Oahu adventures

Oahu was great, I'm so ready to move there. Right before the trip, I caught "the best wave of my life" at lowers trestles. Well...I caught those same "best waves" over and over and over again on this trip...heaven.

Fransauce recommended I try Pops, which is right in front of the Royal Hawaiian, the pink hotel. There were long lines of waves just coming in over and over again, with plenty of room to play. I don't think I made it to the actual pops, which was maybe another 100 yards out from where I was, but it was still super fun. Our hotel was more east, toward the end of the strip, and we could see a nice surf spot right off our balcony. That place was good, but it was harder to catch a wave because it was more concentrated at the peak, with REALLY good long boarders. I heard one of the locals say there was a pro long boarder in the mix.  I had a frustrating time there, but Christina stayed more on the inside and said she had a great time picking off the smaller waves.

Another great spot was Hale'iwa, on the north shore. We came here the day I flew in, for a nice sunset sesh. There were tons of groms tearing it up on the inside, and then the older kids and some of the older locals were catching the bigger sets. It was a mix of long and short boards, with these perfect forming waves, once again. I liked this place because the locals were nice, and it wasn't too shallow so I wasn't so afraid of the reef when wiping out. I caught a few good ones, and we stayed til almost sunset.

Hale'iwa

The best part of the trip was meeting up with my old middle school friend, B-Sauce, who KK and ex-house mate, Fransauce, helped reconnect us with. B-Sauce lives in this awesome house nicknamed "The Dojo," with a view of Diamond Head and the water. It had that great old school Japanese feel, with the rice paper windows and curtains at the doorways. B-sauce was great, super funny and an all around SUPER chill guy. He showed us this great hiking trail, that was just as good as the Diamond Head trail, but less crowded and with more shade. We went to Sandy Beach, a famous body surfing place, where we were flabbergasted on the size and power of the waves, crashing right on the sand. It seemed crowded, and it was a weekday, and tons of guys were getting pounded into what looked like right in the sand. Crazy is all I can say.

view on the hike of the east side of the island

B-sauce took us another day to surf at Diamond head. It was a long, narrow and steep hike down, which was interesting with a 8'6" long board and just flip flops. B-sauce had his body board and flipper, and Christina with her 7'2" NSP. Just getting in the water was a trip, there were a lot of rocks and the waves were crashing right on them, so there wasn't a nice calm place to get in. So after struggling with that we got out to the line up. It was a long paddle and kinda choppy, it kinda reminded me of Porto, just because of all the waves breaking and the consistency. It was pretty difficult getting back to the line up if caught on the inside. The current was pretty strong as well, so let's just say, there was a lot of paddling that went on. I caught maybe one memorable wave, and ate it bad the rest of the times. Christina and I also got yelled at by a local because we were in another guy's way trying to avoid getting caught in the wave. I yelled back, and paddled away quickly.

Korean cold noodle dish...which i frequently dream of

One of B-Sauces friends, who is a long boarder and a girl, said she likes to surf at a place called rockpiles. So Christina and I decided to check the place out. It was right off the harbor at Waikiki and it was true to it's name, it was rocky! As we were getting ready i decided to ask a guy in the parking lot about the break. He let us know to paddle straight out, and the better surfers were toward the left and the heirarchy went pretty much down as you went to the right. Right before he got in the water, he said, "Oh yea, watch out for sea urchins, they're right in the shallow area." O.O wow, I'm glad you remembered that little point. The paddle out went pretty smoothly, it was just LONG. I had christina's board with her go-pro attached this time, so i was excited to hopefully get some good waves recorded. It was an evening sesh, but there were still lots of people out, I'm guessing the after work crowd. There were a lot of good surfers out, so in the beginning I didn't catch many. Christina caught an inside wave, but it turned out to be a bad idea because it got really shallow and she scraped up herself on the rocks...and this was after her "bloody walls" incident...that is a whole separate story in itself. So she went back to shore after that. I stayed out for another hour or so and got some really good rides in there! The crowd was thinning out and I was trying to follow the other surfers on where to place myself at the peak of the wave.

catching a nice one at Rock Piles

The last surf spot I checked out, while Christina wanted to take it easy, was on the Northeast corner of the island. It was called Malaekahana State Rec Area. There were cabins on the beach that you could rent, which seemed really cool. I met a surf instructor in the parking lot who convinced me to go out. It was super fun here, I even almost ran over a turtle on my board. Good times. There was barely anyone in the water, so it was paradise. The waves were a little choppy but I caught a lot right to shore.

Malaekahana

I surfed pretty much everyday, hiked a few spots, and ate some really great ahi poke and seafood. I enjoyed the spam musabi at the abc stores and gas stations, and the fresh pineapple and other fruits. All in all it was fun in paradise, I can't wait to come back. Aloha!

Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay

Farmer's market booty

Pipeline

Ahi Poke