never ending glassy waves!

King's arrival

As weather forecast was calling for high surf warning, huge waves were breaking when we woke up. we walked out to the point of Hanalei Bay at dawn, there were already many people looking out to see the big waves.
Bob who moved here 5 years ago, told us to come and see king's reef. I had heard about the reef from Laird as he had told me that he wanted to ride that waves someday and it would be a lot bigger than Jaws and a lot few in between. It only break every several years or so.
So it was very exciting to actually see what Laird was talking about.

The whole ocean looked angry . and it didn't look like they would accept any human to get close. Just watching the waves makes you feel so small and powerless .
I heard that Laird flew to Maui and rode waves there ( since the wind wasn't good for Hanalei and waves were messy and too big)
This swell offered amazing waves everywhere Waimea was big enough to hold The Eddie, historical big wave paddle in contest . Jaws was going off , and Honolua was perfect!
Me, I had hard time finding small enough waves but all around the Kauai island had wrap around, even the southside had beautiful waves, so I had fun riding small beak breaks.

Kauai, the Garden Island

Spending 10 days in Kauai、I felt like it was time warp 20 years back. Maui has changed so much over the years and I expected Kauai to be the same. I have been there 20 years ago but I didn't think it would be as mellow or laid back any more.But everywhere we went, I felt filled with aloha and mana , people were friendly and helpful as well. And the surf was amazing.

During the stay, surf forecast was calling for one of the biggest swell of the season. I was afraid that we wouldn't be able to play in the water because it would be too big. ( Kauai is known for the heavy surf) but there are so many different spots and if you look for it, there were plenty of uncrowded places.( this was the view from the place we stayed!)
People in Kauai try really really hard to keep this old hawaii feeling of the island. They don't want to be lik e"MAUI" where it has lost many of the beauty and aloha, they want to keep their home as it is and don't get it developped. When super ferry started , so many people on Maui were against it but still police and county could control the people and get the ferry running. In Kauai, people united and surfers and kayakkers stayed in the water at the harbor and blocked the ferry from anchoring, it was dangerous but there were so many of them that they couldn't control and ferry eventually had to leave and go back to Oahu without anchoring. that is the difference between Maui and Kauai.Sure it has some developments but people try harder here, it seems. even in Hanalei, main town is still small and houses are lowkey, even on ocean front, ( they must have strict regulation on what they can build) and all the condominiums and hotels are at Princeville, outskirts of the town and you hve to get out of town to go there which totalluy separates the two. I think that was a brilliant idea.
I got to see some of my old friends I haven't seen and surfed with them. got to experience some of the heavy reef breaks and got humbled. got to enjoy real fun clean waves with handful of friendly locals. SUP, regular surf, even tried shortboard which I never do on Maui ( shortboard spots are always crowded)
I totally felt like I could live here , sure it may not get as windy as maui and kiting is merginal but I would surf a lot more here since there are so many uncrowded spots . I got to know Andrew's parents and we all had such a wonderful time! Thanks to John and Kate for taking me for their family trip!
Everyday was amazing experience and I cannot wait to go back there again already!

Great early season!

Well, this Nov was crazy, I looked back my record and there was not even one day that didn't have descent size waves, most of the days were epic conditions!
I felt like in this month, I already had more good waves than I had in a whole last winter!I sure hope this last like this till the end of the winter , it would make me a very strong rider, and will get used to big waves, but maybe also make me a very poor as well since I end up focusing on going out in the water and get after it too much.

Dec is so far looking even better, some no wind days but that means great glassy surf for surfing and they are calling for HUGE Surf around 7th.
I am plannning to go to Kauia around then and I don't know where to go or what to do there , I sure hope I don't end up just watching good surfers rip huge waves all day everyday and not being able to do anything because the surf is too big and good for me.