Monday, August 28, 2006

Ua he`e nalu hou `o Sue

I know most of you aren't interested in the surf stories, so this is for Chris, and Bruce, and Terri. And, in a way, for myself - telling them allows me to relive the waves. And isn't that why we tell surf stories?

As predicted, the swell picked up on Thursday. The outer reef at Tonggs started breaking regularly enough that folks were tempted to sit outside and try to catch a few out there; but they weren't quite big enough to ride them into the second reef. Rice Bowls, a right-handed wave just Ewa of Tonggs also started to break and that pulled quite a few surfers over to there that might otherwise have been surfing Tonggs.

I have been thinking since I've been here that I should take the board into town and surf Pops or Threes sometime. But Tonggs is right there. I can watch it from the condo and head out when it's at its best. I've surfed it enough that I know exactly where to line up to get the best waves that come through. It's not a great wave, but it's been really good to me this trip.

Thursday I paddled out just as the tide was starting to come in. The winds had died down, so the conditions were very clean. The first wave I caught was a right that swung wide into the channel. I was only partway out to the lineup and this wave was head-high, so I knew there were some decent sets rolling in.

When I had been out on the previous day, there was quite a crowd. Mostly sitting on the inside; when the sets came through the three or four of us taking off outside had to dodge boards and bodies floating in the whitewater. Today the sets were bigger, and the same group was sitting outside, but there was no one on the inside. It made for a very nice session since there were more waves than surfers.

Later in the day, Sue and I went out for another surf lesson. The tide had come way up and the waves were battering the seawall and rushing back out to sea. This made just getting down the ladder into the ocean a bit of a challenge. Sue got onto the board just as a wave was coming in, and managed to ride the backwash a good ways out. We didn't need to go too far out to find an area where we could practice. She caught a couple of nice ones and got to her feet briefly.

Even this far on the inside the waves were chest-high and the backwash from the wall would occasionally jack them straight up just as they were about to break. Sue took off on one of those and had a spectacular wipe out with the board sailing six feet up in the air. She came paddling back out, though, and was ready for more.

On Friday I went out and the same folks were out again. But the swell was definitely dropping.

No comments: