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October 11, 2006
playing hooky @ chun's reef
just a quick passage from me..an average regular joe surfer in search of stoke. i've never claimed to be good, great or wanted to be a pro. what i search for is the moment & the feeling of freedom of soul. my outlets lately are surfing & the bond with mother natures life blood..othewise known as water:
finally able to steal a day away from work. after reading the buoys, looking at the recent kona wind patterns in the early morning & playing a hunch....i thought it was time to head up for a days session in north shore. yes yes...i could've gotten skunked & maybe even got shacked. i could've wasted a day chasing small ankle biters. hard to say & all i could do was enjoy the trip. it's always about the adventure anyway. never really about the reward. more about the amp'd satisfaction of getting up at 345am under the cover of darkness. loading up the sticks & bombing up to the country.
pulled into the parking a few other sleepy surfers standing under the palms sipping coffee. breathing in the morning sea air while we awaited the first glimpes of the sets. through the fog we could hear some sets rolling in & it sounded big. there had been some beach side chatter about the buoys picking up but nobody has seen anything yet.
another 15 minutes go by then we get the first real set wave views. everybody dropped their jaws & ran for the boards. it was rolling in overhead & glassy like butter. outside sets were starting to come in at almost double over head on the bombers. still dusk & you could hear people in the parking lot hooting & yelping with excitement.
for the next 3 hours i surfed my brains out. caught some of the biggest cleanest waves of the year. even got a few barrels & coverups. the stoke was so hyped up with only a dozen guys out. at one point there was just 8 of us. i was so happy i could have just frozen time right then & there. apparently the surf report was calling the waves at 1-3 local scale with it suppose to pick up late afternoon. most people probably just headed to work and decided to save themselves for the next few days worth of waves. man...they were so so wrong. it was cranking 2-4 on the average set with glassy 3-5 every 20minutes. (2 to 4 = chest high to 6ft, 3 to 5 = head high to almost double overhead)
once an hour we all got the serious pounding when a double over header would roll through with 2 more waves off the back. i really really wanted one of those as did several of us once we could see the walls holding up through the inside.
about 45minutes later after catching a bunch of over heads...we could see this lump on the horizon. someone just yells "outSiDE" & we all start paddling like freaks for the horizon. nothing like seeing a 10ft wave coming at you that is 70yrds long. it was creepy fun with hair on the back on the neck standing straight up. a few guys went for the first one which looked sweet. i decided i would take the second since since i would be the only guy left in position. twas a late drop that was throwing a small barrel at the top of the peak w/ a massive face down the line. so i said ah _uck it i'm going & pulled into the barrel. from there i was in for a few seconds & i could hear guys hooting. then the best thing happened as the lip hit me i was thrown into the pit & sucked out the back for a clean exit. normally i would have broken my board or got pounded on the reef. this time was a lesson in letting go w/ no fear. it felt great as i was committed to enduring what ever that wave gave me.
held out for a few more sets with beautiful rights before it started to closing out.
paddled in a happy stoked surfer. even had the chance to share all my wax with other surfers in need.
truly an epic session.
sf~
Posted by Single Fin at October 11, 2006 10:35 AM