North Shore

Very little training, actually. But then again I am a young guy with good physique, so I'm lucky in that sense. I spent two weeks on a Contiki tour from mid November which involved a lot of heavy drinking at night and sitting on a bus most days, if that says anything. That said, when I got to Hawaii the waves made me want to push myself to get fit, which i largely did. It was a bit of a struggle, but when you've got waves like that, you'll do anything for them.

Board wise, I was staying three weeks, so I figured it was just long enough to make buying some boards and selling them again feasible. Bought two boards to begin with; a 6'6" Lost Mayhem, pin tail for $250 and a near new 7'2" Firewire gun shaped for Michel Bourez for $350 (how much of a bargain is that?!). Took back the Firewire after my first surf on the Lost because I knew I wasn't ever going to need it (I'm not that hardcore). Got a 6'0 Craig Graham Shapes to throw around in smaller waves. Snapped it on an 8 footer at Ehukai beach park (one of the tamer waves around). Went back to the shop (which was less than a 5 minute walk from my accomm - they have LOADS of boards, all very reasonably priced) and bought a 5'11 Tokoro fish. Brilliant board, brought it back to Perth as I was allowed two check in bags on Qantas. Sold the Lost for $150 to the maid. Not bad, huh? $100 loss for 3 weeks of surf! Better than renting (the surf store near me hired out Firewires exclusively). Remembering Hawaii is the global birthplace of surfing, there are masses of boards at every surf store. You can also find boards advertised at Foodland and such, but why bother when you can go to the shops and look at the boards right there and then.

But yes, definitely don't take your boards. The boards they stock there are a very different breed of animal. And they're so damn cheap! Spewing I had to leave the Firewire there coz even if I had to pay $100 to bring it back, I could have sold it for quite a profit. Board bags are cheap - I got a 6' FCS for $80 at Surf n Sea Haleiwa. Just remember to take you fins. Some surf shops, like the one near me, didn't sell the boards with fins. If you can, take FCS as well as Futures. The setup differs from board to board.

Waikiki






The guy who made the above wave


ouch


This is what happens when you don't communicate at Pipe. Quite unfortunate



The current going past Pipe on a NW swell. No joke, the only way to get out at Pipe on a bigger day is to get in the water in front of the backdoor section of reef and paddle like hell towards the peak while the current drags you East. It's stupidly fast - you can't paddle against it.








Sebastian Zietz. Triple Crown winner.


Backdoor working nicely

dang, looks good! wish i was still there.

just realised i screwed up the sequence above:

Great stuff, I have an overwhelming desire to visit Hawaii now

Thanks for clearing that up a bit blueball! Was my first time and I generally went out on my lonesome, so I either had to try and learn from the people around me that weren't locals or figure it out for myself. Almost got it sussed though don't, I? Oh, is log cabins the right that breaks on the same wave as rockpiles? Any clue what the fickle wave(s) are called between Rocky lefts and Kammies? I'd like to know coz when I was told Monster Mush, I was thinking that can't be right because I've had someone pretty decent rides there that were not mushy by any means!

Yeah mate you have it pretty much sussed. It can be pretty hard to figure out cos it seems like every 30m along the coast is a different surf spot! Took me a while(i was there 3 weeks) to try and figure where was what. And nah Logs is still a bit further back down from the right at Rockpiles, not that far though, about 100m. There aren't any exposed rocks on the beach there, but once you're in it is hideous with big holey lumps everywhere amongst the sand unlike the OTW and Pipe section which is more of a flat rock. As for monster mush I couldnt tell you, I walked down a laneway and checked out Rockies once but didnt really explore or surf that section.