Tuesday, June 17
Glenda may be getting to a keyboard sometime this week, but till she
does you all get my report of her sesh today:
We met at my home break this afternoon; she has a hotel that overlooks
Canoes and says the waves in that area are pure longboard dribble this
week. She was on her spiffy new 6'10"; I on my Manta (both of us in
search of some real peaks -- lol -- it was a 1-2' forecast day!)
We yaked and yaked (and yaked) the whole paddle out.
May your ears all burn ;-)
It was the perfect day ... the water was beautiful - clear as could
be, bright sun, stunning view of the mountains. Out at the break some
newbies were huddling in a clump inside the one good peak. We hung
out for a while not able to catch anything, then ... I looked out at
Castles - it looked big -- I have always been curious about that break
... so ... Glenda was game. We took off (way off).
The paddle out to Castles turned out to be one L O N G trek. We had
to veer out to avoid the exposed reef and we paddled through some deep
water. I could see clearly thirty feet down in some places - at one
point I saw an eel moving along a sandy spot way below us. I stopped
looking down. When we got to the break, we saw why there were only
two ppl out there. The big beautiful (tubing) wall was ... breaking
on exposed reef. We chatted with the couple there and saw that we
would have to settle for a shoulder break -- and 'weave' in between
some of the larger rocks. The others left after a while, so at least
we had our mini waves to ourselves.
The whole rock thing was a bit funny - and a bit freaky for Glenda.
I had the luxury of never having to get off my sponge - didn't even
have to paddle much; she kept bumping into rocks when she landed after
a wave, or when she was paddling. (but was amazed afterwards to find
no scratches on herself or her board). We each had a few fun rides -
barely thigh high, but nice walls. I situated myself next to the
largest outcropping of rock - probably because it reminded me of my
'fall back' spot at my own break where the waves well up right next to the
large rock (and where few boards like to take off). Glenda used me as
her nav tool so she could stay far away from 'my rock'. After a lot of
laughs and fun, we decided to head back.
The paddle back was spookier for me ... the sun was low and behind
clouds, and it felt like the swell was picking up. A turtle bobbed up
in front of us at one point and I had to blurt out, "Oh, good! Turtles
taste much better than we do!" -- and Glenda thought she was putting
her Stinson shark thoughts aside by coming to Hawai'i!!
Back atmy break the swell had picked up ... and ... there was NO ONE
around. We started charging some waist-shoulder high waves. The tide
was still a bit low, so I actually 'hopped' over an exposed rock on one
larger wave in. No wounds, though (I am still nursing some scratches
from Friday when the swell was 6-8'). Glenda enjoyed a wild shoulder
high drop into an almost sleek wall. Too beautiful! She is really
figuring out this break -- she sees that the waves have a way of
swerving just before they peak.
Glenda said that today she caught the most waves she has ever in any
Hawai'i sesh in a long time. Funny ... how a little day like this can
be so much fun. It was great to share the stoke ... guess that is what
it is really about.
