If the sewage spill we endured this summer in town wasn't enough to turn you into an environmentalist, last month in Hawaii would have definitely raised a few questions about global warming. Basically, where are our waves? I heard through the grapevine that it was the slowest November on record for the North shore in 60 years. In fact, it was definitely the slowest one I've ever seen in my 18 years here.
Charlie Carroll - Rocky Point
There were only about 2 high surf advisories issued all month and that means just about 6-8 feet Hawaiian scale. I think the east side probably had more advisory surf last month than the north shore and town still has surf, with another swell predicted.
Kieren Perrow - Off the Wall
It's kind of funny in a way, all these professional surfers are here to surf the big waves and it has been on average about 1-3 feet all month. You have to laugh. What wasn't really funny was one morning when I called the buoys which had issued a tsunami watch from a 8.1 earthquake off Japan. Though the watch was cancelled officials cleared the beaches with their loudspeakers telling surfers to stay out of the water for a couple hours and sure enough a 5-6 foot tsunami surge rolled through several places around the islands including the Haleiwa boat harbor which I heard was quite a site to see. Just to add to the strange natural disturbances we had yet another 5.0 earthquake off the Big Island near the end of the month. On a more positive note, the weather has been beautiful and the air temperature quite warm for this time of year.
Jun Jo - Rocky Point
The beginning and end of the month had the most surf, funny thing is that both started and ended with a contest at Sunset Beach, the XCEL pro and the O'neil World Cup. In between that we had the Op Pro at Ali'i which was lucky to have even been held at all. There were actually some beautiful waves at Lanis screaming all the way across through most the waiting period, but those north swells don't get into Haleiwa much at all. Evan Valiere took the No Fear XCEL Pro and Andy Irons the Op. Sophia Mulanovich won the first leg of the Triple Crown events for the women.
Mikala Jones - Kodak Reef
Speaking of contests, hoooooo, the traffic is getting nuts; more and more spectators for the Triple Crown events than ever. I can't imagine what it will be like when they build 4000 units from Kawela Bay to Kahuku Point. That's right folks, it looks like the Turtle Bay Project is officially cleared to go ahead.
Kawela and Turtle Bays - North Shore
The Hui had their annual Beach Clean Up which is really great for the community and a sort of uniting of surfers worldwide to do something good and give back. A pretty nasty shark attack happened on Maui this month, but the victim survived. The Haleiwa Community Center has been putting on some events as fundraisers at the Haleiwa Gym. Namely, Augie T performed with several other local comedians on one occasion and professional surfers signed autographs at a surf film on another. Sean Davey had a photography exhibit at the Canon gallery all month in Honolulu and made a trip to Brazil for another photo exhibit which presented a lot of his work.
At the Mostra Art Festival Sao Paulo, Brasil - Nov 2006
Well, the competitive season is definitely here; so many people everywhere with extremely crowded surf breaks. It's so strange when the tour comes to town because it seems like everyone arrives on the same day.
Tom Current - Backdoor
Kodak Reef
One day you know everyone in the line up and the next day you don't recognize anyone, much less understand all the accents which range from Australian to South African with some echoing in the background of Japanese and Portuguese. We were all extremely thankful on Thanksgiving Day to finally get a west swell in with a few 6 foot waves. Oh the joy!
Lane Davey - Pipeline
Hawaii's surf report guru Pat Caldwell suggests that a "seasonably normal jet stream track" is setting up for next week which should hold. Everyone in the world is waiting, that's for sure.
by Lane Davey
The Green Flash at Pipeline, North Shore
