Canoes (Oahu South Shore), 19 April 2008

Before we left for the North Shore on Saturday morning, I headed to the beach for one more sesh at Waikiki. This time I wanted a shorter paddle since my ribs were painfully bruised from laying on my board without the padding of a wetsuit. (See, there is one good thing about wearing a wetsuit!) S and I walked down the beach and I spent just 5 minutes getting out in the vicinity of Canoes. There at the central town beach, even early in the day, it was ridiculously crowded; I'm guessing well over 100 people. Miraculously, though the swell had dropped some from the day before and many of the waves were too mushy, I managed to catch a few and had one decent ride, nothing fancy but it got me stoked! One factor was the relative skill level was much lower than in front of the condo, with many kooks on Soft-tops clueless about where to sit or how to catch waves. Although on the flip side, there were some very good surfers there too, and I'd see the same people taking many of the waves repeatedly from the peak. The lineup was rather a zoo, with snorkelers, SUPers, a couple riding a single long longboard together, and a catamaran cutting through to pick up booze cruisers on the beach. So the people-watching was fun on the lulls, and it was a nice sunny day in paradise.

This statue on Waikiki Beach is based on a children's story about a surfer boy named Mauka and his friend Kila, a monk seal who helps him line up the best waves.