Oahu Session Report Saturday 6/27/98

5:15am-9:30am
Pyramid Rock KMCAS
overcast, strong onshores
1'-2.5' tradeslop
6'4" T&C thruster

rich had to work all nite so he couldn't do a dawn patrol. hooked up with alt.surfing hero, "Sponge" (aka Neal Miyake) who was kind enough to let me ride with him. picked me up at 4:45am and thanks to the new H-3 freeway, we were at the beach in less than 20 minutes.

the surf was more blown out than usual, but at least there were some peaks that were head high. looked a lot worse from the beach. brought an extra stick to let Neal have a go on a short board (his usual weapon is a body board or longboard). it was cool to see that Neal was gung ho to try a "different" mode of attack, especially in the difficult surf conditions. he caught a few waves but I could tell he was anxious to get back on familiar material. hour so later went in to get his bodyboard and cut loose. one particular ride while I was paddling out, he snagged a set with a clean wall, and pulled in perfectly to a surprisingly good barrel as I was dipping through the wave.

right arm got tagged by a portugese-man-o-war. managed to keep myself from touching the string of stinging tentacles by swishing it off in the water. kept the burn/itch to a minimum.

about 8am the sun poked through for about an hour and the surf almost cleaned up. a long session but I couldn't find a groove. a couple of mediocre pops off the top. got the bottle of Ultra Deck that I mail ordered last week and brushed on a small test area the day before. hard to tell if it'll be grippy enough for me.

only one other surfer paddled out (about 100 yards down at a beachbreak) while we were there. if you haven't seen it yet, you have to check out Neal's polished web site. . . his original water shots are professional and impressive; and he writes an excellent commentary. go directly to his version of our session here.

good surfing to you,

bud

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Oahu Session Report Wednesday 6/24/98

1:30pm-3:45pm
Lighthouse
Sunny, strong trades
1'-2' tradeslop
6'4" T&C thruster

typical tradewind swell...windsurfers going off at cliffs...first wet in more than a week. no-one else out but waves were decent. clipped my knuckles on the reef dipping on the inside. went back to work after the sesh.

good surfing to you,

bud

Oahu Session Report Sunday 6/14/98

5:30am-9:30am
off the west coast of Oahu
Clear Morning, calm
3'-4' occasional 5'
me- 6'4" T&C thruster
rich - 6'4" T&C thruster

Swell that hit on Wednesday... was dying fast, me & rich decided to dawn it again at a semi secret spot we frequent. conditions were better than the day before, again no one else out until an hour later when it turned into a reunion session. 2 old teammates from our contest days (Kyle Chu, Billy Beter), a friend from the T&C factory Brian Ching) & 2 other mutual friends paddled out. Kyle was cutting it up on a longboard & Billy's attack hasn't changed since i last saw him surf 10+ years ago. old friends & uncrowded juice.

rich surfed powerful as usual but was not having his usual session. for me, it was almost as good as the previous day...managed to pull off several extremely late take-offs, too.....

good surfing to you,

bud

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Oahu Session Report Saturday 6/13/98

5:30am-8:30am
off the west coast of Oahu
Clear Morning, calm/light sideshores
4'-5' occasional 6'
me- 6'4" T&C thruster
rich - 6'4" T&C thruster

Swell that hit on Wednesday... still had plenty of juice, me & rich decided to dawn it at a semi secret spot we frequent. proved to be a good call. one other guy out (he went in after an hour). many of the sets were closing out, but if you chose the right one you'd have a big beautiful wall to surf. rich was ripping as usual but kept complaining about being under-gunned and about all the waves that were going unridden. "if i had my 7'9" i would have been all over that set." gotta admit that he can turn his gun like a short board.

i had another excellent session...board seemed to do exactly what i wanted. caught lots of waves and had several good ones in front of rich. ended the session as it started to get blown out.

good surfing to you,

bud

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Oahu Session Report Friday 6/12/98

5:10am-7:30am
Big Rights
Clear Morning, calm/light offshores
3'-5' occasional 6'
6'4" T&C thruster

Swell that hit on Wednesday... still had plenty of juice, inconsistent but another bump was overlapping. I was walking out on the reef well before any significant light and there was already people in the lineup. Got lucky and timed my jump through the impact zone perfectly. Once you made it past the impact/closeout zone, the rip that formed between Consessions barreling to my left and Big Rghts pitching on my right made for an easy paddle out to the line up. Many sneaker sets were over double-o and very thick. lots of tension in the crowd, at the first sign of a big one, every one went scratching for the horizon. pounderous stuff.......I love it!!

board was working like magic. . . buried lots of rail on several very satisfying carves off the top & had some nice snaps under the lip. on my first wave i dropped into a cavern that made the whole session.

good surfing to you,

bud
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Oahu Session Report Tuesday 6/9/98

2-4:15pm
Lighthouse
Sunny, strong side shores (trades)
1'-2' occasional 2.5'
me-6'2" T&C thruster
Rich- 6'4 T & C thruster

Rich was off so I took off at 1pm to surf with him. Swell was mostly gone so went to Lighthouse knowing that the tradewinds would help what ever was left. Very blown out, but looked really good from the cliff. Sailboarders out in force. I made the mistake of taking my newest stick. Confirmed my suspicion that the board is not what works for me. I had a shit session. Gonna order a new board on Friday. Rich went leashless & surfed well after a slow start.

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Oahu Session Report Sunday 6/7/98

8:00am-12:45pm
Lighthouse
Sunny, side shores
2'-3' occasional 4'
me-6'4" T&C thruster
Rich- 6'4 T & C thruster

Me & Rich paddled out about 8 o'clock, only about four other guys out. Some sets were closing out into the channel. Slight side-shore winds, completely cloudless sky, brought a disposable camera out with us. Took turns taking pictures of each other. Surfed till 12:45pm and was very sunburned. Excellent session.

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Oahu Session Report Saturday 6/6/98

2:00pm-5:00pm
Ala Moana Park
Sunny, light off shores
1'-3' occasional 4'
6'4" T&C thruster

Rich was stuck working all day, so I took off at noon & headed for the Park for to catch part of the current south swell.. Drove through the park 3 times without finding a place to park. Police were out in force, giving out parking tickets. Finally ended up parking on Ala Moana Blvd & walked past the tennis courts to the beach. Classic conditions, good overhead surf but inconsistent.. Paddled out to Courts first, so that I wouldn't have to walk on the reef. Tide was high; the set waves were real good, other waves were slopey. Ran into old friend, Lance Hookano. Longboarders started to overwhelm the place so I paddled down to First Hole and saw that I was the only surfer among about 15 spongers. Stayed there for about half an hour then paddled down to Big rights. Had several excellent rides (IMO), before riding the last one in. Bad sunburn.