Hawaii - North Shore

Trip Start Jan 09, 2007

Trip End Dec 15, 2007

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Flag of United States Haleiwa, Hawaii, United States
Wednesday, April 25, 2007

This is it, we have found paradise and we are loving it!

Aloha

The second we arrived we dumped our stuff, grabbed our snorkel and mask and ran across the road to the beach were we snorkelled for hours. We are staying in a somewhat grotty backpackers (the only one and formerly owned by Mark Foo the surfer... now owned by his sister, since his death) which is just opposite 3 Tables Bay. The reef starts about 20cm into the water and is jam packed with lots of colourful fish and turtles!! It's called 3 tables as about 50-60m from the beach there are 3 huge, completely flat rocks which shelter this section of water. On the really rough days waves were breaking over the rocks but it was still pretty calm within the bay.

The sand on the beaches up this side is a bit weird, the grains are like sesame seeds. It's a bit sharp under your feet.

We're staying only a couple of hundred metres from Jack Johnson's house and apparently it's not uncommon to bump into him at Foodland (the only supermarket for miles). Unfortunately for us he was playing a concert down at the Waikiki Shell in Honolulu, so was probably busy with that. The tickets were ridiculously expensive at 175USD per ticket... so we couldn't afford to go.

One of the girls staying here is a nanny for Matthew Fox (of Lost fame), she has confirmed he is a hotty but very boring ... i still have no idea who he is!

The roomies on our floor were a Cherokee Indian called Thunder and is Eskimo Indian partner called Lelani ( i think ). They were nuts, but excellent fun. We arrived to find her doing the hula in the lounge... he invited us to 'break bread' with them, which was very sweet. Apparently they come here a lot, but always spend the first day cleaning - even the balcony furniture ( i think they get a discount for doing it) because it is always so disgusting.... all of the staff bar none spend large portions of the day smoking dope and surfing .... even the guy who's supposed to drive you up from the airport!

We met quite a few lovely people in random situations whilst we were here. They kept telling us that they thought we were local because we had such an 'Aloha Spirit' about us... i thought that was a really nice thing to say to someone. They even gave us a few secret spots to visit, only known by locals ... we were a bit unsure about visiting them though, as some locals seem to lack the 'Aloha Spirit' and are very territorial.

Off for a surf

So our days basically consisted of surfing, swimming & snorkeling. We borrowed some bikes (they were so surfer like - the old chopper type bikes, no gears and mine was purple with white Frangipani's all over it) and rode all around the North Shore with our surfboards and snorkel gear hanging off the handle bars.

The waves in Hawaii are very steep, not at all like I'd gotten used to in South Africa so I decided to go on a surf lesson with a local to get my confidence back. I was recomended 'Uncle Bryan' a true Hawaiian and a long time surf coach with 9 world champs under his belt. He coaches Andy and Bruce Irons, Keala Kennelly, etc. He offered to phone Bruce for us for a chat .... we declined cos we wouldn't know what to say to him anyway.

He took us out at Pu'ena Point which is now my fav Hawaiian surf spot and the place where Donovan caught and rode the biggest wave of his life (about 8-10ft or 6 Hawaiin feet, they meaure differently!!).

Sarahs surf spot - Puena Point

We had such a great afternoon and Bryan was quite complementory about my ability and drive. He offered to coach me the next day and teach me to turn, but unfortunately I got a tummy bug which rendered me strapped to a toilet!

Sarah at pipeline

Pipeline was just a bit further up the road from us, that really started cranking a few days after we got there... the waves were like 15ft and it's only just off the shore line. Very intimidating.

Waimea shore break

We also went body surfing a Waimea - that was a beautiful beach. The shore break was about 5ft and barreling. I never managed to muster the courage to stand there and wait for it to barrel over me, every time it looked like it was going to come crashing down i dived through the face and out the back. Donovan managed to take an awesome photo of the wave as it started to barrel over.

Waimea Barrel

We also hired a car and drove right around the Island, visited Pearl Harbour, walked around Diamond Head crater and visited the Polynesian centre for a Lu'au (that was awesome fun and the Lei's they gave us were just beautiful.... shame they wouldn't last).....