Searching for gold - January 18, 2012

Kona winds combed a certain side of the island for an incredible session thru the lens to see the potential some spots may have when the swell is in and the konas are in effect.  Words cannot explain how good the conditions were, and all the spots we checked had not one single person out.  Check out the pics below.  Heaven.

West and North

Been trying to get back into the swing of things.  I've left the blog to rot, so here's an update.  The first pic below is from last week Sunday (I think).  I can't remember actually.  Anyway, my friend Kelven is back home from living in Orange County for 6 years.  I thought the waves were shitty, but he thought it was the greatest session ever.  See what California does to you?  I guess us Hawaiians are spoiled when it comes to waves.  But anyway, there were some really good rights to dropknee and lots of lefts to get bowled on.  2-3 ft.  Fun.  Only 2 other guys out.  What can I say?

And the 2nd pic is of a spot that I always check when the winds start blowing straight out of the south.  My friends and I actually surfed an outside right, mid-session, that you can't see in the pic.  My cam wouldn't have caught any good shots of it either cause that wave is way the hell out to sea.  But good grief was the right firing.  3-6 feet with some 8 foot bombs rolling through.  Scratching for my life.  Breaking top to bottom.  No way was I able to make any of the 8 foot bombs on the knee.  The sets were massive and freight training.  But I did catch of few smaller ones.  Probably one of the best sessions I had out at the right.  But anyway, back to the picture posted here: this day was as good as it got.  2-3 feet, maybe even a 4 footer every 10 minutes or so.  Perfect tide.  Manageable current.  And absolutely no one out but me for a good 2 hours.  My friends stayed at the outside right the whole time, and I was kinda hoping they'd paddle to where I was because no matter how many times I've surfed the left, it always gets me sketched when no one is around.  I'm always looking at the bottom, anticipating the worst, if you know what I mean.  Luckily, I got out of the water with my limbs in tact.  But yeah, I caught so much waves that I eventually cramped up in both my arms and legs.  Must be getting old.

West again...

Daniel and I had a great session yesterday on the west side.  JB, Shannon, and Paul Benco were out in the lineup with us, as were some other surfers.  The crowd fizzled down to just me, Shannon, and Daniel around 10am.  We had it to ourselves for a little over an hour until all three of us decided to go in.  The conditions were still clean as we left, and the waves were still going off.  It kind of sickened me that we had to leave, but I had some business back home that I needed to take care of.  But what a great day for waves.  One of the more memorable sessions I've had at the spot.

 

Down the beach, a sick little shallow reef grinder was doing its thing.  It's looks better than it really was.  Although, some days, this right can go off.  On this day, though, the tide was wrong for it.

To the south was a nice little setup that looked like it had some potential.  It was definitely rideable, but some of the sets that came in were kind of big, and it wouldn't have been fun getting washed up onto the shallow reef on the inside.

 

And here's local boy JB on a bowler with Paul Benco wishing he had a water camera.