water was swirling sand all over and visibility wasn't good. I kept looking for several minutes but was unable to find it. I never wore a watch before that point in my life and for a while after I never wore a watch again. Because it is self winding it is probably still there keeping time as it get knocked around by the swells.

The other one involved going through a wave using the same technique at Kealia again. This time I judged the wave well and the whitewater passed easily between me and the board. What also passed between me and the board was a huge Portuguese man-o-war which went along with the whitewater that went between me and my shorts. It was very painful and I fell off my board and was under water. I guess I had no air in my lungs because I sank down. I felt paralyzed like I couldn't move my arms or legs. I remember looking up at the surface and thinking it's just a few feet away, there must be some way to get back to the surface and then my leash passed by and I thought I'll just pull myself up with the leash and found my arms worked just enough to do that. I was like grabbing it with 2 fingers and pulling a couple inches then the next hand doing the same. After a few pulls i found I could do more and increased my speed to the surface. After getting a breath I ripped my shorts off and dislodged the offending critter. Then I did something I never did and caught some whitewater in to the beach. As soon as I was on the shore I ripped off my shorts again and looked carefully for remaining strands and removed them and then took sand and rubbed it all over my private parts to dislodge and remaining stinging cells. Fortunately I am somewhat resistant to the stings and was basically okay in a couple hours. But I am sure anyone seeing me was wondering who that crazy person was rubbing sand on his private parts in public LOL

[oldmansurfer]

I have had a few waves at Kealia where I wiped out and bodysurfed on the same wave and grabbed my board stood back up and finished the wave standing. In the days before leashes I also had a couple waves where I wiped out on a wave and my board was taken inside then to get to my board I bodysurfed and then while still bodysurfing grabbed my board and stood back up on it and finished the wave standing. So started off bodysurfing and ended standing on surfboard. In the days before a leash you had to bodysurf in so while wiping out you try to go from standing to bodysurfing and your board is being swept in by the same wave. If you can get to it then you can just paddle back out. That wasn't too unusual for the surfers there but to bodysurf to the board and stand up on the same wave was unusual.

[oldmansurfer]

My last day at work at the job I had worked at for 2 years after high school I called in sick. I had trained my replacement and the boss was always saying I needed to take sick leave because it was accumulating. I also had sold my car to finance a trip to the mainland USA and maybe work my way down to Mexico or points south no plan but I had my passport and my surfboard and thought I wanted to travel to give myself time to grow up and become a more responsible person. Instead of work I walked to Kealia beach and the only other person there was a cute hippie type girl so I talked to her and found out she lived on a nearby commune and invited me to join them there. I was free to do whatever I wanted so I agreed to join them. This was the place where I paddled down the river to Kealia beach and sometimes back up the river to go home or if the water was flowing too fast I would walk back to the opposite side of the river close to my home and cross it. If it was flowing really fast I would walk on the road to the beach which took me about 20 minutes. I lived there for 2 years and surfed a lot mostly at Kealia beach because I had no car and it was accessible by walking or paddling down the river. The commune was a great place to learn to become the person I am today. The money I saved for travel became money to put myself through 4 years of college and I gave up the idea of traveling to surf.

[oldmansurfer]

On the north side of Kealia there are two breaks that I surfed. One of them was called Crack 14, I believe after a geological map that had that label counting cracks in the reef or shoreline. It's only surfable at a bigger size because it breaks along a rocky shoreline. When it's really small it breaks directly on the rocks so you can't surf it. The bigger it gets the further it is breaking from the rocky shoreline. Needless to say it is a somewhat dangerous break and it's a left so for a while that intimidated me. I have heard of surfers dying there getting caught in rising surf conditions. I don't recall much about it other than the last time I surfed it I was completely comfortable there. I had it dialed in so to speak. Still because I know it's dangerous it was never my first choice to surf. If you made it far enough in there was a cove that you could paddle in relatively safely. If you wiped out in front of the rocks there was a chance that you could get driven onto the rocks by multiple waves.

The other break was called Donkey beach (now called Paliku beach). The reason is long ago they had a pasture for donkeys around the beach. I went there in those days but not to surf. We used to collect wild mushrooms from the mountains of pineapple bran that accumulated on the shoreline in that area. The pineapple company dumped the bran and it accumulated along the coast north of Kealia. It became a nude beach which made for interesting surfing. It's funny but I guess some of the nudists didn't like you looking at them nude so they would cover up when you lost your surfboard and had to reclaim it on the beach. Other than that it wasn't much of a break the times I went there. Kind of sandy reef break with a nice sandy beach. I went there looking for surf when other breaks weren't happening. I fished there almost as much and have the same opinion about fishing there it's okay, nothing exciting. Probably went there much more often as a kid looking for mushrooms (edible straw mushrooms). Now they have a parking lot and trail to this beach. Back in those days the usual way for both breaks was driving on the cane road where cane trucks hauled sugarcane to the mill to be processed. It was a good idea to know where they were harvesting so you could avoid mishaps with the gigantic cane trucks. At various times there were various shortcuts that allowed you to approach close to the beaches without worrying about the cane trucks. I had a friend who lived nearby and kept up with all the shortcuts. For a while after they quit growing sugarcane you could drive down the cane roads worry free but then they gated all the old cane roads.

[oldmansurfer]

To the south of Wailua beach (the closest to my home) is a couple breaks that I surfed and a lot that I never surfed. On the right hand side of the bay is Blackrock and I have gone out there many times. It's approximately 400 to 500 yard paddle out from the beach. I haven't mentioned many surfing stories from there but it was the first place I did a grab rail turn (and last as I did only 2 rail grab turns both there). I did not plan on doing them but both were because of impending whitewater that was going to hit me so I grabbed the rail to stabilize myself, subconsciously, not thinking about it. I successfully stayed on the board and the wave after getting covered by whitewater both times. And I had 2 surfing injuries there both from SUPs that wiped out going through the wave I was surfing. The first one I saw them wipeout but thought they were too far outside to be a problem. The SUP hit me in the shin and then came down on my big toe bruising the nail. The other time I saw the wipeout and stupidly went around them then did a cutback into the loose SUP that bounced up and down on my other big toe splitting the nail down the middle. Neither of those injuries knocked me off my board.

Further south there is a series of breaks some of which I surfed but basically they are similar to Black rock at least the times I surfed there. I don't know if anyone has named them but bet they did as it seems they have names for all the breaks these days. Basically I look for the best waves and when there are people out then the place I am most likely to get some waves in a short period of time. Inside of there is Lydgate park and there is a break that I have caught a couple times which is a tubing right break just outside of the manmade ponds there. I noticed the waves paddling around black rock area looking for a break to surf. I was so happy to find this rarely occurring little tubing wave. A short tube but fun to ride for an old man.

Further south there are more breaks but the only one I surfed was called Kane's kitchen. I think this name came from when the marines were deployed there during world war II (mess hall was there). I have surfed it a few times. I have heard how great it is sometimes but never surfed or saw it very great. It was a break I surfed looking for surf when there was nothing at my usual spots. It's much better for fishing than surfing and even better for diving for fishing leads on the reef. That has been quite productive for me LOL I collected several hundred pounds of fishing leads off the reef in that area.

[oldmansurfer]

Further to the south there is a break in front of a hotel. Actually more than one break. When I surfed there, three breaks were named. On the left hand side is a rarely breaking right we called Donkeys. No idea where that name came from but did surf it a couple times. I think it has potential to be good but never saw it like that, close to good but not quite. In the middle was a break we called Shoulders, maybe because it has a big shoulder and it breaks right and left but the right is a longer ride. On the far right and further out is a break we called Ammonias most likely because it breaks into a rock wall and if you wipeout you take gas. I imagine there a bunch of names for the various sub breaks there but haven't heard. I did see the entire bay break in one wave a huge right. This was in the days before I surfed but I really wanted to run home and get my paipo board and go out there but never found time. After living on the commune I moved into a house near this break and attended the community college nearby. I worked for my father's business also nearby full time and he allowed me to take off from work to go to full time classes at the community college. As busy as I was I found time to surf there. I never really wanted to surf there but met a guy in college who surfed there. He also played pool and ended up taking me to the local pool hall as well as the local breaks.

I had some great waves there in the part we called Shoulders. Nothing too exciting but nice tube rides. Back in those days it was inhabited by the same surfers. If you wanted to catch waves there you had to follow their rules. The only different rule compared to the other breaks I surfed was there were two brothers who surfed there and neither of them could swim so if they lost their board you HAD to bring their board out to them. They shared the same longboard so if you saw that board floating around it was your job if you were closest to it to bring it out to them. Once I lost my board and went in to get it and their board showed up so I did the usual thing and put my foot over the top of the board and paddled back out. I got caught by a wave and it took the board away from me but there was a couple other surfers inside so I figured they would get it. As I got out to the stranded surfer he started screaming at me "Where is my board?" I told him what happened and he screamed at me that I had to go get it for him. I guess I didn't understand the rule but being the newest there it was my job if I was in the area LOL

One wave that I recall there I was getting hit on the head by the lip for a distance of maybe 5 yards then it let up and pulled myself into the tube and then tried to get tubed again on the inside but wiped out there. After paddling back out my college friend paddled up to me and asked me "How did you do that?" I thought he was asking how I managed to keep my board after wiping out. This was in the early leash days. He used a leash but I was still leashless. So I explained how surfing for years without a leash you learned to grab your board when you wiped out and hang onto it but he stopped me and said "Not that. Oh yeah that too but I was wondering how you managed to not fall down when the lip was hitting you." That is the second surfer who asked me that. Maybe I am unusual in that aspect. I never thought anything I was doing was different from anyone else only that when I first do something it was something I hadn't done before. But that I had done a bit. I told him what I told the other guy and it was I learned to lean into the force of the wave so that it pushed me squarely down onto the board which actually increases your stability by pushing you down into the board rather than sideways which would push you off the board. I always imagined others were doing what ever I did only to learn later maybe not. It's kind of difficult for me even today to think I am the only person to do something surfing. Really?? There's clearly a whole lot of surfers with much greater skills than me. This particular thing I am fairly certain there has to be other surfers doing this very thing.

The other break we called Ammonias rarely broke and a leash would have been ideal for this break as it broke into the rock and cement breakwater along the right side of this bay but I surfed it without a leash and without incident to myself or my board. I never surfed it much maybe three times but there was an inside section that was super shallow and sketchy. The other surfers said there were 2 approaches to cut out there or go for it. I chose to go for it.

There were occasionally sharks there as well as manta rays which lifted their wing tips out of the water resembling 2 sharks swimming together with fins out of the water. The surfers there had a thing they did which was when they saw a shark they would yell out "shark" and everyone would go in. One of them had a watch and he would keep track of the shark fin which was all you could see and time 20 minutes from the last sighting of the fin. When the allotted 20 minutes had passed he would signal it was time to go back in the water. At first I did this but sitting there on my board in the lineup I couldn't see the bottom on most days and I got to thinking where was the shark now that it's fin was not sticking out of the water? It could be here or there or right under me. You never know because it's fin wasn't out of the water. So I opted to stay in the water and surf. They would yell at me "shark" and would yell back "thanks for the waves."

[oldmansurfer]

The next break south of where I live that I surfed was called shipwrecks (also known as Keoneloa). Back when I first paipoboarded it there was a shipwreck on the beach and no beach, it was all rocks. Since then sand has filled in so there is a sand beach no shipwreck and now a hotel in the area which provides the parking lot used by those who want to go to that beach. It maybe too busy now for that parking lot to hold all the cars from people wanting to use that beach but it was more than enough at one point. It is a rock/reef break that is a fun wave but can be difficult to ride for beginners. In days before leashes I used my junk board there as the probability of getting dings was high. I am really not sure how it is these days as there is actually a beach now and everyone uses a leash. Most of the times I surfed it I used the board I made myself a 7 foot swallowtail single glassed in fin board with no leash. It was a fast board and a good tube riding board because it could ride high on the wall which allows it to go faster than other boards which don't hold a line at a higher position on a steep wall. I probably surfed there 6 times and don't recall much other than there is a learning curve and once you get it then it becomes more enjoyable and less challenging. The board I used was dinged before it ever got in the water by a friend. I had just buffed it out and it was all sparkling clean and shiny and a friend came to visit. He asked if he could handle it and I understood why because it was beautiful. He picked it up and dropped in on the edge of a concrete slab on the patio where I had made the board. Right there right when I first took it off the rack after finishing it before it ever had a coat of wax. Also it was an experiment and I found out why they don't make boards like that one because it has limited uses fantastic for tube riding but lousy for turning and it quickly became the board I used when surfing a break with a high probability of getting board damage. I didn't care because it had a huge ding before I ever used it. I ended up breaking the swallows off one a time a couple times (but not at that break) for each one besides a slew of other dings on it but still was a good tube rider till it's demise from delamination.

[oldmansurfer]

The next break past that one that I surfed was probably Waiohai which is right in front of the Waiohai hotel. There is a break outside that I paipoboarded and before there is Brenneke beach which I bodysurfed numerous times. I still remember many waves I bodysurfed at Brenneke beach but I will describe one day where footage of me getting pounded may exist as there was a reel to reel camera which is what they used to have before video cameras. I swam out without looking to see what the surf was doing and got a little way out then a huge shore break wave with maybe 10 foot face loomed about to break right on me. I dove to the bottom which was about 4 feet deep. The lip hit my back and I could hear and feel all my vertebrae popping and all the air was pushed out of my chest. I was okay though and came out of the water with a mouthful of water and no air to force it out and clear my throat. If I breathed in I would breath in water. IK had opened my mouth and allowed some to run out but still in the back of my mouth I could feel water. Fortunately some of the other bigger wave bodysurfers had mentioned to me that if you find yourself in this situation swallow the water then breath. I took another wave on my head before I decided to do that but it worked good. I body surfed the rest of the day but when I went home and took a shower there was sand embedded in my skin over my hip bones that had been pinned to the bottom by the lip. I had to take a pin and dig out maybe ten to twenty grains of sand out of my skin. It was weird, my skin felt like sandpaper. That day was huge waves some of the biggest I ever bodysurfed with 15 to 20 foot faces. The rides were just the drop and then a 30 second hold down. In waves that size at Brenneke you could only make the drop before getting passed over by the wave then you were sucked up and over in these big circles and driven back toward the bottom then picked back up and pulled up and over in another circle and back down. There were 5 or 6 of these cycles of being picked up and driven down then the washing machine cycle where you fly all over the place. Your body is like a ragdoll just getting flung around violently. Fortunately it was uncommon for you to hit the bottom during all of this but I learned to orient my body to land on my elbows and knees during the first cycle so each time I am headed down I twist to make myself land on elbows and knees but most likely doing this probably helps to stop the wave from driving you into the bottom because it is hitting the bottom before you and water is bouncing back up that will push you back up if you are oriented flat to the force. So if you are going head first you may well hit the bottom but I never did that. On occasions where I did contact the bottom I tried some things. One is to push up off the bottom and shoot out into the air to get a breath but then you just get pounded some more and held under close to as long as if you didn't. The other was to push out to the open ocean to try to escape the wave. While this can be successfully done if you don't succeed you have wasted a lot of oxygen and you will still be held under for a long period of time. Consequently after a few tries I decided it's best to just take the pounding and save your oxygen for the hold down which was comfortably within my ability to hold breath 30 seconds seems long but I could hold my breath much longer.

The break outside of Waiohai was just something my paipoboarding partner and I saw and tried it a few times. It was a nice wave but on the inside there was a boulder that popped out of the water right where I wanted to be on the wave. The first time I went around it and it messed em up I lost power as I was too far in front of the break so I tried inside of it and the wave passed me by. So I was thinking I had a wooden board and the rock was algae covered so the next time I just hit the rock and bounced off, problem solved.

Waiohai when I surfed there was crowded LOL to me more than 5 people out LOL. It was a nice break that was easy to ride but there was always a group of surfers out there every single time. I was spoiled by surfing Kealia which now is probably worse then that break was back then. I only surfed that break maybe 4 times always small days like shoulder high waves. Not too exciting but fun waves.

[oldmansurfer]

The next breaks I surfed we called "cows head" and "horses head" They are both shallow reef breaks so one needs to pay attention to the tide as at low tide it's really shallow but I still surfed there at low tide LOL. I am not sure why but maybe because I paipo boarded them for a while before I started surfing so was somewhat familiar with them. They can have some nice tubes. I have never seen a surfer out there other than me and friends but have heard it can be really spectacular with the right swell.

Past that the next break I surfed we called Allerton's because it was owned by a man named Allerton. It was the last remaining ahupua'a in Hawaii where the owner owned the rights to the ocean as well as the land. But he would allow us to bodysurf, paipo board or surf as long as we called ahead of time so he knew we would be there. It was a very small bay and nice small waves. These breaks were far away from where I lived (~25 miles) consequently I only went there uncommonly usually searching for surf. Back when I was most active surfing there weren't reliable surf reports. If you happen to know someone nearby you could call them and if they weren't surfing you could get them to find out. Sometimes you would be traveling by car to a break and see a car headed the other way. If they were friendly they might give a thumbs up or down indicating what they waves were like to the car with a surfboard on the roof.

[oldmansurfer]

There are a few other breaks I am not mentioning because I don't recall much from them. One close to cows head that was supposed to be good but I never saw those conditions. The next break I surfed we called Pakalas. It was also known back then as Infinities because it is a very long break if you go all the ways out. There is a bowl section that most people surf but the wave is about three fourths of a mile long (left breaking) or more if you go all the ways out. It took me about 20 to 30 minutes to paddle all the ways out and maybe 2 to 3 minutes to ride it in. The first few times I surfed there it was small and the reef is shallow and I had no leash. Losing your board meant you had to swim in over the shallow reef and maybe walk on the reef till you get your board then walk it to deeper water and paddle it back out. We would turn our boards over and paddle with the fin pointing up till we got to deeper water that wouldn't scrape the fin. Some guys would bring rubber slippers that they tied to their shorts but I had well calloused feet and didn't need the protection. Surfing by myself I hit two days there where it was absolutely fantastic. I paddled all the ways out and the waves were about 15 foot faces out there which gradually tapered off to about 6 to 8 foot faces by the bowl section on the inside where there were a bunch of surfers. The water there is often kind of murky and it has that sharky feel to it but rarely see sharks maybe because the water is so murky. Turtles would pop up right next to you which startled me till I realize it's a turtle.

I met a guy on the shore who was getting ready to go out and surf. Talking to him I found out he had a shark incident out there and it was his first time back in the water. He showed me his surfboard that had been bitten by a shark about over the whole tail of the board. There was still a shark tooth he left in the board and glassed over it along with the tooth marks. He was nervous about going back out. Prior to this I had heard about his incident but hearing from him what happened was he was sitting on his board and suddenly was violently shook back and forth. He could feel the sandpaper skin of the shark and thought he was dead. He just went limp until his friends paddled over to him and got him back on his board and helped him back in. I guess he was in shock. He wasn't bit but the shark bit his board just missing him.

Those 2 days I surfed were quite similar. The long wave presented chances to do every maneuver I knew multiple times. By the time I got to the bowl with the other surfers my legs were getting shaky and weak but there is a slack section right before the bowl which required me to speed pump through it. The whole rest of the wave didn't have any slack sections. I only caught 4 or 5 waves all he way in each day because the long paddle back out and then I needed to rest before catching another wave and I would catch a couple and fall before I got inside beside the 4 or 5 all the ways in. On half the waves on both days there was a kid, probably the same kid both times who dropped in on me at the bowl section. My response was the same. I would do a bottom turn around him as he was dropping in and cut out. I could hear the other surfers telling the kid to respect his elders LOL I wasn't much older than him. My legs were so tired anyway. On the second day I went there with the fantastic waves I did a cutback into the tube. It was something I had considered doing because I had done everything else and it looked like I should be able to pull it off. I had seen another surfer do this at Horners. I added that to my repertoire of maneuvers that day. Doing a cutback right to the opening of the tube and then do a quick pivot turn back the other way. By the time you change directions the wave has covered you up and it was successful every time I tried it (3 times). What a great wave! I have no clue why everyone else stayed at the bowl section.

[oldmansurfer]

The pivot turn I did to get the hair spray after a cutback or to change direction on the cutback to tube ride is a turn I haven't done recently that I know of. Prior to the turn I would unweight or bring my legs up a little to take most of my weight off the board and then push hard on the tail to get the board to change directions as quickly as possible while leaning in the direction I want to go so that once completed I don't need to move my body mass forward but can use it to bring the board up to my body mass creating some speed. Initially did that turn to quickly get back to a down the line configuration after a cutback but it was also the turn to do for the cutback to tube ride. I also did that turn on Oahu to get tubed after a power fade back turn at a break over there turning in front of the lip