Date: May 20, 2007
Time: 0600--0915
Spot(s): D-Head
Conditions: Glassy but a bit warbly
Swell: Small combo sse/ssw swells
Surf: 2-3' Haw'n

Words: I've been out of the water for a long while (not by choice), so I was looking forward to getting a bit of skin color back and getting rid of some of my added waistline mass. Been hardly sleeping due to some intense work deadlines, so I overslept a bit for the morning sesh.

By 6 AM, the parking lot up on the hill was surprisingly tight. The small swell that was forecast actually looked like it was materializing. I quickly gathered my gear and trotted down the walkway.

Throughout the winter, I get spoiled by Oahu's ample supply of powerful North Shore waves. So it is with great pain that I get forced back to Town. Don't get me wrong, the South Shore can be great. But it usually is overhyped, and always too crowded.

Headed out to LH and was pleasantly surprised to see some old friends from the weekend dawn patrol crew. Crowd was actually not too bad, but still it got thick as the morning progressed.

I wasn't doing all that great, so I decided to paddle over to the point, where the waves were typically mediocre at best, but mostly empty. Hung out with two bodyboarder friends who were catching some good stuff. I caught a few fun ones with my cleaner fish, along with some very comical wipeouts too.

Then I saw him--one of them paddle-surfers. He looked wobbly on his board with his alii stance, but was definitely heading our way. I remember thinking that I wouldn't be getting any more waves, and I actually felt a bit of anger towards the guy and his more dominant wave riding vehicle.

Come to find out the paddle surfer was my good friend Reid Inouye. My entire attitude changed from coveting the precious waves, to the stoke of sharing the lineup with a friend. Funny how my attitude turned around 180 degrees. We talked story and shouted each other into waves. Good fun.

Went in over the shallow reef, got vana in my finger, and headed in. Hopefully, I got a little bit of a tan, and lost a bit of my gut. In any case, I'm looking forward to my next surf, wherever it may be.

Aloha from Paradise,

 

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