This lucky man and I paddled out to maxing out Rockpiles this morning. Of course nobody was out because it was too big and dangerous, but we somehow made it to the lineup dodging the double overhead sets. I saw the biggest set and yelled to him, “GO!” He turned around and started paddling for the wave. He took off in the perfect place, turned down the wave, and rode the biggest and best wave of his life! And just like that, today became a special day. A day when you paddle out scared with no expectations, and paddle in like you won the lottery. All it took was one special wave to change a life. I had to shake the mans hand after witnessing that!
Paddling out in big surf is the easy part. Finding and catching the rare perfect wave is the hard part. On this particular Rockpile bomb, I barely made the drop and raced down the line as fast as I could. It feels like you’re running away from a monster that is right behind chasing you. You better focus!
Round 2: Big and epic Big Rights. When it gets this big and barreling, it for experts only. You have to know how to duck dive under huge barreling waves, you have to know how to get out of peoples way, and you have to know locals out there or you won’t get waves. The lineup is small, and the barrels are big.
I surfed for 2 hours and got 5 big blue barrels.
I’ve traveled the world chasing barrels but it doesn’t get any better than finding them right in your backyard. I love summer in Hawaii, especially this one!
