Yuesday Sept 29, 1998
See the Pictures 

6:00a-9:15a
"Semi-secret spot" Southwest Shore
avg wave face----------- 4-5 feet
sets wave face----------  6-8 feet 
mostly clear
light offshores

everything was pointing to an epic session: forecasted swell arrived yesterday,
light offshores, clear skies, tide coming in. . . we (Neal on his long board and
me on a 6'3") were pumped as we paddled out & saw set after set rolling in.

nice overhead sets started out promising, then someone turned off the wave
machine. nada nothing zilch, gone just like that. .  actually just
paddled in after a 30min wait w/no waves. oh well. still beats the best day of
work.

'loha,

bud
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Sunday Sept 27, 1998
See the Pictures 

6:10a-9:15a
"Lighthouse" South Shore
avg wave face----------- 2-3 feet
sets wave face----------  4 feet 
mostly clear, slight overcast
moderate side-offshores

Rest of the crew had other obligations so it was Neal & I determined to get wet.
Mellow morning, not much in the way of waves. But a few decent rides were had. Neal 
was on his longboard, taking off deep & going for the style master lines. Saw him on 
one wave where he pushed his tank hard enough on a cutback to pop free of the wave.

Friends Hiram & his nephew Keoni ("bones") came out to make noise & surf a bit too.

good surfing to you,

bud

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Sunday Sept 20, 1998
See the Pictures 

6:00a-9:15a
"Pyramid Rock" (KMCAS) east shore
avg wave face-----------3-4 feet
sets wave face----------4-7 feet
overcast, sometimes raining
"victory at sea" conditions
crew- me/rich/neal/makani

the forecast was for the the dropping swell to swing more easterly, so we
decided to overlook the prevailing onshore winds and go with the guarantee of
some uncrowded waves on the Marine Base (Kaneohe).

i rode with rich in his truck and we pulled up to the beach at 5:50a. neal drove
up a bit later. conditions were pretty bad but there was overhead waves slamming
around. at least a quick check of the waterline on the beach didn't show any
portugese-man-o-wars. makani pulled up about a half hour later.

i guess i had been spoiled by the past few days of excellent surf on the North
Shore. these waves were sloppy & backing off on the outside; then they pitched &
dumped on a nasty sucking sandbar. after flailing in the washing machine
conditions for an hour or so, i threw my hands up, went in & grabbed the video
camera from the car.

i viddied from the water line for about half an hour then makani came in to take
the camera (i kooked out in round two also). while we were all still out, makani
got a few insane close out barrels in the crushing middle sandbar.. of us three
standups, rich was the only one (that i saw) to get a few decent off the lips &
snaps.

the conditions were better suited for neal on the bodyboard and he was doing
great. i watched him do an "el rollo takeoff", which blew me away. as we were
paddling to make it past a breaking set, i thought he was just powering up to go
over, the next thing i knew he was upside down going over with the lip. i got
some good video of him getting tubed and makani got a cool shot of him doing an
off the lip rollo thingy.

at least we were the only ones out.

good surfing to you,

bud
-------------------------------

Saturday Sept 19, 1998
6:30a-10:00a
"Laniakea" North Shore
avg wave face-----------4-5 feet
sets wave face----------7-9 feet  plus
clear skies
smooth water, slight side-offshores
crew- me/rich

i thought yesterday's crowd was bad; i have NEVER surfed a more crowded session
than the first hour today. lanis was one of the few places catching the
northeast swell so *everyone* was there. at one time i counted nearly 40 guys in
the lineup. the tension in the crowd was palpable. every wave started off with 3
guys going left and right! the waves were excellent, though.

some surf friends that were out included, Kerry Terukina, Reid Inoue, Lance
Hookano & Ben Aipa. the waves were a bit bigger than yesterday. rich was scoring
sets & killing it. . .  i had a few good rides but felt out of it today,
couldn't find a groove.

oh well.

bud

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Friday Sept 18, 1998
6:10a-9:45a
"Laniakea" North Shore
avg wave face----------- 5 feet
sets wave face----------6-8 feet
clear skies
smooth water, slight side-offshores
crew- me/rich

pulled up to Lanikea while it was still dark. must've been 30 cars in the lot
already. me & rich hit the water running; the northeast swell was pushing rights
that were peeling for a hundred yards. kinda smaller than expected but very
nice.

me & rich were both "on" & we were getting more than our share of waves. my 6'3
was feeling real good; don't think i even got caught inside more'n once or
twice. . . one of those kind of sessions.

bud


------------------------------------------

Saturday, Sept 12, 1998
6:30a-9:30a
"Backyards" North Shore
avg wave face----------- 4-6 feet
sets wave face----------  6-8 feet plus
overcast
smooth water, slight side-offshores
crew- me/rich/neal/makani

me/rich/makani met at my office at 5:15a & piled into the budmobile. picked up
some coffee and met neal (& his visiting relative) in the dirtlot parking at
Laniakea at 6am.

surf was small & crowded at Lanis so we headed up the coast. saw some five
footers hitting Sunset so we knew there'd be waves at "yards."

few minutes after checking the surf from the beach we were paddling out. the
previous day's premature call of the well publicized swell meant that everyone
was out surfing this morning.

brother rich had one of the biggest/best rights of the morning & was blasting
the lip on many sets. makani was low-key today, surfing like a pro as usual but
not jockeying for the sets. neal scored several long clean walls on the
bodyboard & a barrel or two, but his relative was new to the ocean so he was
busy keeping an eye out for him

felt real good to drop into a bit of north shore juice. walls were lining up
nicely & i was in synch with the crowd. had several hard off the bottom/straight
up snaps that made my day. plus a nice dry cover-up right in front of a group of
people paddling out. only downside of the session was a freak that was shoulder
hopping & dropping on everyone.

good surfing to you,

bud

Sunday Sept 6, 1998
6:30a-11:00a
See the Pictures  

south shore (spot unnamed)
avg wave face--------- 5 feet
sets wave face-------- 6-7 feet
mostly overcast, sometimes clearing
oil-slick conditions, some periods of light offshores
stoke factor (1-10)------8
"All-Time" rating (1-10)--5

early morning hooked up with surfbuds Neal, Makani and Mo at a 
"secret" spot. my brother rich had prior obligations. waves
looked small from shore but decided to commit to the 25 minute walk 
out to the jump-in point. neal hauled his longboard, his
SLR and his camcorder. all in anticipation of his friends Jimmy & 
Wade meeting us at the break by boat (jimmy's 16' outboard).

after a few mediocre waves at the "inner" lineup, i followed neal 
across the channel to the "outer" spot. within half an hour the
waves started to improve. although it was a bit small for the 
particular break (real slopey & mushy until it gets well overhead),
some overhead sets were coming in and the water was mirror-smooth. 
long lefts and short, rippable (sp?) rights. a bit later
jimmy & wade came flying over in the boat. wade jumped in the lineup 
w/his body board & jimmy picked neal up & ran him
over to the breakwater to grab the photostuff. 

neal jumped back in and Jimmy shot video & stills from his boat. 
we all hammed it up for the camera, and jimmy yelled his
hilarious commentary from the boat ("OH MY GOD! you KOOK! i can't 
believe you missed that wave", etc.). 

makani was riding his longboard like it was a 6'6". . . neal was 
catching all kinds of waves, and is getting better and better on the
tank. wade snagged some of the biggest waves of the session, opting 
for the rights near the channel. Mo surfed his "gun" like a
pro, and scored several long rights & lefts. 

after a while neal climbed into the boat & jimmy jumped into the 
lineup with his longboard. neal shot video and yelled his
pay-back for jimmy's good natured heckling. jimmy was total stoke 
in the water & on the waves, hooting as he dropped into
some great rides. 

as the waves started to slack off. . . neal & makani each had a
"skurfing" session, then they each tried to get "towed-in-by-boat"
onto a wave, with mixed results. when we finally went in (courtesy 
of jimmy's boat), i got my chance at "skurfing" and flailed. oh
well. 

the whole session we were the only ones out and we all had a blast. 

good surfing to you, 

bud 

see neal's excellent write up & photos of the session at his website
Here


------------------------------------

------------------------------------- 
Saturday Sept 5, 1998
6:00a-9:00a
south shore ("Lighthouse")
avg wave face--------- 2-3 feet
sets wave face-------- 4 feet
overcast
some wind chop, sideshore winds (trades)
stoke factor (1-10)------4
"All-Time" rating (1-10)--1

me & rich hit it early again. . . average session at lighthouse. 
swell dropping fast. i surfed poorly today. crowd was worse than
usual. 


-------------------------------------------------

Friday Sept 4, 1998
6:15a-9:10a
south shore ("Lighthouse")
avg wave face--------- 3-4 feet
sets wave face-------- 5 feet
clear skies
fairly smooth water, light sideshore winds (trades)
stoke factor (1-10)------7
"All-Time" rating (1-10)--2

my brother rich's birthday. . . he's on vacation & has a new 6'5" 
thruster. he caught Ala Moana Bowls yesterday well overhead,
so we went out this morning to catch the last of the swell. 

waves looked good from the cliff so we trotted down to the beach. 
we both seemed to be "on" and each had an excellent
session. lots of solid smacks and hard turns.