Capturing the Moment

A day off and light offshore winds means its surf time here in Oahu. A little swell coming into the nearby south shore was enough to motivate me not to make the drive to the north side to fight the rip currents and crowds. Instead I managed to grab a bunch of fun, long, left handers with a few screaming right thrown in for good measure. Heidi was on the shore taking some pictures in between phone calls and managed to get some good one. I figured with a bright yellow hat and board I would be easy to spot...turns out for the most part I was the only surfer out. Can't beat that.  

  In between huge close out sets like the two here, there were some fun, fast rides to be had along Oahu's south shoreline this weekend. One of the biggest swells of the summer decided to arrive after summer was officially over. I saw boat channels being closed out by huge waves, surfers scrambling up the rocks trying to get away from the pounding white water, and some amazing surfing as well.     For me it has been overall a very good swell. I've had four sessions in the past three days, catching some of my biggest waves of the season. The water is still warm, hovering around 80 degrees, and the winds have disappeared almost completely. I might even have one more session left in me this afternoon.   It is good to get these big swells right before the north shore starts lighting up to get prepared for the winter to come. Right now it is that incredible time of year when we have great waves on both coasts, which spreads out the crowd and gives you the pic...

Fresh off some cold water wetsuit surfing in New Hampshire I was eager to get back in the waves here in Hawaii. The swell has been consistent every day since I've been back. I've hit up a few different spots and have had some pretty fantastic rides at each.   I snagged a few photos with a GoPro camera attached to the front of my board. Then Heidi stopped by and grabbed a few more with the big camera. It is amazing to be able to find a great wave out here without a big crowd. That is definitely one of the big perks of living here and being able to explore different breaks. Looks like more swell on the way!

  On a hunch I booked it down to Dumps yesterday after work just in case there were waves big enough to surf. Dumps is a beautiful wave with turquoise water that forms a steep left of shallow reef. It works on big south swells sent up from storms in the southern hemisphere so it is mainly a summer time wave. During the winter everyone flocks to the north shore to catch big waves sent down from big storms up near Japan and Alaska.   You can imagine my exuberance as I walked around the last corner of the path to Dumps just in time to see a set of three perfectly formed, head high lefts peeling into Dumps....and one guy out! I literally ran the rest of the way over the lava rocks to get to the entry before jumping in the water and furiously paddling out to the lineup. I couldn't believe my luck. The other surfer did say that was the biggest set he had seen yet, but luckily I was in for a lot of luck during this early south swell surf session!  Making friends in the lin...