It was solid

Date: May 31, 2003
Time: 0600--1030
Spot(s): Laniakea, Ehukai
Conditions: Light side-offshores, tough crowd
Swell: Unseasonably strong, declining NNW swell
Surf: 3-6' Haw'n

Words: Hoped to improve on the terrible session I had the weekend before. The surprising, out-of-season Country swell looked like it would bring the stoke back. I guess looks can be deceiving. Here's the lowdown:

• Overslept and woke up 1.5 hours late.
• Was forced to go into work, wasting more precious water time.
• Got to the North Shore at 0600 and found it firing. The Laniakea parking lot was nearly full, but I managed to squeeze into a stall.
• Paddled out on my bodyboard; saw paipo John and some other familiar faces.
• The lineup was pretty aggressive, with everyone trying to snag some big stuff before the North Shore shut down for the summer.
• On my first wave, got dropped in on. I went around the guy, looked back, didn't see him, gently turned down the face, and accidentally undercut the guy.
• We got into an argument with me apologizing and him getting angrier by the minute. He actually even false-cracked me a soft one. I was surprised, but didn't back off.
• Kept riding for a while more, trying to make the most of an already ruined surf session. Caught a few, but nothing epic.
• Got caught inside on a set, broke my leash, and went for a swim.
• A surfer was kind enough to have stopped my board and was cruising in the channel. I thanked him.
• However, I found that besides the broken leash, the board itself was broken! The rail was delaminating about eight inches, probably from the leash wrapping on the corner before it snapped.
• Went in, all bummed out.
• Still had a lot of time to kill, and I fortunately had the borrowed shortboard in the car, so I checked out Ehukai Beach Park.
• Found Fabian and wife Rie and Jason and Ray on the beach, checking out the action. Ray and I decided to go out there, while the rest went further west.
• Surf was decent, but frustrating. My weak paddling coupled with the peaky, steep nature of the wave made for tough times (again) for me.
• Said howzit to Mattie Liu, who used to surf in the amateurs when I was helping out. Nice to see an old acquaintance.
• Had some spectacular wipeouts, going over the falls and blowing takeoffs. Had a few fun rides, but the vast majority of "rides" were crash and burn disasters.
• Came in totally demoralized and bummed out.
• Ended up being late for a meeting I had to go to.

Despite all that, I'm still looking forward to my next surf session. Maybe even more so now. Such is the disease that is surfing.

Lots of drop-ins

Snapped leash and delaminated rail

Love Hodel at Ehukai

Longboarder going left at Ehukai

Aloha from Paradise,

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