Having A Swell Time
Friday - September 23, 2005
| Share
Del.icio.us
Ala Moana Bowls, and the rest of the South Shore,
was epic on Sept. 15
Howzit, surfers?
Oh yes, we’re stoked! That monster down under lasted even longer than we hoped for. We were just glad to get some serious surf in town, period. Stories galore poured in including accounts of 10- and even 12-plus-foot waves on some secret outer reefs (these were “towed” into). There were plenty of thick, dry tubes for those skilled enough and brave enough. The Ala Moana channel closed out more than once. From Wednesday to Monday you could say “we scored”!
These really large New Zealand swells hit us once every few years, but in September? Once every ... green moon?
OK, onto the Big Boyz on da big World Tour. The Boost Mobile Pro at Trestles finished last Sunday (Sept.18). They had beautiful 3- to 5-foot surf from the same storm that brought us huge waves last week. It’s getting very interesting. Kelly Slater won it over Aussie Phillip McDonald. World champ Andy Irons lost to McDonald by 1/10th of a point in the quarters. It was highly unlike Andy, but he actually made a mistake. He “dug a rail,” sending him flying forward off his board ... he was going so fast, too. Now he’s almost 1,000 points behind Slater for the title, and there are just three events left. Event No. 9 in France, then event No. 10 in Brazil ... then No. 11 at Pipeline during the Vans Triple Crown!
Back to the Boost ... Slater is the first “non-Aussie” to win at this lower trestles location. Plus, if he wins the next event in France he’s pretty much the next world champ ... for a seventh time! Irons is still in the running, however, and should-n’t be underestimated ... even against the likes of Kelly Slater.
Either way, this is history in the making and I want to keep you posted! Be ready for the Quiksilver Pro on the southwest coast of France from Friday Sept. 23 through Monday Oct. 3.
By the time this is published, Hurricane Jova (ho-bah) will be bringing us some big swells to the Windward, northeast and southeast exposures. We can count on at least 6-footers, but the waves should be peaky and not very clean. There’s a chance of much bigger surf on isolated exposures, but such events are sometimes hard to predict. Go to the new surfnewsnetwork.com or call 596-wave for live updates. Always take extra precaution when it comes to big storms and big waves - don’t assume and just jump in without awareness of the potential dangers.
The reason the hurricane-generated surf is going to be choppy and peaky with close intervals is because the storm was so close to the east of us. The waves don’t have enough time to “clean up” as they do when traveling thousands of miles. For example, the big New Zealand swell we had came from near 4,000 miles away! Our WNW swell before that came from about 2,500 miles away. Hurricane Jova got only a few hundred miles off the coast of the Big Island! No chance for these swell trains to get organized. However, you can bet tons of fun will be had by those adventurous surfers who just gotta have some - no matter what the size or shape!
That’d be me, too. See you out there and back here next weekend for the next edition of your Midweek-the Weekend surf check.
GQ dropping in 4 U!
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS Comments (0) |
Most Recent Comment(s):
