He Talked Me Into It

I bought a surfboard.  Yep.

Several weeks ago, while Stephen was being all super-geeked about his own new surfboard, reading all the stuff, getting all the apps, and looking at all the stores, he happened into Kimo's Surf Hut just down the street from us.  The owner is clearly an older surf dude -- and yeah, his name is Kimo.  'Nuff said.  I guess Stephen was telling him about how maybe he was going to look into getting me a new surfboard, but I hadn't had much success in the past and was wondering what he had for used surfboards.  I guess Kimo said that usually the surfboards people rent are too big for a lot of girls to carry, so it's hard for them to get in to the water to begin with, and since they're so big, lots of girls end up flailing their arms to the sides instead of actually paddling, so they can't catch waves.  He was thinking probably a shorter board for me, more like a 7' or 8' board.

We kind of went with that advice and rented a smaller surfboard from the marina.  It was still not easy to carry, but it was more manageable than the 11' boards I was renting in Newport and down in Waikiki.

We went to North Beach, which is on K-Bay, first.  The waves weren't huge, but they were big enough and choppy enough that I couldn't get past the shore break.  Stephen almost hit me when his surfboard went flying, so I kept my distance.  But then, I noticed that our distance was getting bigger... and bigger... and bigger.  Stephen was getting past the big waves of the shore break, but every time I got hit with a big wave, I'd get knocked back, or lose my board, or something, and eventually I realized that I just wasn't making any progress at all, and Stephen had just gone ahead on his merry way and didn't even notice.  So I had a hissy fit, got out of the water, and plopped down on the beach like a two-year-old.  Stephen came back, sat down with me, and tried to scope out another place to try and get out past the break.

I said, "Oh, you mean off-base?"

He said, "No, just down the beach a little."

So after a few minutes, we walked down the beach.  I'm like, okay, I'm going to do it this time.  So I grab my board, put my feet in the water, look at the waves, and hell no, I'm not going in.

We decided to go to Castles Beach up by us and just return the surfboard the next morning.  The waves were so calm that there wasn't much to catch, but I could lay there on the surfboard, paddle hard for the few waves there were, and just enjoy my time in the water, and that's where I made the comment that if I had my own surfboard, I could see coming out and trying to surf waves like this.  I have no desire for the big, stupid, thrash-your-a$$ waves at North Beach and Pyramids.

I even tried Stephen's surfboard and was like, wow, this is a vast improvement over my rental, and that rental was a vast improvement over all previous rentals.  So okay, maybe this is a thing.

We returned the rental the next day, as we were on our way to the North Shore and Shark's Cove for the snorkeling described in the previous post.  The old guy there asked where we went, and I said we started at North Beach but then ended up at Castles because I couldn't get past the shore break.  He was like, "No, you don't want to go to North Beach or Pyramids because [insert techincal jargon about the shape of the reef and shore] makes the waves too choppy and come in too fast, so you can't get past the break and you get thrown around and it's no fun.  You want to go to Castles or White Plains or even Waikiki."

So there.

I am not a pansy.  I'm just a natural connoisseur of the finest surfing.

With that in mind, and with the family coming down to visit soon, we thought we would take a trip up to Kimo's to see about fitting me with a board.  We both knew, though, that when we walked in, we were going to walk away with a board.  So we walked in, Stephen described a bit of the conversation they'd had (which Kimo didn't remember, but it didn't matter), and he got a feel for how much I've surfed, explained why I can't succeed with the rental boards, and plucked this cute, long, skinny, neon yellow board from his stock of used boards.  The longboard -- 9' though, not 11' -- for long, easy surfing for the waves at Castles, Flat Island, White Plains, and Waikiki.  He had me hold the board under my arm because the body naturally tells you what size the board should be.  If I can hold it under my arm without it being stuck up in my armpit, then it won't be so wide that I can't paddle.  It ended up being a little over an inch narrower than Stephen's board and only about an inch shorter.  It's also not as thick as Stephen's board, and it had come up at one point that a lot of the foam-top rental boards were actually too buoyant for someone built like me.

When you know your stuff and are genuine and passionate about what you do, it's kinda hard not to sell something.  So, for a little over $300, I walked away with a surfboard, used fins, and a leash.  Stephen pointed out all the cool colors I could get, and Kimo was like, no, the only leash Dakine makes for these boards is black because black is the strongest color.  The chemistry involved in making the leashes different colors also makes them weaker, so they're not available for longboards.  Fair enough.  I have a bright yellow board now, anyway.

We decided to be sociable and invited a friend of Stephen's from the guard band and his girlfriend, who is an avid and more knowledgeable surfer, to join us at White Plains yesterday.  It was rainy and nasty up in Kailua, but White Plains Beach is on the exact opposite side of the island, out west past Pearl Harbor.  There wasn't much happening, and there was a strong current, so mostly I spent my time paddling to where the waves were.  Julie helped me watch for the waves that were worth catching and would yell at me to paddle when it was time, but I never actually caught a wave.  She did, though, and it was awesome to watch.

I just ended up paddling until my arms couldn't move any more.  In the one picture with my surfboard, I'm pretty sure you can see the swole in my arms from freaking paddling until they fell off.  It was 1 1/2 hours of paddling.

But, I had fun!  And Stephen noticed that for the first time, I never once whined about my surfboard.  And, he also noticed that for the first time, when I paddled, I actually went somewhere and got speed.  So from all those perspectives, Kimo hoooked me up with the right board.  Plus, with my pink swimsuit and bright yellow board, I'm the only one on the water who glows like a beacon, so I'm easy for Stephen to find.  It's the little things that count.

I know that's not much to talk about, so let's move on to some pictures:

Sitting on my surfboard.  Not all surfable water is scary big.

Julie is probably instructing me on something.

Kudos to Danny for some awesome pictures of us.

This is 90% of surfing.  The other 10% is trying to actually catch the wave.

Julie on the left succeeds at catching the swell.  I don't.

Searching for the perfect wave -- the struggle is real.

I'm really trying, but I also don't want to lose my bottoms.

 

 

 

 

Posing with my surfboard and arms totally swole from paddling.

 And that's really that.  We went out for pizza at Brick Oven Pizza, and they kept making mistakes with our orders.  One of Julie and Danny's friends ordered a small Hawaiian pizza, and it came out a little too small so they gave it to us and made another appropriately sized small pizza.  Stephen and I ordered a small pizza with pesto, cheese, chicken, and tomato, and it came with marinara, so they made us a new one.  And Julie's dad ordered a large super-duper pizza for everybody to share, and the chicken wings, so there were lots of leftovers.

I actually ended up waking up at 2:30am with the "holy cow I'm HUNGRY" stress going on, and finally just fell back asleep.  No wonder surfers are known for spending all day on the water and then eating pizza and drinking beer.  Holy hunger!

Today, we just had a chill day going to the gym, going to Ala Moana mall, and just lazing around.  We went for an evening walk on the beach, ran into a friend, and proceeded to get rained on.  Thankfully Chris gave us a ride home, so we only ended up half-soaked instead of fully-soaked.

This week, my parents and brother will be coming to visit, and I'll be taking leave.  I will have plenty of adventures to share then.  For now, mahalo for reading, and aloha!