Around The World In 80 Waves

Hawaii is where people first started surfing, and is somewhere I have wanted to visit since watching Magnum PI and Hawaii 5-0 back in the day. I pay particular attention to the safety briefing on this 6 hour flight because the destination islands are only the twice the size of London inside the M25 and the next nearest land is over 2000 miles away. I’m sure that there will not be any issues but I realise how stuffed I would be in the event of any problems.

Thankfully there are none and after picking up a hire car in Honolulu I drive to the hostel I am staying in which is 200m from Waimea Bay on the North Shore of Oahu. I realise quickly that it would probably have been a good idea to have some idea of the US highway code, but apart from one chicken run with another car when leaving the car park all is good.

The surfers reading this will know how significant the waves are on the North Shore, and again how big Waimea is compared to everything else along that shore. For everybody else’s benefit it can be HUGE!!!!!!

I have scored a great room for a few days so that I can find my feet on the islands without having to travel far to see the surf and surfing competitions on offer. In the hostel you can ordinarily feel the ground shaking as every wave crashes onto the shoreline, however it is actually flat when I arrive. The big swell arrives on Friday – 😛

My mother will be delighted to know that there is no chance I’m paddling out here for my first wave in months so I head along the road to Pipeline to check out the Pipe Masters contest going on there but it is sadly also flat there. and the contest is off. Later in the week though, maybe, once there is a swell running and I have warmed up a bit…

Time to settle into my new home so I do some shopping, enjoy a beer and kick back on the porch watching the sun going down. I am joined later by Ina & JP, a lovely couple from Tahiti who I am sharing the apartment with. Life is good