.optimistic.

Today was SO SMALL. But at least the guys [ie. Gay Bob, Delbert, Bradley, Warren] paddled out so I had buddies.

Delbert on the itty bitty waves.
"Hey, look on the bright side, at least we're not on the north shore paddling to make it out of the way from the set waves."

Oh, Delbert. Ever the optimist. :)

Tomorrow is either going to be smaller than today ... or seven feet. I'm a really good south shore forecaster.

.big rights.

The past few days it's actually been BIGGER than what I expected ["bigger" still being from my skewed perception, only 2-3 occasional 4]. Let me just say that shortboarding in big waves, when you can't catch big waves and have to sit on the inside, and can't duck-dive under the big waves when they come in, sucks. Does life go on? I hope so.

Concessions was crowded [again!] this morning so after an hour or so Brian and I decided to paddle over to [the completely empty] Big Rights and surf with OJ. That means that for the first time in MONTHS [with the exception of that morning where I surfed the inside of Second Holes with the little kiddies] I actually surfed another spot. Granted of course, the spot is just a few feet away from Concessions but another spot is another spot and I pat myself on the back. The rights at Big Rights actually are FUN and LONGER than Concessions and I wasn't so scared since I was on a shortboard. Maybe if Brian comes out tomorrow and Big Rights isn't crowded we can try our luck again. One wave I caught I rode for longer than the cumulative lengths of all my other waves [today]. Yes, that is how pathetic a shortboarder I am.

It should get small later this week so maybe I'll resort back to longboarding. My arms are starting to get sore from all the exercise.

.the start of Fall.

Despite my fear of shortboarding in big[ger] waves I sucked it up and brought out the beloved 5'8 four-fin that I have newly christened Shaniqua [okay, so I haven't really christened the board Shaniqua - I'm open to suggestions!]. I thought it was only 1-3 feet, but there were some bigger [maybe 4 foot] sets coming in every once in a while that forced me to paddle for dear life as I tried to not get taken out by all the guy catching the sets on the outside. Even though I didn't catch a single wave for the first hour I was out, I started actually "trying" when HB [haole Brian] came out and promised to stay out until 9 with me.
Shortboarding has a way of putting everything into perspective, making "small" waves appear "too big" and causing me, a forever-longboarder to start loathing people with boards bigger than 7' who almost decapitate me everytime they try to catch a wave.
Longboarders really do suck. I'll hate myself and my people until I grow either too bored or too frustrated with shortboarding and revert back to the dark side.
Afterwards I did breakfast with Tricia at Cooke St Diner which entailed her downing two breakfast entrees and discussions ranging from the soap-opera-esque drama that the 22 year old females [ie. us] have managed to wreak upon Concessions and lactating. I love surfers.

Tomorrow [Saturday] marks the first day of Fall leaving me to assume that the waves that we are seeing now marks the last of the south swell-age until April. I'm actually going to "try" and shortboard again tomorrow. Once I get used to the whole actually duckdiving under a wave without getting my butt whipped all over the place I'm sure the process will be a lot more pleasant.

.jellies.alohadayparade.

Today was the annual Aloha Day parade. Since I haven't been around for the festivities for the past 4 years I was unaware that they shut down the ENTIRE Ala Moana park from 1 am until 10 am, leaving only Kewalo Basin open ... Fortunately, we got there at around 5:30, narrowly beating the guys with permits who tried to kick us out. Since some of the guys had already gone into the h2o and everyone had already fed the meters [not to mention the fact that they hadn't put up any signs notifying the public that the lot was closed] we got to stay put and watch Steve A. call the permit-bearing messenger a ding-dong.

The swell didn't come in AT ALL [liars], however the influx of box jellies did arrive per scheduled [10 days after the full moon]. Yesterday they were out in full force in the channel between Concessions and Big Rights. Along with a few of the other guys, I got stung multiple times by jelly babies, leaving me with oodles of itchy scratchy bite-like dots all over my arms, legs, feet, back and stomache. Looks like chicken pox.

Since the waves didn't arrive today everyone is saying that it will arrive tomorrow. I don't believe them but I'm bringing out my longboard just in case.
One of these days I swear I'll be able to shortboard in waves bigger than 3 feet.

.surfboardshack.

My laptop died last week so sadly it has been near impossible to update or do much of anything that requires the internet. Miraculously though, I've been coping surprisingly well with the loss [if this had happened a few months ago while I was still in college and attempting to hand in my senior portfolio I would have had a meltdown] but the laptop gave me four good years and I suppose it is now the time to let it rest in peace.

Anyway, I finally got around to having Neal post my shortboard [one of the two that sit in my storage collecting dust] on surfboardshack.com and within less than 24 hours I had a phone call and email asking about the board. One of the guys even stopped by my house to check out the board and said that he'd think about it and make a decision by this weekend. Also, surfboardshack is free so I get to keep all the $100 I asked for which means $100 more into my puppy/new surfboard/trip to the Centennial Party fund. Hopefully it sells, so that I can move the four-fin that G. has been letting me hold into the storage instead of letting it sit on a chair in my grandmother's living room.
I've been shortboarding the past few days because it's been small and rideable and duck-dive-able. I'm slowly [think: pace of a tortoise] getting the hang of it but since there's a south swell due this weekend it's back to the longboard for me. Hopefully I won't un-learn everything ...

.memory walk.

The Alzheimer's foundation held their annual Memory Walk this morning, blocking off the ocean-side of Ala Moana for their runners/walkers to traipse through, leaving the rest of us [ie. morning exercise people and surfer people and old[er] people who get up really early to look at the ocean] only one side.

The conditions weren't as good as yesterday. Smaller, a LOT more crowded, and twenty times as windy. Too many aggressive boys all paddling for the same wave ... testosterone, pft. I had to go in early [before 7:30 am] but a lot of the guys headed in the same time to eat breakfast not wanting to deal with the surf/people either.

I hope everyone surfs NS tomorrow ...

.finally.

After much flatness this week finally [finally] saw some waves. Today was actually considerably larger than yesterday [though it didn't appear so from the beach pre-6 am in the near-darkness]. Needless to say after finally working my way out through the channel I wanted to give up and go back in but stayed out for a while. Bradley said I need to take a break from surfing [my back is sore, probably from surfing every.single.day and swimming a mile yesterday] so I actually went in before 8.

I was talking to Layne yesterday discussing [the common subject of] how I would never ever date a surfer. He said that it was hypocritical to say that since I was one of them. I said that I would never be one of them. He said I am DESPITE the fact that I'm a girl [because apparently girls shouldn't surf everyday ... pft]. I said that I was going to date a non-surfer and surf everyday till my hearts content and leave him back on shore. Layne said that if I were ever to date a non-surfer it would never work because I'd leave him alone all the time to go surfing.

Should have waves into the weekend. Depending on whether or not the predicted and much-hoped-for NS swell actually arrives it may or may not be crowded. We shall see.

I want at least ONE MORE good swell before flatness pervades the south shore.