Growing up on the North Shore of Oahu

Paddling out today on my way to work, I thought, wow who would have thunk 40 plus years later I’d still be living the dream on the North Shore of Oahu?  I tried to remember the first time I swam in her beautiful waters. I remember the first time I looked under the water at Waimea Bay with a mask, I freaked out and ran out of the water, blown away because it was so vast under the sea. I must have been 5 or 6 years old at the time and never would have dreamed of paddle out to the point to challenge myself in the waves. I remember Steve Albert, who still runs Rainbow school taking us students on field trips to bodysurf the shore break at Waimea and to swim through the secret tunnels of Sharks Cove. I remember riding The Bus from Kahaluu to Waialua to ride horses as a teenager and staring at the huge waves of Waimea memorized if only for a few seconds as we rode around the Bay in pre-traffic North Shore…..I remember my first time bottom turning at Pipeline….wow that was a cool day! So now so many, many years later […]