Day: November 20, 2013

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Wednesday Evening

2013-HIOQ-11-20

Surf: 1.6 ft at 12.5 s from the S at 186ƂĀ°

Back to Waikiki for a sunset surf šŸ™‚

Esther’s helping me work on my stance. She suggested standing a bit narrower (less power-stance, more style stance) and Queens is a great spot to work on it. The new stance feels really out of control. I’m used to planting my feet, cranking a turn, and following through more like a short board. This is more about smaller movements, swinging hips, and using my knees to absorb the impact of turns.

It makes cross stepping easier, since I’m not covering so much ground.

I almost got in a great cutback using this stance, but launched myself at the end from not keeping my knees flexible enough. Ooops. Still, a cutback! Holycrap! To have that be a fluid movement instead of basically a clunky stall is super exciting.

Thai food tonight! Nom.

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Wednesday Afternoon

2013-HIOAMB-11-20

Surf: 2.0 ft at 13.3 s from the SSW at 199ƂĀ°

After a short break, we headed back out. This spot was smaller, but had some punchy waves in shallow water. Like, really shallow.

Really shallow water I tend to stare at the bottom instead of paying attention. The upside is I saw lots of fish! Downside is I kicked out of a bunch of waves early yelling aaaaaa loudly in my head.

This wave was a little more competitive. I saw a few minor verbal tussles over drop ins, but since I was on a log instead of my short board, it was pretty easy to stick to the softer peak and snag waves without getting in the way. šŸ™‚

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Wednesday Morning

2013-HIODH-11-20

Surf: 2.0 ft at 13.3 s from the S at 179ƂĀ°. High Tide.

I’ll admit, checking the surf forecast religiously before this trip, I was worried there’d be no swell. South shore was showing flat. North shore was showing flat (well, alternating flat and like 20ft which I’m not sure I’d even be able to watch without nearly drowning.) So it was a very pleasant surprise to roll up to the break this morning and see waves! Lots of waves! šŸ˜€

Lots of people, but lots of waves!

So far I’ve found people to be pretty considerate, there’s enough waves to go around and everyone’s been really friendly. The one thing I did find odd was no one moves. If you’re going for a wave, no one will move out of your line. I think part of that is that the majority of the lineup is way better than the majority of the lineup at home, so it’s expected that you will be skilled enough to go around. Why should people give up their spot when you could avoid them on your own? I’m not sure. It’s a little unnerving watching people paddle for a wave so close together, but didn’t see anyone collide.

It’s so nice to surf warm peaks and really nice to watch other people surf. There are some amazing longboarders out here.

Surfed and surfed and surfed and then got AƃĀ§aƃĀ­ bowls. šŸ˜€