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Triple Crown, Tow-ins, and River Surfing!
Aloha!
12/6/09 - 60 foot faces? Get outta here! I guess that's what they're predicting come Monday in some of the biggest surf action in 40 years! Even at about half that size, this past weekend's Triple Crown action at Sunset Beach was already as big as it's been in decades, so much so that the contest was only a few feet away from being shut down due to the surf actually being too big! Luckily, conditions were relegated only to near-suicide levels, as opposed to complete and total suicide levels! Why, even former World Champion Professional surfers like Sunny Garcia, shown here exiting his heat, have their limits!
Unless your name happens to contain just three letters and start with a capital G, you can't mess with fate, and there's not a pro surfer alive today who doesn't have a healthy respect for the North Shore and a deep realization that there are limits to what can and cannot be surfed! Today's conditions weren't the greatest, but there were still plenty of open faces, and the 10-15 foot waves (20-30 foot faces) were enough to send a sense of awe'd confirmation to even the best surfers out there that this is why Hawaiian waves are the best and most powerful in the world! Even Sonny Garcia himself was quoted as saying, right out of the water, that we all needed to be careful what we asked for, because if we really wanted BIG... Oh boy!
Check out this little ant out there in the midst of some crazy Sunset Beach action. I gotta get me a good telephoto!
It was late afternoon and the contest was already wrapping-up by the time Kumi and I got there, but there were still plenty of people crowding the beach. It's amazing how huge these contests have become. Scenes like these are transported all over the world to millions and millions of people, and the industry as a whole is a multi-billion dollar force that doesn't show any sign of slowing, regardless of what the economy is doing:
Kumi and I were actually out on the North Shore celebrating our 4th anniversary, staying over-night at one of our favorite on-island get-away's, the Turtle Bay Resort. It couldn't have been a better weekend retreat, the whole time filled with fun and activity. Even pulling into the parking lot of the Resort itself, I knew there was something special in the air. And I do mean that quite literally, as everywhere you looked, even a couple of hundred yards away from the shore, was a thick, misty fog coming from none other than the spray of the giant ocean waves and raging surf! And you could tell it wasn't vog or anything else, because the distinct smell of the ocean was apparent everywhere, even well into the golf course side.
By the time we got to our room directly over-looking the ocean, we were amazed at the sheer size and beauty of the waves. In all my years coming here, I had never, ever seen such monster sets rolling in:
And the cream on-top of the cake was the sight of a couple of tow-in tandems 150 yards or so off-shore, riding the outer reef in waves that would've been crazy-difficult without the help of a jet ski and foot straps.
Check out this sequence of events:
These guys are just insane, if you ask me. On days like this, my board's at home and the only thing I'm bringing is my camera!
As great as all that action was, we were in for yet another treat the next day. At about 8am, when the parking lot of Waimea Bay was still empty, we saw several guys with shovels on the beach, building some nice sand castles. Just kidding. Shovels on the beach, in the hands of surfer-looking dudes, right at the mouth of the Waimea River, can mean only one thing!
The skinny is, the mouth of this river is situated higher than the ocean level of Waimea Bay. If somehow a breach occured in the dam of sand separating the two bodies of water, well, gravity takes over and water always finds a way downwards. Sometimes, the river is so bloated, a breach can occur under purely natural circumstances, but most times, it takes a group of determined thrill-seekers to help nature along its way:
Once even a trickle of water breaks through to the ocean, the pressure of the water will begin carving-out an ever-widening channel through the sand, all on its own. However, the boy'z there like to speed the process along by digging in strategic places. Once you knock some sand in the current, it all gets displaced and washed down into the ocean. Doesn't look so big now, but in the course of an hour or so, well... you'll see what happens:
Getting kinda nuts, huh?
Even so,
you
ain't
seen
nuthin'
yet!
Check this out:
Even experienced bodyboarders here were all realizing that this would be one of the bigger days in the world of stand-in-place, river surfing at Waimea Bay. Knowing how it is in certain rivers around the world, where certain currents can hold a person underwater for long periods of time, I asked one of the lifeguards if they ever had to pull guys out of the raging torrents. He said most of the guys braving the waters on this fine day in Paradise were all lifeguards themselves, and in a scene like the one just above, you simply aren't gonna see a whole lotta inexperienced folks jumping in!
One of the guys there from the very beginning, doing a yeoman's share of the digging, was none other than Hauoli Reeves, a pro bodyboarder featured in surf magazines and other media outlets the world over. Though we never met before today, I grew up one valley over from him, so I had already heard plenty of the guy's wave-riding exploits even before carving-out a name for himself in the surf world. Yeah, I hear he was pretty punchy and intimidating in his prime, grabbing all the best waves for himself (that's how all the big-name guys are in the water!), but outside of competition, he was super-cool and down-to-earth friendly.
Everyone venturing into the raging waters all knew what they were doing, but you could tell that Hauoli had a real command of the place, making the smoothest cut-backs and biggest sprays, making it all look much easier than it really was:
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Meanwhile, it was getting so big out there, the water moving so fast, the currents so amazingly powerful, that I wondered if it may be time for even the best to get out! Outside of the obvious dangers inherent, there were also occasional giant logs, spare tires, and tangles of heavy brush and debris floating down the river from time to time, any one of which would have put someone in the hospital real quick! Look-out's spontaneously appeared, however, warning riders to exit when anything big came down the pike.
A flow of this magnitude will peak in about an hour or two, as there's only so much water in the river to create this kind of pressure. It'll keep flowing for much longer, but you can tell when it's reached its peak. It's simply amazing what lots of water can do - check out the height of these walls, dug-out from tons and tons of sand, over the course of an hour:
We've all seen these things on television or the internet, but being there in person is a completely different animal. Some things, you just gotta experience for yourself. From the shore, that is, at least for most of us!
Check out this speed demon:
Because of the sands constantly shifting and turning, pockets and craters would develop momentarily, generating huge waves that must've been 10, maybe 15 feet high at times! The best guys would try to reach these quickly-vanishing hotspots, if even for a few seconds of adrenaline-pumping, heart-stopping, utterly magical moments in time, sending the crowd into a chorus of wild applause and cheers.
Good stuff. Lucky we live Hawaii, yes?!
Hey, sorry it's been about a week since my last entry, but what can I say? Things just get really, really busy sometimes. Next time, and I'll try to do it quickly, I'll post a page on 21 Degrees North, an excellent fine-dining eatery right there at the Turtle Bay Resort. Kumi and I feasted on foie gras, fresh oysters, sashimi, and, well... I don't wanna give it all away just yet! You'll see!
Hey, go check out my book, Island Flavors, which just got into Long's Drugs, Costco, and Amazon.com, as well as having already been in Borders and Barnes & Nobles for some time now. It was on sale last week in the Long's ad for $14.99, but I'm sure Costco sells it for about that price regularly.
Hope you've all had a wonderful weekend! We sure did! Go out and make this week even better!
Aloha and take care till next time!
Aku
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