Surfing lessons in Hawaii are best on the North Shore of Oahu for a variety of reasons. First the crowds are way less then the most popular Waikiki Beach, but that’s only the beginning of the story.   The North Shore’s beaches and waters are the cleanest on the Island of Oahu and where else can you learn to surf with sea turtles.

With Stand Up Paddle Boarding being the hottest thing going on the water these days in Hawaii, the North Shore Surf Girls is stoked to have Ms. Beccy Cravins on the team.  She’s been winning the women’s division of many of the inaugural SUP races this year and is an excellent surf instructor, SUP competitor as well as a fitness coach.

Beccy Cravins, North Shore Oahu above and below

The surf on the North Shore the June, has been consistent almost feeling like a long Spring.  The water has been crystal clear,  the sand clean and the Trade Winds gentle.  Really a perfect start to the Summer of 2010.  The Annual Hanapaa fishing tournament  finished up in Halewia Harbor with a fun lua yesterday.  There have been two major canoe races with thousands of competitors and family lining Haleiwa Beach Park.  Any rain that may bless us burns off by 10:00 am.  Haleiwa may well have the best weather in the world.

Surfing of course is number one! But we all knew that.

1. Watching the sunset over the waves in the month of November

2. Watching green sea turtles swimming around while you surf, swim, dive or walk on the beaches of the North Shore

3. Watching the final day of the Pipe Masters or the Quick Silver in Memory of Eddie  Aikau at Waimea Bay.

4. Jumping off the rock at Waimea Bay

5.  Paddling up the Anahulu River

6. Having a party on the beach at night with your friends

7. Watching kids jump off the Anahulu Bridge

8. Running in the sand – great way to stay in shape for surfing

9. Hunting for shells on the beach – you may be blessed and find a Sunrise shell

10. Just breathing in the fresh ocean air

North Shore surfing legend, father, brother and super cool person Marvin Foster passed away May 18th, 2010 in Haleiwa on the North Shore of Oahu,  finding peace at last.   He was a fearless surfer with a true North Shore style.  Earning the nick names Carving Marvin and Marvelous Marvin he was a master at surfing the Pipeline and set the standard for carving in the early 80’s.  In 1980,  he was named Rookie of the Year by ASP World Tour.  Always a daredevil, he was the  first person to go left at big Waimea Bay, and  was one of the original invitees to the Quiksilver Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational surfing contest.

A straight “A” graduate of Waialua High School,  Hawaiian to the core and intelligent,  Marvelous Marvin looked you straight in the eye and told you like it was.  Loved and respected by his family and friends he will be truly missed.

Marvin is survived by his daughters  Vai Tiare Marr-Foster and Zjayna Foster, brothers Daniel, Cyrus, and Kalani Foster, and sister Pua McCormick.

Surfer Girls especially those who teach surfing lessons every day, have special challenges when it comes to having nice hair.  While the sun does it’s job and bleaches it blond it also dries it out beyond belief!  On top of that the salt water and pull from the waves create added stress that would cause a super model to throw a cell phone at anyone.  So what’s a surfer girl to do?  After 20 plus years of surfing and teaching surfing and always looking like I had just stepped out of the ocean I decided to consult an expert – Emilia Perry. She’s a true North Shore Surfer Girl, Pipe charger on both a surfboard and bodyboard, a model and hair dresser at Salon Atlantis in the Haleiwa Market place – this is what she suggested.

1. Put coconut oil in your just before getting in to the surf -this is actually an ancient Hawaiian custom.

2. Wash with super good conditioner – I use a product made my Goldwell, it’s expensive but worth it.

3. Braid your hair before going in to the water.

4.  See a professional at least once every 3 months for a trim,

If you follow this advice consistently your hair condition will improve and that’s that!

For most of the pro surfers on the North Shore, Summer is the time to head South, either to Waikiki or Bali, but for us hard core locals leaving the North Shore for any reason is minimized.  So since it’s well claimed, Goat Island in the Summer is the best spot on the North Shore for surfing.

1. Goat Island – pros and cons – waves every day, bathroom w/ showers – onshore winds most days, long paddle out.

2. Chun’s Reef – pros and cons – super small waves daily, lifeguard – crowded.

3. Malekahana – pros and cons – close to shore – showers – onshore winds most days.

Like most girls who grew up learning to surf at Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu, I surfed with Jack when he was just a kid.  He was one of the top chargers at Pipeline back in his day. I became a fan of  Jack’s  music when I read a story in Surfer Magazine about it. I promptly surfed on over to Napstar and down loaded some of his songs and was amazed with the soulfulness of it.  Below is a music video from his new album To the Sea which should be a big hit.

Lucky for us North Shore people,  Jack or rather “Majic Jack” as my mom calls him, cares a lot about our community and especially children.  He and his beautiful wife Kim started the Kokua Foundation to teach all of us to recycle, reduce and reuse.  While the foundation focuses on children the Johnson’s hold a concert most years at the Waikiki Shell to raise money and stoke everybody out.  This year’s concert was awesome, there was an insane line up of local talent and some legends including Taj Mahal and Ziggy Marly along with Jack.  Lots of good energy at the concert, reminding me that the future is going to be OK with people like the Johnsons helping out.

Congratulations to North Shore Surf girl Anastasia Ashley for winning the women’s surfing and to Brazilian Karla Costa-Taylor for winning the women’s bodyboarding divisions of the 21st Annual North Shore Soap Factory Pipeline Women’s Pro in Memory of Josie Over. A big mahalo to event director, Betty Depolito for organizing it too!

Photo Bernie Baker

It’s great to see the women surfers from around the world given the opportunity to compete at the world’s most prestigious surfing competition venue. What’s not so great is seeing the only women’s contest held at Pipeline awarded dates at the end of the winter, when the waves are small and marginal. Most people don’t understand or even want to know about the “politics” of surfing contest on the North Shore, but it would be helpful to the cause of gender equality if some sun was shined on it. Each Spring the City and County sends permit applications to all the event directors from the previous season inviting them to fill our an application for a contest. The application includes questions like does this event provide opportunities for females and what kind of community services does the event preform. Although there is zero effort to confirm the truth of statements on the application, after all the event directors turn in the forms a secret process of “conflict resolution occurs ” when directors have conflicting date request. This process has increasingly pushed the women’s event to the end of the surfing season. On top of all of that there is no representation of athletes, who gets to compete in an event is left up to the sole discretion of the event director, and I know of cases where event directors have asked athletes to not compete due to personal issues with them. Another huge problem with the surfing contest process is the timing. Surf contest permits awarded less then 4 months prior to the start of the surfing season on the North Shore of Oahu. This leaves surfing contest promoters little time to organize sponsorship, athletes little time to organize travel plans and the media little time to organize covering the events. All of this little time hurts the ability the sport of surfing to leverage its self and event less ability for the Hawaii visitor industry to benefit from it. So what is the solution to this dilemma? Easy, the City and State of Hawaii should issue 3-year surfing contest permits to all of the existing events and require that event directors prove that they are giving women equal opportunities to compete, after all it’s the law.   That way all of the up and coming girls learning to surf on the North Shore today will have something to strive for.

Obviously there’s more to the story then the headline.  A supplemental EIS is what came out of the law suite.   Special thanks to Local 5,  Eric Gill, all the superheros on the North Shore, all the people across the islands and world who donated money to the cause, the many organizations  that rallied and Hawaii’s Kanaka Moali!  Below is a video  I made,  about the issue that  explains why building 5 more hotels on the North Shore of Oahu  was a pretty bad idea.  No offence to the existing Turtle Bay Hotel which the community loves and supports.

Mark Cunningham, Carol Philips, Tim Vanderveer, Katie Killebree,  & Tinker Bloomfield at the Hawaii Polo Field.