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Town coming awake as Country dies down

Lane — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:31:20 +0000

State Championships kicked off at Bowls 2 weekends ago and they scored some pretty nice 3-4 foot waves during the contest. Have not been able to get any real results from the contest yet, but I know Mike Akima got one of the best waves of the day in between the contestants while he was helping water patrol. Northshore had a nice little swell during that same weekend, Rockys was 2-3+ ft with pretty epic conditions. The surf went flat after that for about a week and then picked up again on Monday in town. Sunny Garcia, Mason Ho, John Gomes and plenty others were coming to the Bowl for a little town action. The Northshore came out from its slumber last night with a 2-3 occ 4 foot north swell. Melanie Bartels is competing this week on tour, you can check out her updates on Facebook. Some of our young surfers have been doing well in the amateur international meets, I think Kalani David and Dax claimed a recent victory. Garrett McNamara and Nathan Fletcher both cleaned up in the XXL awards this year, with record breaking rides. Nathan is set to star in a new TV advertisement campaign for Jagermeister. He is such a silent warrior and humble guy, it is good to see him getting some of credit he deserves. The flat days have been beautiful out here with super clear water and nice sunny conditions. Rainbows have been popping up in the sky before a little shower of blessings, then the sun will come out again.

April Surprise!

Lane — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:30:58 +0000

Since my last post, which recorded my own personal encounter with a shark at Pipe the morning after Joshua Holley was bitten at Leftovers, I learned of several other shark sightings. On that very same day, I heard of other encounters at Off the Wall, Sunset and Chuns reef. These sharks appeared to be larger than the one I spotted at Pipe. The boyz at Bowls in town also mentioned that a large shark had recently passed through the line up and then today, beaches were closed in Kailua due to a large shark. I have definitely been much more cautious than usual, avoiding the early mornings when there is nobody out and keeping my eyes peeled for the men in brown stripes. It just adds to the strangeness of this surf season. It it almost like some kind of April fools joke; we wait so long for the crowds to leave, but now we are afraid to surf by ourselves.

I did not have to worry about the lack of crowds last Sunday morning however as the Northshore finally came back to life after a good month of junky waves and weather. We had a solid 6-8 foot swell arrive Saturday evening which offering a few rogue 10 footers that lasted through midday Sunday. That Saturday as the swell was coming up, the backwash was crazy. The bounce was so big that some waves seem to be as wide as they were high. The boogies were getting a rush as some waves sent their feet flying over their head, just before launching them into some thick pits. Early Sunday morning was probably the best as calm winds and a little less backwash provided some sick barrels. Most the main local guys were on it early and for every makable wave, it seemed there was one that was just as unmakeable. Even some of the best guys like Tamayo and Kawai were getting launched from the top of the lip by the big backwash, but I guess it paid off because I saw both of them lock into some sick ones! I guess we have to thank Tamayo because it arrived just in time for his birthday! Any other Pipe guys with Birthdays coming up? As with most Spring swells, it didn't last long, but today we had a little 2-4 ft reinforcement out of the north. Click here to see a gallery of Saturday-Sunday's northshore swell: http://seandavey.com/14150/latest-photos/its-been-lively-round-here/

Town has been waking up from hibernation as well. Unfortunately, the more southerly winds were chopping it up even in the early mornings down there last week. I guess Wednesday and Sunday were the biggest days.

Local surfer and artist Heather Brown has released her new iPhone cover collection. 15% of your purchase will support Kokua Foundation, Seathos Foundation and Wyland Foundation. They cost around $55 each. You can check it out at: http://www.truprotection.com/collections/heather-brown-collection.html

Friends of Kewalos is calling upon the community to rally against development in Kaka‘ako. They will be hosting a rally at Kaka‘ako Gateway Park (Ala Moana Blvd and Cooke Street) on Saturday April 21st at 9am. Click here to read more:
http://www.change.org/petitions/petition-to-oppose-house-bill-2819

It is pretty nice and peaceful here on the Northshore except for the constant roadworks and Turtle traffic at Lanis. Sure is a nice break after what people are calling one of the most crowded surf seasons ever. Last Sunday, I fully enjoyed having a 2 hour session before 8am, not being rushed out of the lineups by jet skis for a surfing contest, and enjoying waves with people who actually live here. Plus there were not a million tourists on the beach staring at us like we were animals in the zoo. It has been a fun little week of waves all around the island. I think everyone is pretty stoked!

Shark Patrol

Lane — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 19:49:22 +0000

This morning when I paddled out to Pipe, I had pretty much put yesterday's shark attack out of my mind. There has never been a shark attack at Pipe and we often think of it as one of the less sharky spots because it is one of the furthest spots from river run off. The waves were pretty junk this morning so I was so paddling around trying to find a couple waves and suddenly a 6-7 foot creature popped up within 10 feet of me. It was brown, but because of the slight curve on the top of the fin, I thought for a split second it might be a dolphin. It did not swim like a dolphin however. So I did something I do not think I have ever done which was paddled in yelling "shark". Due to yesterdays attack, I really wanted to warn the others in the line up. The shark had surfaced and then submerged and was moving towards the line up and if you have ever seen a shark, you know they move very fast, this is why I knew it was not a dolphin. Almost everyone came in, however we did not see the shark again.

As most of you know, Joshua Holley was bit by a shark yesterday. He survived with 42 stitches in his foot and a couple severed tendons. He said that after the shark bit his foot, it came back again for a second attack. Experts are saying this is unusual.

Also, I do not know where I heard this, but quite some time ago some Hawaiians were telling me that ancient Hawaiians stayed out of the water for a period of time every seven years or so. It just so happens that March 28,2006 (6 years ago) the women bodyboarders had to cancel their Pipe contest final because of an aggressive shark that would not leave the line up. hmmm. You can read about the event at this link http://www.news.saltwater-dreaming.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=75#axzz1r6RiWhEg

Certainly, there are always sharks around, and a most of the time we do not even bother going in when we see them. There are other times however, when the sharks seem to be around more or are at least more visible to us and also more aggressive. I think this might be one of those years. I had a very small shark jump right next to me earlier this year at Pipe as well. We are all kind of wondering what brings them in? Is it the recent massive river run off from Waimea, the La Nina (if we are still in a La Nina pattern), some type of shark mating pattern, or what? Whatever it is, ancient Hawaiians seemed to be on to something long time ago.

Other than that, the waves have been really fun everywhere for the past few days. We had whipping winds for about a month and really cold weather for Hawai‘i. Even the guys were shivering in the line ups. Last week Thursday both town and country came up and by Monday, the strong winds finally died so we have all been soaking up the sun, surf and beautiful conditions. The Northshore had some 6 foot sets yesterday. Pipe was right on the beach, but at least it was breaking. V-land was probably the best as the wind was perfect offshore there. Town had a couple 4 footers Saturday-Sunday, but the swell lasted through yesterday. Fun for everyone!

Stay safe and I'll see you on shark patrol!

Alisha Gonsalves wins Jr Women's Pipe Pro

Lane — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:40:27 +0000

Right in the middle of last weeks wild weather, they held the Women's Pipeline Pro. With the persistence of N-NE swells, the contest was forced to move to Ehukai. It convinced right in the middle of a high flood warning, severe thunderstorm warning, 3 road closures, several school closures, reports of up to 5 inch hail and a tornado. But it doesn't end there, the list went on to include a high wind warning and brown water advisory. I guess you can imagine what the beach park might look like under such conditions. It was onshore, with solid 6 foot plus sets in full on storm surf and the current was so strong, the girls had to be escorted out to the line up by jet skis assisted by water patrol. It was our local girl Alisha Gonsalves however, who pulled through in the end to take the title for the Jr Women's division. She defeated last year's champ Tatiana Weston-Webb. Alisha is the daughter of Davey Boy Gonsalves, a well know professional surfer and waterman on the island of Oahu. He is also known to be a professional surf coach, which may have given Alisha an advantage in this situation , but I think for the most part her results are a testament to her strength and ocean instincts in the line up. Alisha is a class act and we are all stoked to see her representing the wahines here in Hawai‘i! Bianca Valenti from California won the women's division, Melanie Bartels won the longboard heat and Karla Costa Taylor took the bodyboarding division. Pipe local Claudia Ferrari was able to pull out in 3rd place even in the sloppier surf at Ehukai. As for the Jr Men's division which was put on by Liam McNamara, I have no results yet. The Jr Men ran their event at Ehukai as well, but conditions were much cleaner and more riddable.

Since the severe rains, floods, thunderstorms, tornados and 5 inch hail we had last week Friday, the surf has not been much good. I think it has been about 2 weeks since we had any kind of west swell. We were suppose to have a small WNW yesterday, but even that did not show up. We had a large NNW around Sunday the 4th that seemed pretty poor at the time, but now it would be epic compared to what we have recently. At least for Pipeline, the season seems to be coming to an abrupt end. All those N-NE swells have pushed the sand into a bad spot and it would take a large WNW at this point to move it. There is no such thing in sight. While we can always have hope for a resurgence of surf, especially here on the Northshore, I have kind of been expecting the surf to end the way it started for some reason, ..... slow. At this point it certainly seems to be panning out that way. What a crazy winter, no pre-season, no late season and in between has become what most people are calling the most crowded winter ever. Even with the junk surf, it is nice to turn up to the beach and not be surrounded by a bunch of big eyed people who are preparing for a surfing competition. What a relief. I am looking forward to the weather warming up, it sure has been cold on the Northshore lately, even in the middle of the day. Town has started stirring a little bit. There have been a couple small swells, with a couple more predicted.

SeaHawaii Womens Pipe Pro

Lane — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 03:24:02 +0000

The Sea Hawai‘i Women's Pipe Pro is on today in hazardous conditions. The surf is onshore 3-5 ft and too north for Pipeline so it is actually the Ehukai Pro this year. I am sure contestants began their adventure as they drove to the Northshore this morning from all sides of the island under a flash flood warning, severe thunderstorm warning, road closures and in some areas 5 inch hail. There were other days they could have run the event, but they held out until the last day in hopes of better conditions. Whoever wins today, will earn it. The Jr mens and women's bodyboarding contest will have until March 15th to finish. The forecast does not look too good, but I don't think it gets much worse than what they are running in today. It was the first day all winter I did not go to Pipe first thing in the morning. I tried to leave early and after driving through 5 deep puddles on the road around Vland, I turned around and went back home. The rain has let up a lot since this morning and the roads are clear, but in one area it looked like half of the road fell off the pothole was so big. Don't bother coming to the Northshore today, the water is real brown everywhere and the waves are terrible.

Jeff Hubbard takes 2nd Pipe title!

Lane — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 01:45:40 +0000

After over a month of boogie invaders, Jeff Hubbard claimed his second consecutive Pipe title. Jeff is a local Hawai‘i surfer who is well respected by the Hawai‘i surf community at large. He surfs Pipe every swell. Check out his web page www.hubbbodyboarding.com As with all the other contests this year, the boogies scored nearly perfect Pipe for two full days of their four day event. On the second day of competition, Pipe was in the 8-12 foot range and a little wonky in the morning, but the first four waves ridden in the contest were perfect barrels with guys getting spit out. For the most part, the boogies cleared the Northshore as the waves dropped over the last week, but the girls will stick around until Banzai Betty's women's Pipe contest which starts on March 1st and includes a day of women's short boarding, a day of women's bodyboarding and a day of jr mens. www.pipegirls.com

Since the bodyboarding event, there have been a couple 6 foot days, but the wind has been really strong and cold. Today was the first day with good conditions, but the waves were small. I guess we are expecting two back to back swells starting tomorrow so hopefully the wind won't pick back up so strong again. Town also had its first real dose of swell in a while with sets up to 3 ft.

Roxy is holding a contest called "Let the Sea Set you Free" for those who think they embody the spirit of a Roxy Girl. If you want to check it out go to www.roxy.com/seaforyourself.

A Pipe day for the Freesurfers!

Lane — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:12:05 +0000

After the Volcom Pipe Pro, we had one big storm swell that provided two days of really disorganized Pipe. It was not much of a problem for the onslaught of boogie boarders that are here for the Pipe challenge which starts in 2 days. There has been a stand up surf event running at Sunset which finished today in pretty epic 10-12 foot surf. Pipe started out in the 6-10 ft range this morning, but grew to 10-12 by midday. Today was one of very few second reef days all year that was open to free surfing instead of a contest. It was not epic, but there were some great rides. Good thing too since the boogies start their Pipe challenge on the 15th running to the 24th and Banzai Betty's Women's contest kicks off just four days later on March 1st. Her contest will span three days this year to include a Jr Mens event. If you are thinking two events back to back with just a five day gap seems a bit tight, stay tuned, I plan to discuss the problem of the contest situation on the Northshore in a later post which I hope people will participate in and share their views. I appreciate all of your comments. Actually, I did not realize I had comments since they moved them to another place on the blog, but it is really encouraging when people let me know they read and enjoy my posts! I am really looking forward to doing some new and interesting posts in the future that will help document surf culture in Hawai‘i so stay tuned!

Bum Rush Alert

Lane — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:05:48 +0000

Lifeguard Bouvey Bradbury won the Bum Rush Contest at Makaha today. He came in from a early surf and as he went to check into the lifeguard tower he was awarded a $1000 check from Sun Bum. I know Bouvey from surfing Banyans back in the day when we both lived in Kona. He must be so stoked!

Epic Volcom Pipe Pro

Lane — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 03:02:49 +0000

After the Backdoor Shootout, the waves dropped and small perfect waves prevailed through most of the ten day gap between contests. It was fun surf for everyone. Unfortunately however, the next solid swells occurred right on time for the influx of bodyboarders and surfers who came to practice for the two back to back events. The Volcom contest started out with an unreal west swell which got bigger than expected washing out by midday, forcing contest directors to cancel after just a few heats. They then ran on a more marginal day before lucking into the best day all year on January 30th. Early that morning in the dark, I saw an white water break way outside and all the way across looking like and 18 ft sets. The first two hours were a bit warbly and washy, but by midday the waves were pretty incredible. A long period straight WNW swell with second reef sets is hard to come by, especially in the last couple years. By that evening it looked like perfect Pipe, but it was so crowded after the contest that the guys riding waves from the second reef were bumping into surfers on the first reef and falling off. The swell dropped a lot by the next day, but the contest ended with one of the most exciting finals ever. John John Flourence beat Jamie O'Brien and Kai Barger in the last few minutes of the heat. Right now, it is Boogieville at Pipe as their event will start on February 15th. Banzai Betty seems to be considering running Jr mens in her event this year. If so, she will take the whole 3 or 4 days allotted for her permit from March 1-15.

A new company called Sun Bum which features a wide variety of sun care products has innovated a new form of surfing contest which met the islands for the first time yesterday (Februrary 2nd). The Bum Rush, as they call it, is initiated at an unannounced location and $1000 is awarded to the free surfer who is surfing the best on the day. Sun Bum makes it clear that this is not even necessarily the best surfer, but just one person who their team of judges selects. Yesterday the Bum Rush showed up at Haleiwa with local judge Kawika Foster and Dustin Boshart awarding Kai Matsumoto with the $1000 award. You can find out more at bumrushtour.com

Volcom Pipe Pro 2012

Surf Season finally underway

Lane — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:47:36 +0000

January has been good to Northshore surfers. After a long wait, January 4th delivered the first Waimea swell all season. For the most part, waves were in the 15 foot range, but there were some 18 foot sets and some say there were freak 20 footers. The Backdoor Shootout followed with 3 of the best Pipe days all year. The first day was pretty amazing, especially in the afternoon when the waves were thick, round and juicy. The second day got a little too big mid-morning and they put the contest on hold for a while, but then it turned on again and contestants were scoring once again. The final day was smaller, but still pretty epic and they almost ran a fourth day which would have been just as good even with a dropping swell. Reef McIntosh won $30,000, not to mention some of the best waves at Pipe all season with just three other guys. The surf dropped, the swell direction veered north and conditions fell apart after the Shootout, but then came back together for a solid west swell this morning. I think it was a little bigger than they were expecting today since this evening was nearly 10 feet Hawaiian scale tonight without a high surf advisory issued. Strong southerly winds were straight offshore, but still washing the waves out a bit. It was not perfect, but there were a few nice waves. Liam McNamara is putting on a Pro Jr at Sunset and supporting the local kids. A little pack of them were ripping out Pipe this morning and their event has a little bit of a waiting period before the Volcom Pipe Pro on January 24th. The Pipeline Bodyboarding Pro starts February 15th and goes until the 24th and the Women's Pipe contest starts on the first of March. With just 10 days between these contests and such a late start the Northshore surf season, sessions at Pipe seem more scarce than usual. The waves have not been perfect there this year by any means however. The abundance of north swells early on, set up a weird sandbar which is crossed up with the reef. There have been epic waves, but not necessarily those epic days that we love. It was starting to look better tonight and hopefully with south winds and NW swells all week, there will be some fun surf action before the next contest.