Calorie burn...

Shanoah and I went for a morning session at a spot down at Mokuleia today.  The winds were light, the sun was out, and the waves were pumping.  I got a text from my friend, Ian telling me that the spot wasn't good at all.  I had a feeling it was going to be good, so I trusted my instincts and convinced Shanoah to check it out instead of heading towards Sunset Beach.  Sure enough, when we arrived at the spot, it was on: 3-5 feet, doubling up, and ramping!  The only problem was that there was a river-rapid current.  The negative low tide and the size of the swell was pulling water out to sea right at the takeoff zone.  But that didn't stop us from paddling out.  The waves were pretty consistent: sets came in every 2-3 minutes.  The tide made for a super shallow inside bowl to ramp that had us pretty hesitant to hit the lip on the inside.  But with the strong out-to-sea current, paddling back out was a cinch.  Shanoah caught a few bombs from the outside shelf; I managed to do the same, but I also caught a few mean ones on the inside.  When the bombs came in, the wave sucked up on the shelf with no mercy and created a massive double (sometimes triple) up.  On the inside, the waves were more pronounced and punchy.  For an hour we had it all to ourselves.  After that hour, two surfers and a bodyboarder paddled out, now with more onshore wind texture, making the wave a little crumbly but still manageable.  Ten minutes after the surfers and bodyboarders joined us, we headed in to go to work.  Another great session in this unbelievable 2009/2010 winter season on Oahu.  Lucky we live Hawaii.

 

Mokuleia perfection...

Mokuleia: a fickle and desolate coastline that I like to call "The Other North Shore."  When the right conditions fall into place, the whole Mokuleia coastline turns into a dream, and that's exactly how yesterday was.

The night before our session I checked out the regular forecasts: wind, buoys, tides, swell direction.  It dawned on me that with the dropping swell and south-southwest winds, Off-the-Wall might have some fun ones in the early morning until the kona winds kicked in.  Couple that with the tide dropping out in the morning hours, I was pretty excited to say the least.

Mato and Daniel picked me up just as the sun peered over the Ko'olau's, and we headed to Off-the-Wall.  When we got there the wind was already howling from the south, with a little west gust thrown in.  The waves were good, but it didn't look like the typical OTW that we were so accustomed to.  The waves were heavily combed by the strong offshore wind, making it difficult for even a bodyboarder to catch.  Backdoor had a few gems, but none really proved worth enough for us to make the paddle out.  Plus, within the ten minutes of watching the surf, the wind had started to veer more west than south.  I turned to Daniel and Mato and said, "You feel that wind?  It's gotta be blowing offshore down at Moks."  Mato, the driver, said, "Well, let's go check it.  We don't have much time before you guys gotta work."

We sped off to Mokuleia, brainstorming on what spot would be good and where we should check out first.  I was a little apprehensive about the size of the waves.  Off-the-Wall was only about 2-3 feet, and my first thought was that Moks was going to be smaller.  It was my first time burfing with Mato, so I didn't want to disappoint with my spot choice.  I told her of a shallow left that we should check first, and with the dropping tide and southwest winds, it might actually be good.

We pulled up to the spot after twenty minutes of driving, and there it was: two to three and a half feet, straight offshore, sunny, crystal clear water, and no one around.  I took a couple shots before I suited up, ran down the beach, and paddled out before Mato and Daniel.  It was perfect.  Not as big as it can handle, but still one of the best days I've seen at the spot.  After several waves all to myself, Daniel and Mato finally made it out.  We swapped off waves throughout the whole session, while Mato snapped some pics with her Canon Powershot in a $300 housing!  (Bugga is expensive, ah?)

After a little over an hour with no one else but us out, two surfers jockeyed in at the peak to snag a few waves for themselves.  Satisfied with the amount of waves we caught, we decided to go in.  What a couple of lucky surfers.  They probably had it all to themselves for the rest of the day after we went in.

Unknown surfer on a gem at Backdoor.

The spot we surfed at Mokuleia.  Not one person out.

Yup.  It was good.  Really good.