It’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen surf like this past week on the North Shore. The last time in 1998 it was too big for the Eddie Aikau, this time it was just right – “a solid 35 ft.” to quote Sol Aikau. BTW – Waimea Bay at this size is not a good time to learn to surf. In the days leading up to this giant swell all of Hawaii was on high alert – predictions of a double swell as big as the one that devastated the North Shore community in 1969 had everyone nervous and excited. So early Monday morning I awoke and checked to see how the boats where handling the swell in Haleiwa Harbor. Fortunately they where not rocking too hard and no waves had rolled over Kamehameha Hwy. fronting Surf and Sea. All’s well so far, so I loaded Mom and Michele one of my North Shore Surf Girls and we drove on a recon mission up to Sunset Beach to pick up Jenn Marr ( a famous unknown) to give her a ride back to Honolulu, she was supposed to help Squidy cook for the Eddie but it was canceled till the next day. Traffic was bumper to bumper to bumper even at 6:30 AM, it seemed that everyone and their cousin had driven to the North Shore to watch the hugest waves in 10 years. Driving or rather crawling by Waimea Bay had 20-30 people out and looked about 25 ft. solid Hawaiian scale, but disorganized, After picking up Jenn Marr ( she’s just one of those people you use two names for) at Sunset Beach, we also stopped and picked up a couple hitch hiking to Waimea, by coincidence it was the same people me and Michele tried to keep from bodysurfing 15ft. Keiki the day before, any ways…We really stopped at Sunset Beach proper to take pictures of the bike path that is still about to fall into the ocean. We then drove past Rock Piles and barely missed a wave that washed across the road. A quick stop at Keiki Shorebreak impressed my mom. Then it was back into the truck for everyone for a slow drive back to Haleiwa. Waimea was getting bigger as was the thousands of people siting in the bumper to bumper to bumper traffic…Short ending…dropped the girls off at home and drove Jenn Marr to Honolulu and went to Commission meeting. Next edition…the day a guy from Cali earned a perfect score for going straight on a 100ft. wave.
Leave A Comment