Back to the Session Index
November 1998
Sunday November 29, 1998
3:00p-5:45p
"Laniakea"' - North Shore
avg wave face-----------3-4 feet
sets wave face-----------5-6 feet
overcast, occasional light rain
moderate side-off shore winds
my "regular" stick needs patching & the waves were tiny but brother
Rich talked me into hitting an evening session with our new 7'0"s.
it was kinda late so we jumped in at Lani's without checking anywhere
else(darkness by 6:25pm). nice little waves & surprisingly uncrowded.
new swell was approaching and it was pretty consistent. tide was way
low & it helped make it pretty hollow on the ends.
rich was dominating the spot, sitting way outside like he was on a
longboard & tagging all the head high sets. it was hard to tell he was
riding a 7' board, snapping his turns & full roundhouse cutbacks in
the small surf.
waves & crowd increased considerably right before dark.
good surfing to you,
bud
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Saturday November 28, 1998
9:00a-12:30p
"Ehukai-Pupukea-Gas Chambers'' - North Shore
avg wave face-----------3-4 feet
sets wave face-----------5-6 feet
slight overcast, clearing
moderate side shore winds, stronger gusts
rode with Makani, the plan was to meet Neal in the country (brother
Rich had to work). got started later than expected, and got to the
north shore about the time Neal had to be out of the water. Lani's
looked way crowded & bad direction & small.
checked the "beach park" & decided to give it a go. in the parking
area, Makani introduced me to Braden Dias, who told us to look out for
Kai Henry, Andy Irons and a few other Kauai hotshots in a green toyota
hunting for a parking space.
head high sets, quick sand bar wave action, a shitload of pros and at
least 30 photogs with massive cameras on the beach made for a carnival
atmosphere. Irons was killing it and that Strider-dude too. neither
acted the surf star role that i could see.
my session fluctuated from a flurry of excellent (for me) rides to a
run of full-on kookiness, topped off by a indecision- sucked- over-
the- falls- trying- to- pull- back- at- the- last- second- fiasco.
quite embarrassing & i was deservedly given a hard time about it.
Makani shredded everything he caught. snaps his new board thru turns
so fast. . . fluid too. can be frustrating to surf with someone who
makes it look so easy.
one of my crushed- rail dings split wide open & i had to pull off a
1"x3" loose piece of glass.
we surfed all up & down the stretch of beach breaks all morning.
'loha,
bud
----------------------------------------------
Thanksgiving Day
November 26, 1998
"Laniakea" North Shore
6:20am - 9:40am
me & my brother rich were North Shore bound @ 0530. pulled up to
Laniakea & even in the early morning darkness i could see that i was
way wrong about how big the waves would be. i figured the NWS was a
bit overzealous on their call for 6-8' surf, but they were almost on
the money. strong north swell was pushing some respectable surf across
the horizon.
me & rich were the first out. . . i thought it was gonna be maybe a
bit overhead so i brought my 6'3". . . turned out to be well over
double-o, some sets were easily 7' (Haw'n). the break got packed fast
with lots of people that should not have been out. near misses, broken
leashes and many surfers in over their heads made a dangerous mix.
there was probably 40 guys out but maybe 6-8 were actually catching
the sets.
rich was comfortable on his new 7' Glenn Pang thruster, charging from
behind the peak. i sat in the outside lineup & managed to scratch into
more than my share of the sets. even though i was forced to take off
late 'cause of my small board, i managed not to get pitched. had some
heavy adrenaline screamers across the fast breaking middle section
where most of the pack was sitting (it was difficult to make it from
the outside peak past this section). on a few occasions, could feel my
stick tracking from so much speed, but held it together.
late in the session, i took off on a set behind my brother. we often
agree to "share" a wave & we're pretty good at surfing around each
other. the wave was easily double overhead & starting to throw when i
turned around midface and inside of rich; i hit the bottom flying but
i was catching his bottom turn spray in the face. that's about when
the lip swatted me into oblivion. i was held under a *long* time -
had to fight off the first signs of panic as i struggled to pull
myself up to the surface along my overstreched leash.
when i finally broke the surface & got a (foam filled) breath, i
quickly climbed onto my stick as the rest of the set approached. i
looked to my left & saw that my brother was in the soup about 20 yards
down (our wave had closed out). he looked at me, drew his hand across
his neck & mouthed "you wanna go in?." i was just about burned out &
not looking forward to another beating,, i nodded my head & tried to
dip the wall of whitewater that was right on top of me....
back onshore, i noticed that my right big toe was sliced wide open &
bleeding bad, and that i had 2 new ragged crushed rail dings about two
inches each. must have happened while being thrashed underwater.
can't wait for some more tomorrow.
good surfing to you,
bud
-------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday November 22, 1998
"Laniakea" - North Shore
6:30a-9:30a
avg wave face-----------2-4 feet
sets wave face-----------4-7 feet
partly cloudy
moderate side shore winds
Friday, Saturday & Sunday dawn patrols this past weekend, all at
Laniakea. each day had overhead surf (sometimes 2-3 feet overhead) in
blustery, gray conditions. Friday morning met alt.surfing contributor
Jeff K. ("kdalle"), visiting from SanFran.... had a good session in an
uncrowded lineup. Saturday, me & Neal met Jeff at Lani's again; mega
crowd, frustrating session for all, i think. waves were a bit smaller
& less frequent. on the way back home, stopped at Glenn Pang's (local
shaper) to pick up just finished new boards. me & my brother Rich each
got beautiful 7' north shore guns (thrusters). Saturday evening picked
my brother up at Honolulu Int'l from his week in San Diego. Sunday me
& rich dawned it at Lani's again. several friends in the lineup
confirmed that most other spots were way blown out...our new sticks
performed beyond expectations in the small surf. 7' board would shoot
out of turns like it had rocket boosters. can't wait to test it in
some real juice. was able to paddle right up to a few turtles in the
lineup, tapping one on the shell before it shot away. one particular
turtle was very sick looking, with a golf ball sized tumor-looking
thing growing on the side of it's head and white bumpy growths almost
covering it's eyes shut....poor thing didn't even know (care?) that i
was less than an arm's length away from him for 20-30 seconds. had
seen one with similar head growths washed up on the beach dead a few
months ago (same surf spot), eyes hanging out....met the local
newspaper reporter (Greg Ambrose) who writes mostly all the newspaper
surf articles, 'cause he actually surfs (pretty well too). while i was
toweling off post session, saw Jeff K. pull up for a late morning
surf. since he was heading home on Monday, we exchanged good-byes &
said "see" you in the newsgroup.
blood spots on my socks this morning from 4 pesky reef-cuts on the
sides & bottom of my feet. like a rock in my shoe, a constant (painful
but pleasant) reminder of a surf-filled weekend.
good surfing to you,
bud (Oahu)
------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday November 21, 1998
6:30a-10:00a
"Laniakea" - North Shore
avg wave face-----------2-4 feet
sets wave face-----------4-7 feet
gray, cloudy, sometimes raining
strong side shore winds, stronger gusts
met Neal at my office & we jumped in my car. da sponge brought his
longboard in anticipation on some long Laniakea walls. pulled up just
after 6am and visiting alt.surfer Jeff K. drove up right on schedule a
few minutes later. Neal & Jeff exchanged howzits and we decided to
look no further & go out here. waves were a bit smaller and the wind
kicked up a notch, but we were paddling out while it was still mostly
dark.
must be pent up surf depravation spread throughout the population.
looked like everyone decided to satisfy the craving this morning. lots
of guys & gals out in crappy surf....but after talking to a few
friends, apparently Lani's was one of the few places that was half way
decent in spite of the conditions.
Neal was trying to achieve some stress relief himself and at one point
he paddled across the channel to catch a few of the rights off the
peninsula at "Holton's". Jeff was nursing his over-surfed
shoulders/arms but still managed to snag a fair share of the sets.
i was out of synch & mostly floundered. by 9:30 my arms were noodles
so i told Neal to have fun, i was going in & i'd wait for him at the
car. i had my best ride on my last wave. after being thrashed in the
impact zone/whitewater & pushed all the way to the south end of the
break, i snagged a shoulder high zipper & managed to get vertical
several times. finished it off with a solid slam off the inside
closeout, turning so far around that i came down tail first but still
pulled it off..... i was stoked.
good surfing to you,
bud
--------------------------------------
Friday November 20, 1998
6:45a-9:00a
"Laniakea" - North Shore
avg wave face-----------3-4 feet
sets wave face-----------5-8 feet
gray, cloudy, raining
strong side shore winds
after a few few e-mails and a telephone call, i was able to hook up
with alt.surfing contributor "kdalle" (Jeff K.), who was visiting
from San Francisco. Neal could not make it, so me & Jeff decided to
meet at Velzyland at 6 AM.
i got there a bit early and Jeff showed up a few minutes later. as it
got light enough to see, V-Land was not looking so hot. we jumped back
into our vehicles & headed down the coast to Laniakea.
Lani's turned out to be a good call. it's been windy and raining for
almost a week straight, and it seemed to have cut the usual crowd
count. the waves were not lining up so well, but they had more punch
than usual.
Jeff is easy going and clearly experienced with Hawaiian surf. a
veteran of many north shore surf seasons, he was enjoying the warm
ocean water. he seemed fully stoked to be here and had been putting in
two sessions every day. the surf wasn't quite the stuff to write home
about, but we each caught lots of decent waves in the minimal crowd.
i had a few fair rides, but found that i had much better luck if i let
the first wave of a set pass & smooth out the water for the upcoming
waves (it was uncrowded enough to be picky). the wind chop and the
lumpiness of the swell made the surf pretty hectic.
i had a 10:30am dentist appointment so i had to bug out early; told
Jeff that Neal or i would call to see about a possible Saturday dawn
patrol....
'loha,
bud
-------------------------------------- Sunday November 15, 1998 6:45a-10:00a "Ehukai, Pipe, Backdoor" - North Shore avg wave face-----------1-3 feet sets wave face-----------4-5 feet mostly sunny light side offshores makani picked me up & we headed to the country to meet neal at the beachpark for some sandbar zippers. saw neal's car & jumped in the water after we thought we saw him in the lineup at pupukea. it wasn't neal but we scored a few righteous waves & stayed where we were. lot's of pro's in the water again and some radical surfing was taking place in the small surf. ran in to old friends & local hotshots from way back, Francis Paalea and Dwayne Webster (still ripping after all these years). after about an hour i paddled down to backdoor to find da sponge. he was right at home in the uncrowded rights & lefts that were breaking in water about a foot above the reef. after dinging my board on the bottom twice this week, i caught a few waves & went back to the "worryfree" conditions at the sandbar. Makani was going off on his new board, he was saying the new stick felt a bit too loose, but i watched him rip & never saw him spin out. sunny day & crystal clear water over white sand bottom. 'loha, bud Checkout Neal's story & photo's here.
-------------------------------------------- Saturday November 14, 1998 2:00p-5:30p "Ehukai" - North Shore avg wave face-----------3-4 feet sets wave face-----------5-6 feet mostly sunny moderate side offshores me & my brother rich muster an afternoon session before he flies to the mainland for a week of military training. small but nice sand bar action; crystal green water over white sand bottom. a slew of local and visiting contest pros were out, the performance level was off the scale. me & rich both had a good session and the pros were out ripping; but Slater absolutely killed it. head high waves he was getting upside down power blasts and throwing insane sprays. non aggro & easy going, my brother sez the dude always remembers him & doesn't seem to act like a prima donna. unfortunately Pamela was no where to be seen :) surfed till almost dark then ran rich to the airport. 'loha, bud -------------------------------------------- Wednesday November 11, 1998 see a few pictures here.
7:00a-9:15a "Haleiwa" - North Shore avg wave face------------5-6 feet sets wave face-----------8-12 feet, sometimes bigger overcast light side offshores heavy west swell on the way in. all signs pointed to a manageable morning session before the supposed huge (20 feet plus) waves predicted for later in the day. met neal & my brother rich early in the morning & we piled into the budmobile headed for the country. after checking a few "indicator" spots like Laniakea, Pipe & V-land, decided to hit Haleiwa for some west swell action. the G-Shock contest was setting up on the beach and the waves looked good. big open faces & a fairly light crowd. neal (on his longboard) was in the water & stroking through the "toilet bowl" before i even had my leash on. after exchanging howzits on the beach with some old friends, me & rich paddled out with local ripper Glen Matsumoto. inconsistent sets and the infamous northbound current made for a fickle session for all except the local "king" of Haleiwa, Kerry Terukina. you have to surf this spot and see him in action to appreciate his command of this break and his surfing skill. a contingent of women pros were giving it a go, too. a few of the girls surfed pretty good. Haleiwa is a tricky spot, especially when it's got some size. once you're up & going though, it's truly a performance wave. the three of us in our crew struggled to get our share of the sets. it was very inconsistent and only 1-2 waves per set. neal stayed deep in the lineup, snagging some nice down-the-liners from the harbor side; going for it on the tank....rich was uncharacteristically out of synch but killed the waves he did catch. i caught maybe 12 waves in the 2 hours we were out, but i was stoked with each one. on a particular overhead wave i dropped in deep and late, hooting off the would be shoulder hoppers. the lip was throwing way out as i made it down the face. i was trying to cover as much "ground" as possible while trying to get back up the face before the lip slapped me down. usual problem in this scenario is that you overshoot & get sucked up the face & get pitched. in this situation when you know you're going to be tubed, it's difficult to beat the lip to the bottom, get to the middle of the face without going too high, *and* keep forward momentum without getting sucked over the falls. i ended up getting fully pitted for several seconds and then spit out. finished it off with a solid blast off the toilet bowl closeout. i was stoked..... went in a few waves later...ran into Lance Hookano & a few other friends on the beach. good surfing to you, bud --------------------------------------------- Sunday November 8, 1998 7:15a-9:30a "Velzyland" - North Shore avg wave face------------4-5 feet sets wave face-----------6-8 feet clear skies light side offshores makani met me at my place for a morning run to the country. my brother rich and neal couldn't make it this day. waves had peaked the night before and were dropping slowly. the sets were breaking on the outer reef, reforming & doubling up beautifully. there was hardly anyone out for the first hour & half of our session (waves were best too). makani had the vland lefts all to himself while i jockeyed with small pack. vland was true-to-form: wedging rights barreling over the shallow reef along the channel, it's unusual *not* to get tubed. . . later on the crowd thickened to normal proportions; the inside filled up with the next generation of Hawaii pros--three foot tall kids all sponsored & surfing like Slater. the "regular" lineup swelled & every wave was mercilessly picked apart. local hotshot Elijah Young stood out as did a few others. Makani & i caught more than our share in the early morning, including some killer tube rides, so we headed in about 9:15. ran into surfbuds Hiram & Keoni before hitting the shore. 'loha, bud ---------------------------------------- Saturday November 7, 1998 2:00p-5:45p "Ehukai, Pipeline, Backdoor, Off the Wall" - North Shore avg wave face------------1-3 feet sets wave face-----------4-5 feet, increasing to 6-9 feet mostly clear light side offshores our crew (me/makani/rich/neal) hooked up for an unusual afternoon session. we met at my office and all jumped into makani's truck. rich told us about the fun he had at Ehukai the day before so we headed straight there today. the sandbar was looking very small & super crowded, but we went for it anyway. my first wave was a left and as i turned off the bottom to blast the close out, a kid bodysurfing decided to take off right toward me. i bailed right as i thought we would hit & figured i ran him over. he surfaced unscathed & seemingly oblivious to the whole thing. Neal had a collision with a clueless pre-teen bodyboarder on his first wave too. on that note Neal paddled down to pipeline/off the wall. the waves at Ehukai were about waist high & breaking in knee deep water over a clean sandbar. the mass of (mostly) kids bodysurfing/bodyboarding/surfing in the shorebreak made it nearly impossible to complete a maneuver in the best section of the wave. after a frustrating hour, i paddled over to pipe & immediately snagged a tasty backdoor closeout as Neal was paddling by. Neal was catching tube after tube on the west swell lefts running along the shore fronting off the wall. rich & makani followed soon after seeing the swell was picking up & the waves at pipe were starting to go off. by 5pm the sets were a solid 4-5 feet (Haw'n). it was low tide & several of the bigger coral heads on the inside were sticking out of the water about a foot. i dinged the bottom of my board again as i was dipping a wave. good surfing to you, bud --------------------------------------- Sunday November 1, 1998 see the pictures here.
6:30a-10:15a "Backyards" North Shore avg wave face------------4-5 feet sets wave face-----------5-7 feet sunny, clear morning glass, turning into light side-offshores after the last 2 sessions at Makaha, rich & i were eager to surf the country again. hooked up with the crew the night before; makani & rich met at my place & we piled into the budmobile. weekend swell was dying fast, and as we passed Laniakea, it looked pretty disappointing. the day before was pretty big (Excel Pro had started at Sunset). we met neal at the beach access to Backyards as scheduled. he was already suited up as usual, and we teased him about sleeping in his shorts & rashguard :) decided to check Velzyland. ran into surfbuds Hiram and his friend Steve. waves at v-land looked small; knowing how the crowd gets there, we opted to go back to "yards." it was good call. the waves were a fairly consistent head high & bigger. main thing (to me) was that there waves had some power! tide was real low as the six of us paddled out. fins scraping as we made our way through the tricky "path" in the reef. there was basically no one out. . . we completely took over. lefts & rights were peeling everywhere. juicy little zippers over the super shallow reef (i hit bottom dipping a wave & put a 8" scrape on my stick, down to the foam). did i mention there was no one else out on a Sunday morning?! we all caught so many waves. . . rich & makani stood out, getting snap after upside down snap on the fast rights. Hiram was ripping too; plus, he was blown away by the quality & uncrowdedness of the surf, he said he was totally stoked about deciding to follow us over from v-land. brudda Neal continues to rush all kinds of surf on his longboard, even the shallow, fast breaking stuff! he had to leave earlier than us but i think he was jazzed by the session too. i had several memorable rides (imo), in particular a backside railgrab tube, fully buried through two sections without any of the lip touching me, came out hooting for myself :) . . . of course none of the boys saw it. by 10am, the waves were dropping fast but still lots of fun. when we finally went in, it was only because we were surfed out. good surfing to you, bud btw, thanks for the apples, Neal. . . we ate 'em up.