The Oahu trip was so fun. I’ve never been to the Northshore before so it was all new to me. Most of the people on the trip (12 dudes) had been there before and/or grew up there so we pretty much had the place on lock.
The one thing that wasn’t on lock though was surfing. Holy shit was that a humbling experience… I don’t think any of us were expecting to get barreled or anything but goddamn surfing on the Northshore is effing gnarly!
I paddled out at Pipe and realized i made a big mistake when i saw a bunch of pro’s that have houses about 100 ft away on the beach. But it wasn’t till i noticed the craggy, shallow rock reef that looked like something out of a Tim Burton movie that the mistake i’d made became completely apparent. The waves were something like 4-6ft Hawaiian which is like head and a half plus to us Warshington surfers. The wave size, shape, speed and the crazy-ass shallow reef all pretty much freaked the hell outta me.
Right away I paddled away from Pipe down beach to Off the Wall which is pretty much the same setup but it closes out a lot more. After a long time of just avoiding getting caught in the extremely shallow impact zone i picked off the smallest wave i could, got murdered and caught the white water back into shore. Beer drinking time.
Over the course of the week we surfed Off the Wall, Gas Chamber, Chums, Left Overs all of which had rock reef though not remotely as scary as Pipe. I think pretty much all of us hit reef at one point or another. I broke a fin and put a monster gouge in my board. Dax, Ki and myself all got some minor foot injuries. There were a bunch of turtles, some huge floating around in the lineups. I thought about trying to go pet one but didn’t.
The place we were staying was called the ‘Wave House.’ As in it was so sick that locals new exactly what house it was if you dropped that name. The house was literally right in front of Pipe. Tipp (the organizer) told me it was right in front of Pipe but it didn’t really click till i walked up to the house and went out to the beach side. The beach was so full of girls. I think being two doors down from both Volcom houses, next door to the Billabong house and in the general vicinity of a bunch of pro’s homes made for some prime bikini observation opportunities. The amount of hot, well dressed girls was not right.
On our way to Waikiki one night we got to check out Jason Tipp’s hand made skate park. The park is called ‘Graveside’ due to it being located right next to a bunch of dead people. Super tight transitions, pool coping and still dudes were destroying it. Damn…everything is gnarly in HAW.
The trip was so much fun. It was rad to see the mecca of surfing and get beat up by it.
Here’s the Gallery
Here’s Ki’s Gallery .
I’M SAYING THO!!! SICCNESS!
The beach doesn’t look as wide as I’ve imagined…but Sunny Garcia still looks like a pussy…
WTF is Dax even doing in that pic? What were you motherfuckers thinking holy shit…
It always seems they’re having funerals there…hmm, tell you something?
PS, regarding gnarly Hawaiian sk8spots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyG56Sa9gIM
5 minutes in is Wallos…but I’d suggest not FF’ing LOL
‘Graveside’, its the gnarliest place anybody will ever skate, hands down. I can’t even roll around in that shit. The skate park across from pipe is actually really fun, it is up there with all the washington skate parks. Waves were scary, but the few we all caught were pretty damn fun. I’ve never realized what a true, “hold down” was, until surfing at off the wall. If it was much bigger, we weren’t going to be paddling out at all. It was funny, Ki and I paddled out after Drex on the bigger of the days, Drex looked truly relieved to see us out there. Although there is plenty of localism out there, i ran into nothing but friendly people trying to catch some of the best waves in the world. But…then again we didn’t even bother trying to surf at pipe that day. I’m sure we would have been told to go back to the beach. That house is ridiculous, i woke up some mornings, sitting up in bed and watching barrel after barrel with photographers flashes lighting up the wave. Unreal. Thanks goes out to the Tipp’s for making it one of the best trips i’ve had, hope everybody else can say the same.
dude i was stoked to see you guys. i figured dying with some friends wouldn’t be as bad…
sic trip though. can’t wait for the next tropical surf vacation.
Panama gets my vote.
daaaaang, hard to believe no one got completely wrecked.
stoked to hear you guys had such a rad time.
my vote is INDO!
…actually, shit, i suck too much to go to such a rad place for surf.
Was up at my mom’s in Cordova last week. The locals put me on to this surf vid they shot just outside of town on the Chlds Glacier. Thought you’d enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKRR9RMmcIQ&feature=related
later
that’s funny, we actually met that jet ski driver at the surf shop on the north shore last week. The guy surfing is from the islands too i guess. That shit is crazy.
Dang, wish I could have gone.
Anyone snowboarding this weekend? Might be kind of soft with the snow falling.
i rode ski acres last night. super fun. ton of snow falling. alpy would be super sic today. i’ll be up there this weekend. might snake the Ujump contest.
U all suck.. CHINA is the best.. I am moving here to do nothing fun all the time…
yo D, the link for Ki’s photo’s is busted.. i wanted to check em out..
man, looks and sounds like a good time was had, certainly hangin out in the tropics in march is pretty nice as well, bikini hotties can’t be beat.. not even by snowbunnies..
I hope Ki doesn’t mind. Here they are. He’s got skills. A couple of those pic’s could be in a surf mag.
http://ki.smugmug.com/gallery/4499485_pnEAz/1#264870411
D sent me a link, thanks!
yeah, those pics are sick! some of the surf action could totally be in a mag.. nice work fellas.. and congrats getting your BParty out the way clem! i forgot you were bro’s with Darren.. i think i met you yrs ago at stevens riding with him.. i know him thru those woodinvile kooks.