Conditions: 1-3ft. Clean, light offshore flow.
My brother and I managed to wrangle tickets to Maui on miles. 😀
4 days to surf, snorkel, hike and cruise around.
The rental shop near the Lahaina breakwall wouldn’t rent to us unless Wes took a class so I grabbed a 10ft soft top and he went out with an instructor. He did pretty well! The instructor pushed him into the waves and he was standing up pretty cleanly. I got a couple of compliments on my form too 😀
It turned out to be a great little sunset session. The waves were super easy to catch. Very clean, very mellow. Turning on a 10ft soft top after a few months with my board was hard. I stomped, I learned hard, nothing would get that board to turn any faster. The break was crowded, but the waves were mellow enough that even with the slow turning I managed to dodge the kiddos.
Reef surfing is a whole different animal from beach breaks. In one spot the tips of my fingers grazed the reef as I was paddling. Wow is that shallow! For the most part, no problems. It’s pretty easy to remember to land flat when the alternative is hurting the poor reef (and yourself). I did take a few waves to the face admiring all the fish while I was paddling out.
Beautiful stuff!