Lonely Kanaha

There’s two words I didn’t expect to use together. Went out at Kanaha this morning. The waves looked big, they were closing out decisively in the middle and off to surfer’s right, which is always a sign of the WNW swell angle that I don’t like. But what the heck, it’s surf. I got out to the lineup without much trouble and found two longboarders hanging out, and that was it. Hmmm, I thought, I wonder why. Perhaps it’s the GREAT BIG F@#*G HUGE WAVE that’s bearing down on us that came out of nowhere!!! I barely made it over the lip, the longboarders disappeared behind a wall of blue and white that fell with a single loud CRUMP. They reappeared shortly looking nonchalant.

I was not fooled.

So that was the deal. Inconsistent. That’s the code word for “every time you move inside to grab a wave a huge monster appears and beats the crap out of you”. I silenced the little voice in my head that was screaming incoherently at me, squared up and caught a lovely wave with a peeling shoulder that gave me a great ripping ride. When I paddled back out a guy with a french accent and a little Naish SUP board had appeared. Didn’t recognize him, but he surfs well. We didn’t get to chat beyond exchanging hellos, the surf required concentration. Most of the time when I was catching a wave he was paddling over it frantically, and vice versa. We got a bunch of fine waves, then I paddled outside to catch a breather. He came out too and said “Good waves, I was worried, but it’s fun.”

“I was kind of nervous too, I thought everyone else knew something that I didn’t”
.
He said “I see you out here so I think its okay, but maybe you don’t know either, eh?”

Yup. You got that right.

We kept catching waves for another hour or so, then I got caught inside, bounced hard on the reef and tweaked my left shoulder. Hurt like hell for awhile, but it didn’t have the burning ripped sensation of a torn muscle. I’m very familiar with the difference. Still, I paddled to the beach, pulled my board up and took a shower. and watched the waves for awhile, gently flexing my shoulder. It made all it’s usual castanet and maraca sounds , but it loosened up some and started to feel better. I thought “there’s no one in those waves” and went back out, just as a few more SUP and longboard surfers paddled out. The wind came up a little. The nice Japanese (I think) girl who’s a good SUP surfer (you locals know who I mean) caught a nice big monster and rode it very well, going way off to surfers right in the reform. As I was paddling out I thought how impossible this would have been at the beginning of winter. I can punch through some pretty big whitewater these days, and I know the channels at Kanaha well enough to be on unbroken waves when I previously would have been flailing in the soup.

I picked up a few more good waves. Then picked off a real monster that was closing out on the right, but reformed just as things looked bleak. I got a nice top turn off the little foam that was left, got a couple of very nice quicker turns–I’m trying to speed up some turns to slash and dig more and not do all the same slow wig-waggle top and bottom turns. Rode the wave all the way to the lagoon and decided “I’m done.”

Didn’t chicken out, didn’t listen to the little voice babbling away, had a great time, caught a lot of really nice waves. While I was putting my board on the jeep a couple of longboarders I know asked if it was crowded. “Nope, hardly anyone out, but the waves are fine, just a little inconsistent”. One of the guys said “well I know why that is, on the wavecam it looks like death and destruction”.

How cool is that. And they say wavecams ruin surf spots.