O Frabjous Day!

Dawn Patrol

Okay, maybe dawn patrol plus an hour. I had to yank the Kayaks off the jeep and put the boards in place, and a couple of booms in case there was wind to sail. Then I had to stop at Anthony’s for breakfast. When I park the funmobile they start my order. Big Eddie wet cappucino with a double shot and skim milk, everything bagel, toasted, light butter. By the time I get in line and pay for it my coffee is ready and I only need to wait for the bagel to toast. Of course that means I CAN’T order anything else. “Oh sure, we’ll just throw all this stuff away…”

When I come here with friends I always tell them “there’s a coffee shop in Paia. I’ve never tried it but I hear it’s good”. It’s like being Norm in Cheers. Except they can’t remember my name, just my order.

So I got to Kanaha about 7:30 and it was GLASS. No wind, smooth swells, sets every few minutes about two feet Hawaiian (waist to chest high faces). Absofrickin’lootly perfect. I paddled out on the JL and caught a bunch of waves. No other standup surfers out, just me and a dozen regular longboarders. After about half and hour a husband and wife standup pair showed up that I know well enough to say hi to.

And then the whales came.

Two small whales started surfacing and tail wagging a few hundred yards from the lineup. I immediately paddled out in their vicinity and once I got out a few hundred yards they headed straight towards me. the water was so glassy I could see their bodies under water even though then never got closer than perhaps a hundred feet. they turned away and left just as the other standup folks arrived. we paddled back to the lineup and I mentioned to the assemblage of marine biologists disguised as surfers that they looked too small and too light colored to be humpbacks.

That spurred a lively discussion about alternative whales, but one guy said “baby humpbacks, you just didn’t see the momma–but she was there”.

I caught a long, long ride, and as I pulled out of the wave I thought I should paddle upwind, since the conditions were so unusual–hardly any breeze at all. If I paddled in the usual upwind direction until the wind started blowing I could have a nice downwind run.

So I paddled, and paddled. I sang to myself, thought about business issues (I know, that’s weird, but I did), watched the fish swimming under me, picked daisies, and before I knew it I was about a mile past upper Spreklesville–I could see Baldwin Beach. I thought “damn, I’m a long way from Kanaha”, and just then the wind started blowing. so I turned around and enjoyed a lovely downwind cruise back to Kanaha. On the way back I went outside the reef, and caught a few nice waves. When I got back to lower Kanaha the wind was corking pretty well–probably ten knots, so I caught a couple of waves at lowers, and spotted the whales again–really jumping around this time. I paddled out again to have a look, and sure enough, it was two baby humpbacks and two big mommas. One of the mommies decided to check me out, so she came within about fifty feet of me, rolling oddly in the water, I assume so she could look at me.

Turns out that surfer/marine biologist #1 was right on the money.

I must have checked out OK–she didn’t crush me into a wet splot and a bunch of styrofoam with her tail. So I got that going for me–whales like me.

Caught one more good wave to about the halfway to the beach, so I went in to get the Jimmy Lewis 11’7″ for it’s inaugural sail.

I rigged the 7.0 superfreak–the largest sail I had with me. Simple rule, leave the 8.0 home and you’ll wish you had it. I got the board in the water, beach started it, and whoopee, it sailed. The soft rails didn’t do much for heading upwind, I think it gripes a lot, but it felt good. I sailed out past the reef, blew the tack and fell in (what else is new) and managed to uphaul it fairly reliably. That’s good, I didn’t want to knee paddle it in from half a mile out.

Once I got it into the wave, the true colors showed through. Magic. This board loves to surf. I still dont’ know if they’re all like this, but this board makes me look like I know how to surf. I slotted into a nice big wave just as it started to crumble, and stayed in the shoulder for a hundred yards, holding the sail by the nose of the boom while I surfed. then I popped the sail back into place and sailed away. I kept doing this until 3:00, when I promised Diane I’d quit so we could make a dinner date. I didn’t want to stop, but by the time I got the stuff back to the car I had serious cramps in my abdominal muscles and my shoulders. I guess it was time to quit.

But what a day. Long rewarding paddle, sailing the JL board and finding out that it totally rocks–every bit as good as it looks. whales, up close and personal.

Frabjous.