What the?

On the first day of the Haleiwa Contest, the surf was just massive and ugly.

Non-stop sets, brown water, cloudy, channel washouts. Just HEAVY.

I’m watching a competitor through binoculars take off on the first wave of his heat airdrop and skip down the face into some yoga poses like the dudes at Shipstern’s Bluff.

He eventually regained composure but lost so much speed that he got mowed over by this beast. His leash breaks and he’s taking a few more on the head before the contest ski comes in and snags him to safety.

When he came in he looked like he saw a ghost but he just grabbed his backup board and went right back out (and pulled one of the sickest turns I’ve ever seen in the process). I would like to ask him if the ski was not there what is the exit ‘protocol’ for that specific spot?

EDIT: The protocol for Haliewa is to swim straight in through the impact zone as the channel or rip currents just pull you offshore (and straight out to sea if you’re not lucky).

Another night before dark watching a surfer paddle out at Rockpile, an open ocean deep water A-frame. The surf was solid 12′-18′ faces maybe bigger and thick with nowhere to hide from the sets. This wave looks similar to the Rivermouth (El Estero) in Avellanas Costa Rica, but on a larger scale as it only starts breaking properly from what I’ve seen, at over 12 feet.

Don’t have any pics of that night but found this shot of the break:

He got out to the lineup and took the very first wave he could get and looked like he just intentionally jumped off his board from the top of the wave and went over the falls. Then he got mowed by about a dozen more and fought to get back out into the lineup for the next 10 or so minutes.

I was thinking what the hell was that move?? He then proceeded to surf the waves like it was head high, just shredding. There is no way he couldn’t have made that first drop…

I’m thinking he did it on purpose to get it over with and knock the nerves off, I’m convinced, but I’d still like to ask him about that.

If your dreams don’t scare you, you’re not dreaming big enough.

Mahalos,

A.B.