The Weekend
Last weekend started at about 4pm Friday. The winds were light and I got a call from Glenn telling me the conditions were perfect to sail my SUP board at Kanaha. Sure enough light winds and pretty little head high waves beckoned. I rigged my 5.8 Fire on the minimums and took my 12’6” out for my first longboard wave riding session. I must admit I am more cautious in my later years. I picked a small first wave and went left. I then picked a bigger wave and went left. Enough of that rubbish! The next wave I went down the line and to my surprise the board was game! I put in a couple of turns and ended the ride with an off the whitewater lip. Not a fat curling lip, more of a dribble, but still a good hit. That was it for me, I just wanted to find out what was possible, and each ride after that got a little more aggressive.
It was a perfect session, there were only four sailors, Glenn, myself, a guy I don’t know and that guy from second Wind who’s name escapes me and I hope he does not read this blog! Ralph Sifford was out on a longboard surfing then two more guys came out one on a Sup and another surfer. I was having a blast as everyone else seemed to be – nothing but smiles!
Saturday and Sunday were Launiupoko days as we had a guest (one of Anne’s best friends) and I was teaching her to surf on the SUP. I am a terrible surfer, but the SUP made me into a hero! I took Deanna out for her first surf ever and I told her to just lie on the board and enjoy the ride. I gave the board a good shove when a macking 1 foot set came in and she was off. She loved it and she must have caught over half a dozen waves before she got tired from paddling back out and we took a rest.
Deanna catches her first wave
Next we gave the SUP a go for real – with hilarious results! Damn it is hard just to stand on the thing! I still got it together enough to catch and ride my first wave as a stand up paddler! We discovered that kneeling paddling is a good way to get to know the environment without falling off every two seconds and a great tool to getting out through the monstrous flat to a foot surf.
Tom's first stand-up session
We went back out “regular” surfing having been humbled somewhat. This time we took it in turns as I did not want to tire Deanna out to quickly and I of course wanted a crack at it. I gave D a 30 second lesson on how to stand up and on her very next wave she did! If that was not impressive enough, I caught every single excuse for a wave I paddled for! Seriously this is ridiculous it totally looked like I knew what I was doing!
Tom surfing?!!
Tom back from SUP session
Heading back out for more surfing
So Sunday found us back at the same south shore surf break as D was absolutely hooked on surfing. Unfortunately the surf had disappeared and the sets were a meager half foot. The tide was also lower, so the reefs were still generating waves, albeit without much water! Much fun was had but the lack of water resulted in several groundings and numerous reef cuts to boot. It’s okay I got more plasters and have a good supply of Betadine and Neosporin at hand. D caught her first wave SUP and was only perforated by an urchin once. Good fun!
Tom Meets Reef
Deanna Gets Up
Tom SUP on a monster!
The girls needed to leave the beach early which gave me two free hours to play in the afternoon. Being short of time I opted for a quick windfishing session at Sprecks. When I got there it was windier and much wavier than I expected. I ditched the windfishing idea and just took the 12’6” to ride some waves. This turned out to be a misyake as it was too big for Sprecks which turned out to be one big lumpy mess with no defined waves to ride - still a blast.
So over the weekend I used my 12’6” (can’t call it a SUP ‘cause it does so much more!) to surf, stand-up-paddle and windsurf, two of which were genuinely new experiences. Actually catching every wave I paddled for was a new experience too! I have no desire to surf anything else now as it is so easy to paddle and catch waves. I could turn the board just fine at least as good as any other longboard I have ridden. It takes some foot work but is not hard to sort out. I guess you could call me old, but I tell you I have never ridden so many waves in such a short period of time, so maybe I am just impatient!
For those of you expecting a blog exclusively on windsurfing I apologize. I am writing this and this is what I did this weekend. So actually I am not sorry at all as I had a ball!
It was a perfect session, there were only four sailors, Glenn, myself, a guy I don’t know and that guy from second Wind who’s name escapes me and I hope he does not read this blog! Ralph Sifford was out on a longboard surfing then two more guys came out one on a Sup and another surfer. I was having a blast as everyone else seemed to be – nothing but smiles!
Saturday and Sunday were Launiupoko days as we had a guest (one of Anne’s best friends) and I was teaching her to surf on the SUP. I am a terrible surfer, but the SUP made me into a hero! I took Deanna out for her first surf ever and I told her to just lie on the board and enjoy the ride. I gave the board a good shove when a macking 1 foot set came in and she was off. She loved it and she must have caught over half a dozen waves before she got tired from paddling back out and we took a rest.
Deanna catches her first wave
Next we gave the SUP a go for real – with hilarious results! Damn it is hard just to stand on the thing! I still got it together enough to catch and ride my first wave as a stand up paddler! We discovered that kneeling paddling is a good way to get to know the environment without falling off every two seconds and a great tool to getting out through the monstrous flat to a foot surf.
Tom's first stand-up session
We went back out “regular” surfing having been humbled somewhat. This time we took it in turns as I did not want to tire Deanna out to quickly and I of course wanted a crack at it. I gave D a 30 second lesson on how to stand up and on her very next wave she did! If that was not impressive enough, I caught every single excuse for a wave I paddled for! Seriously this is ridiculous it totally looked like I knew what I was doing!
Tom surfing?!!
Tom back from SUP session
Heading back out for more surfing
So Sunday found us back at the same south shore surf break as D was absolutely hooked on surfing. Unfortunately the surf had disappeared and the sets were a meager half foot. The tide was also lower, so the reefs were still generating waves, albeit without much water! Much fun was had but the lack of water resulted in several groundings and numerous reef cuts to boot. It’s okay I got more plasters and have a good supply of Betadine and Neosporin at hand. D caught her first wave SUP and was only perforated by an urchin once. Good fun!
Tom Meets Reef
Deanna Gets Up
Tom SUP on a monster!
The girls needed to leave the beach early which gave me two free hours to play in the afternoon. Being short of time I opted for a quick windfishing session at Sprecks. When I got there it was windier and much wavier than I expected. I ditched the windfishing idea and just took the 12’6” to ride some waves. This turned out to be a misyake as it was too big for Sprecks which turned out to be one big lumpy mess with no defined waves to ride - still a blast.
So over the weekend I used my 12’6” (can’t call it a SUP ‘cause it does so much more!) to surf, stand-up-paddle and windsurf, two of which were genuinely new experiences. Actually catching every wave I paddled for was a new experience too! I have no desire to surf anything else now as it is so easy to paddle and catch waves. I could turn the board just fine at least as good as any other longboard I have ridden. It takes some foot work but is not hard to sort out. I guess you could call me old, but I tell you I have never ridden so many waves in such a short period of time, so maybe I am just impatient!
For those of you expecting a blog exclusively on windsurfing I apologize. I am writing this and this is what I did this weekend. So actually I am not sorry at all as I had a ball!
posted by Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom at
2/12/2008 11:28:00 PM
4 Comments:
Hey Tom,
Here is the proof that I read your blog, ok?
I am going SUP this weekend again, this time to south shore, waves here are too big now! Can't wait to try the 12'6" :-)
Cool Tom. Unfortunately the SUP I'm using now does not have a mast track, despite GP saying that should be illegal. But I for sure have had a lot of fun paddling the thing the last few days. Had a great morning session at Kuau today.
Tom, if the guy from Second Wind is a friendly blond guy that also sails around the circle at Kanaha, its probably Daryl. Keep up the good write... MB
Yep, that was Daryl, I just had one of those moments when I wrote the blog. Sorry Daryl!
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