11 September 2009

SURF REPORT

11 September 2009

The volume on Kauai is way down from the thrum of Honolulu. Even in the country on Oahu, Honolulu is so potential that Kaaawa is not really far enough way. What is missing on Kauai is urgency. The driven sense of commerce, frantic fulfillment, response in haste, is revealed by noise. And even though that is coming, as it does everywhere, commercial captivity is delayed by the water surrounding the island. Now we are in Anahola and have nomadic chickens in the yard, but there were chickens wandering carelessly through the two acre parking lot in Kapaa where we stopped for a burrito at Verde. A chicken flew at our car for a hundred feet up at Haena yesterday, then at the last second the fearless red and black bird veered into the bushes and ran through a small opening that I figured it had targeted when it began its daring flight.

A northwest swell began Thursday, when we arrived in the afternoon. The swell is a little early in the season but not unheard of. It’s the second of the season in fact, underscoring all the El Nino babble. It was forecast to be eight feet from the 335, very north of west. Friday, in no rush, we went north towards Hanalei and observed the ocean. At Anini a long stretch of reefs close to shore held head high surf and a few surfers were on it. We poked into Hanalei town, loaded with vehicles bearing boards, parking near the beach was very hard to accomplish. We observed well overhead sets on the point break at Hanalei, lefts way over at Waikoko’s, rideable surf at Pinetrees and a nervous lifeguard wondering when to call a halt to the surf school scrambling in a suddenly serious shorebreak at Bathrooms. Getting caught inside should be part of the course of instruction, however, drowning is frowned upon.

I began to feel confusion and a multi-faceted reluctance about getting out there. I had no gear, and my last rental experience had been in Waikiki a long time ago, where a merciless kanaka rented me one and then another ( supposed replacement) waterlogged monster. Basically I was unfamiliar with dependence. In time I would overcome this challenge. The nice fellows even gave me free racks with the rental board, an epoxy Yater, and said I could trade up or down as often as I wanted to. They had 50 boards to choose from, and no clunkers.

From what I could see the crowd at Hanalei was more dense than my fickle taste and the surf was already at my limit, being 8 foot on the Hawaii scale, which means twelve foot faces. Besides height, which implies power, speed is an infrequently noted attribute to waves striking the north shores of the Hawaiian Islands. I was going to have to look for a peculiar spot to surf. Olivia and Dylan were interested in going for a dive, so we went up to Tunnels, famous for its reef fish, and a place I vaguely remembered surfing with Larry Craig in 1976.

Kauai County police do a brisk and continual business ticketing illegally parked cars on the narrow road through Haena. Lifeguards already have the BEACH CLOSED signs up at 150-200 foot intervals. Tunnels is ten feet ( double overhead) and an ominous outer break is also going off, but nobody is riding it. We sit on the sand observing the beautiful kapu shorepound. Eight foot faces racing across the rocky outcrop.

We elect to go rent a board in Hanalei then go down to Poipu on the south shore where there will be less surf and better diving. Poipu is nearly as big as Hanalei. Double overhead on the sets, frequent closeouts but when rideable Heroin and Acid Drop look really fun-if you surfed it all the time and you were 22 years old.

Those are not my drugs. We were able to look at many beautiful fish in Keiki Cove, who were having a merry time eating all the debris kicked up by the surf pounding the reef in front of their lagoon. Surf is forecast to be bigger tomorrow so we will go hike.