Around The World In 80 Waves

This is a photo I found of Sunset online. The only relevance to my own session was the distance we had to paddle out to the break. I went with the girls, Kyle and my new room mate David from California. Kyle and Alexa sit this one out while the three of us paddle out to Sunset at sunset. Very excited because it is a legendary break, but also a bit dodgy. It is extremely rocky and I scrape my fins a couple of time just paddling out (note to self: try very hard not to fall off there!)

After the long paddle out we take up station in the line up and wait for waves. I would love to say this session was all rainbows, mermaids and dolphins but the reality is that it was dark, grey, very windy and bucketing down with rain. The sun was very much going down so it was getting dark, and there was not very much daylight left at all. I take one drop on the waves which were only chest high catch a rail and then stack it, thankfully without hitting anything. It is competitive and I see a few drop ins which in these conditions are crazy.

I look back at the land and can see that all the cars on the Kamehameha Highway now have their lights on, and am aware that fish feed at night including the ones with teeth so am just about to paddle in when either a seal or sea lion pops out of the water about 5 metres away. I cant say which because I was too busy having a heart attack to do a full anthropological study! The expletives I fill the air with from the shock of something breaking the surface scare it off and I am somewhat unsettled by the whole experience so decide to paddle in. At least I didn’t blank.