Big Day at Kanaha

I started the morning off by taking Diane and Sam to drop off her Xterra for service and then off to Kanaha Beach Park. We noticed as we passed Ho’okipa that the waves were hefty, Ho’okipa was nearly closed out, with just a few of the big guys at Middles, catching some bombers.

By the time I got to Kanaha it was mid morning, and the parking lot was packed! No wind, so I knew it was all surfers. I paddled out to Lowers and found about thirty people, most on longboards but a half dozen standup folks including Gianpaolo on a Ku Nalu he borrowed from a lifeguard and Teddy, Laird’s caretaker who was naturally on a Laird. Teddy is very good (surprise, surprise) and was catching some great rides. Gianpaolo is also very good, but he paddled down to ride the relatively empty right hand side of Lowers. I stuck to the left shoulder. It took me a while to settle down and surf. Some of the sets had one or two ten foot faces, so I was a bit intimidated. But I caught a few head-high waves and rode them with no great drama. So I paddled into the middle of the section and tried one of the big guys. I think it would have gone just fine–my plan was to drop in already headed left and just run like hell to keep the shoulder behind me. Unfortunately two longboarders got up just to the left of me, and the wave cranked up vertical before I could react and bail, so I cut back to the right.

When the waves get big at Kanaha Lowers they form a bowl, and I was inside it. The wave shoulder was to my left and I was staying ahead of it. But I could look ahead in the bowl and see the shoulder on the other side zooming towards me, about ten feet high (looked like fifty). I slid half way up the face, planning to turn down the face when the two shoulders met and try to get out in front of the whitewater, but as I started my turn the wave fell on me and that was pretty much that.

I bounced around on the bottom for awhile and when I surfaced I felt a tug on my calf and saw my board in the air way above me, hiting the end of the leash. I held my paddle over my head to ward off the 11 foot lawn dart headed my way, but it missed me cleanly.

Diane happened to be watching from the shore. She didn’t remember that I had my white rashguard on, so she didn’t recognize me at first. She just saw some poor sucker caught in the bowl with shoulders headed towards him from both directions like giant hands clapping on a mosquito and thought “this isn’t going to be good”. Then the poor sucker disappeared under a wall of water for awhile, and there was my board, hanging in the air.

I paddled around in stunned little circles for awhile, had my sinuses drain a pint of seawater abruptly onto my lap (so much better than into your dinner plate) and then went back out for a further beating. Fortunately for my confidence the next wave I caught was spectacular. I teetered on the edge for a few seconds and thought I dropped in too late, but I got a very nice swoopy bottom turn and shot halfway up the face before I got the board turned back by dragging the paddle hard (this all sounds kind of elegant and planned, but I was several steps past the outer limit of my available control mojo). I did a series of lightweight simulations of a cutback along the face of the wave and rode it past the channel. Once I got there I realized the wave still had plenty of Moxie, so I turned back towards the middle, moved up to the front of the board (no I didn’t hang anything, but I could SEE the nose from where I was) and rode the wave to the bitter end. Which was a heck of a long way, probably two thirds of the way back to the beach.

If you’ve surfed at Kanaha, you know that’s an improbably long way. but it took me a very long time to get back out. We always say that the reef at Kanaha is a thousand strokes from the beach (on a regular surfboard). I bet that’s about right.

The wind came up a bit, and even more people showed up, so Diane, Sam (the dog) and I went to the south side. Wound up at Puamana which was small and a bit windy, but pleasant. Caught a zillion waves until 4:00 when I had to take Diane back to the dealership to get her car. One of those days where a energy bar is lunch and you only come in to rehydrate. My shoulders and arms are spent, and my stomach muscles are spasming, but it’s all good.

Hope you all had even just half as much fun as I did today–but I doubt it.