Friday 11/5/2010

Just got home from my first happy hour in Kilauea. Met a couple of interesting bar flies. I talked with a guy who saw me in the water at Kaliahiwai, a pretty heavy surf spot near my house. For the rest of the world, outside Hawaii, its REALLY heavy. The waves were small. 5 foot Hawaiian. That means the backs of the waves are only 5 feet tall. OR you can consider the waves to be double the height of what the measurement is. I only had an hour to surf before work, so I knew there was a chance I wouldn't catch any waves. I went after 5. caught 2 and got slammed. There's a lot to this wave. My roommate told me about this wave. I took him seriously and only went out after I watched the swell several times. To be honest, I watched the early stages of the swell and the peak of it. As it was diminishing, I decided to give it a shot. from the shore it didn't look so bad, so I figured I'd be able to get a wave in before work. NO CHANCE. This fucker has power. A LOT of power!

The thing is I'm goofy footed, that means my left foot is on the back of the board. The other way the guy in the picture is surfing. Its a lot harder to surf a powerful wave this way. I spent a lot of time cussing while getting pummeled by the wave as it sends me closer to the shore and its nearby cliff. No big deal, the current sends you away from the cliff as you get closer and all you have to do is get on your board when the ride is over and paddle the fuck out of there. Typical surfing.

Anyway, I want to master this wave. It looks like a lot of fun. Today, the guys surfing at Kalihiwai were encouraging me. Come to find out, they were encouraging me to ride the closeouts. It didn't seem right when I'd look at a wave and would not like the way it'd look and they'd say, "Go, go go!" I never bit on their encouragement. They just knew I was new and wanted me to get pounded so I wouldn't surf there. I feel like trying tomorrow but the board swap in Hanalei is tomorrow and I really want some more surfboards.

I took some pretty aggressive drops and didn't make it. I want a full day at Kalihiwai without having to jockey for position and I'll be able to catch this wave. Unfortunately, thats now how it works here. All good breaks are very popular. Fortunately, the same guys surf these waves all the time and eventually they'll get to recognize me. If they like my style I'll be allowed to catch waves. If they don't I'll have to get faster boards and drop in closer to the peak of the wave and rule these waves. This takes skill. I have the nerve to obtain this skill. Unfortunately, these waves get REALLY big. We're talking triple of what I've surfed so far. I told the guy I talked to at the bar today that I expect to spend a year learning how the different spots break and pick it up in the next year. He says it will take ten.

To be continued...

Aside from the topic of surfing, I took my first ride home from work today in the rain. Not just a sprinkle, but a real rainstorm. 30 mph winds and at least an inch of rain. I anticipate 12 inches during my ride home at some point in the future. But that's another story (when it happens, I'll tell a story about it). In the meantime, my homemade windscreen (rainscreen?) worked nicely. My arms got wet, oh well. I want to lower my seat and install foot pegs so its easier to stay out of the weather. I've ordered a piece of diamond plate that will bolt to the floor of m scooter to strengthen it, but thats unrelated to me staying out of the weather. Next time I'm at Walmart, I'll get some footpegs.

This morning I made coffee and put it in my water bottle to go in my holder on my Ruckus. I rode to Kalihiwai, froze on the way in the rain, drank my coffee, did some stretches and paddled out. Much better than paddling out freezing cold from my scooter ride. Ironically, to the guy I talked to at the bar, I was the guy without the wetsuit.

Holy cow, this is my third addition to my Friday edition to my blog....

At work today, I got to take the owner of the restaurant I work at to the hospital. This is on my way to Costco. Unfortunately, her husband didn't buy any gas with the money I loaned them two days ago (the drawer was short on cash after going to the farmer's market, so I elected to give them some of my daily pay to buy gas. I would get the money back the next day. Her husband didn't buy gas! SO, on our way, I forgot to buy gas because we went around town and didn't see a gas station on our way AND we ran out of gas! He says it was MY fault! HAHAHAHA!!!! Whatever, doesn't bother me. We'll see how this plays out. When we ran out of gas, I ran to the nearest gas station (approx. 1 mile away) and filled a 32 ounce Gatorade jug with dino juice. Put it in the gas tank and dropped a bit in the intake. Start her up and get a less than stellar performance from their 1999 Dodge Caravan. After come encouragement from Janet, I try to get her going and just drive! Well we get to a spot in the road where there's an armco barrier on our side of the road and BLOCK TRAFFIC! Minutes later the DOT and shortly thereafter, the police arrive. TO OUR RESCUE! They push us out of the road to a nearby apron on the opposite side of the road. AAA comes and puts more than a quart of gas in the van and gets it off the road.

BTW this is the Reader's Digest version. Its too much to blog all the crazy details..... =)