Ten Foot Hanalei

SURF REPORT

13 September 2009

A stay home day. Bea and Manu and Wayne, Manu’s husband, are coming for a barbeque at The Love Shack at Anahola. But I still have a two hour surf window. The wind is nearly dead so I go down toward Kapaa where I saw some people surfing earlier, but they are just hurtling around on the shorebreak. I go back towards Hanalei, stop on the cliffs at Anini, which has a sideshore wind on it. An outer break still has a left on it five hundred yards away that must be 10 to 12 feet, ( HI). I was going to look at Kalihiwai, but decide to skip it.

The bowl at Hanalei has fifteen people on it, few chargers, four women, five groms inside and a motley pack of mostly locals. There is a guy inside on a big paddle board with a sixty pound golden retriever on the nose.

“ From the beach I could not tell if your dog was a suitcase or the world’s biggest water housing.”

He laughs: “ That’s a good one. Never heard that before. I was writing to MacGillivray earlier. I’ll have to tell him that one.”

I guess he figures I am old enough that he can last-name Greg MacGillivray on me and I will know he is talking about one of the original the surf-film makers. This guy might be one too for all I know, but I don’t need his autograph.

There are a lot of waves so I get some. I know now why Rick Vogel loved to surf San Augustine- its just like Hanalei, except on a less grand scale. Ricky had a house here years and years ago. It’s the easiest big wave I have ever been on. If these things were breaking at Pitas there would be a twenty knot current running. It’s a fun 8-10m foot ( HI) wave with an obvious take-off, which swings around into the trade winds blowing offshore. If you are right on it you are going to get it and good. There is no waiting around so anyone can have whatever they paddle for. Plenty of aloha-etiquette.

I last surfed here in 1976 so I have to take some time to figure out what’s happening, who’s the what and where’s the which. Note that in 1976 it was head-high. The biggest set waves are double overhead, but even when you get caught inside its not that big a deal. There’s a modest amount of rolling about, but soon enough I am free and have ample time to get back paddling and clear the next one. Only a few people really want the big bowl, but its not life-threatening. Once you get down them they are the same as the smaller waves, no faster or intimidating. You do want to trim out a little more smartly, is all. In the end its more like an honor to be able to surf a place like that. Eight out of ten waves are perfect and the other two are better than Ventura Point ever gets. Hanalei is probably perfect 100 days a year. Its been firing for four days straight, and now that the swell is going down and the weekend is over I plan on paddling out there a few more times.

South Shore is still head high too.

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