I had some business on the North Shore one morning last month, and decided to go a bit earlier to watch the waves and shoot some pics. As it always happens, the surf the day before was epic, with a Hawaiian-scale 10'-12' WNW swell firing up the outer reefs. I'd heard that Pipeline was in all-time early season form. But this day, a new and increasing N swell was competing for space with the declining westerly component, making for huge, but gnarly and crossed up surf. The trades were blowing hard side offshore, making for deep rib-like chop across the giant wave faces. Every break from Laniakea to Uppers were just washed out whitewater cauldrons. "Boy," I thought to myself, "I'm glad I didn't bring my board today. You'd never catch me out there!"

The North Shore is one of the few places on Earth where surfers are more often hoping for smaller waves (well, smaller relative to North Shore standards) so that more surf spots are rideable. I'm no big wave guy, not even close, so when the waves exceed 6', things get a little dicey for a guy my age. So anyway, I stopped first at Waimea Bay, because I had to use the restroom. I did, and then walked out to the lifeguard tower to look at the water. The water was a little brown because of an overnight storm and persistent rain squalls that morning. The sandbar hadn't yet been dragged properly off the beach yet by a giant swell, so the water was deep throughout the bay. But the swell was big, so out on the point, Pinballs was bulbous and bowling at 8' -10' and the shorebreak was thick and detonating just a foot off dry sand. With the gloomy skies, dirty water, rain squalls, and intimidating surf, it wasn't a very nice welcome at all for anyone wanting to ride waves that day. And yet, in the muted distance were two shirtless guys, standing near the water, shivering in the cold and staring blankly out into a chaotic sea. They were huddled together in the rain and talking intermittently, presumably about whether or not to hurl themselves into the maelstrom.


I've bodysurfed the shorey at Waimea many times where the waves were juicy, bottomless, and trying their best to snap my neck, so I can tell you this day was extra hairy. It wasn't unmanageably big, solid 5' on the sets, but the sheer heaviness and proximity to shore made it extremely high risk, especially for two guys you'd assume by looking at them, had very little experience in that kind of dangerous environment. A hefty indicator set came in at Pinballs, so I looked away at it. When I looked back, those two boys were suddenly in the water and now stroking like hell for the horizon as the leftovers of the indicator approached shore. Each time and by a wisp, they barely made it over a series of five beefy waves that just exploded onto the sand. I was sickeningly scared for them, as another even  bigger set appeared outside. By that time I had to leave, and walked backwards as long as I could to see what would happen to them. Just as I nearly lost them over the berm, they washed up on the beach, safe, sound, scared you-know-what and hopefully a heck of a lot wiser for the experience.


Next stop was Sunset Beach. I've nervously ridden Sunset as a 30 something, when it was just big enough to move off the point and onto the main reef, but that was on a dwindling swell. That wave scares me to no end, no lie. It's the most complex and unpredictable big wave in the world, and to break properly, it has to be big; 10'+ big, Hawaiian scale big. I remember eating it and getting rolled forever on an inside wave there, swearing to never go back, and haven't since. On this day, Sunset was trying it's best to entertain two macking swells, each coming from competing directions, with nuking NNE sideshore winds tearing into anything that dared organize itself into a rideable wave. Surfable yes, but still an immense challenge for even the best North Shore surfers. Giant sets were feathering on the outside reef, reforming, and just unloading at the peak with major league power. One surfer sat uneasily in the channel, as all hell broke loose around him. I waited for him take off on a wave to see if he belonged out there. He did get one, and cautiously rode a solid triple overhead wall through to the channel. I sat in my car, gawking, snapping photos, and being blown away by Sunset, when a rather diminutive young guy rolled up in a truck next to me, quickly parked, slathered himself in sunscreen, jumped out, grabbed his board, and headed straight down to the water's edge almost in one uninterrupted motion. I watched and thought, "Oh OK, now here's a guy who knows Sunset Beach like the back of his hand and he can just jump right out into these radical conditions, no worries man."  As he made his way down the beach, I slowly began to reconsider that assessment. Three things struck me as a little strange; 1) He was liberally covered in sunscreen, which can lead to some real traction problems when the deck and rails of your surfboard is covered in it. 2) His wood finished board was beautiful and of apparently proper length, but it was made in the traditional longboard style, with zero rocker, too wide an outline, and with one of those ungainly 50's style super-wide keeled single fins anchored right on the end of the tailblock. 3) He wasn't using a leash. On a wild day like this, you DO NOT want to get stuck flailing around in that river-like rip. You'd be on a one way Pacific ocean conveyor belt headed straight for north Kauai if you did.


Anyway, our man stood at the jump in spot for several minutes, staring at the ceaseless march of giant sets and huge plumes of spray in the air as the lip hooked off the peak in spectacular fashion. He looked ... hesitant. After awhile, he walked all the way over towards the other end of the beach in front of Kammieland, which was also going off the richter. He stood there for a good while, and then sat on the sand, weighing his shrinking options. Luckily, the on-duty lifeguard jumped down and ambled down to him for a chat and reality check. "Eh howzit going brah?," I guessed he would said, "you OK to surf these kinds of waves dude?" Our guy looked up sheepishly at him. "This isn't a good spot to surf if you don't know the break well, so I'm going to ask you to not to enter the water," Mr. Lifeguard would've continued. I also have an idea of what he might have been thinking too, "Great, another North Shore wannabe, no leash, too much sunscreen, wrong board kook about to leap to his death on my watch."  If he wasn't thinking that, then maybe I was.


He stood, apparently still resolute, and started walking back to the original spot, where he jumped in, actually knee paddling quite efficiently out through the Vals' Reef whitewater rapids and into the rip. But he inadvisably stopped to rest on the inside edge of the channel, where he was promptly cleaned out by a HUGE set. I was amazed he didn't lose his board. The lifeguard was out of his tower once again, watching him anxiously as he floated, exhausted, next to his board in the rip. The process repeated itself twice more, before he finally and thankfully headed in. An hour after he'd initially pulled up next to me, my boy emerged on shore, looking dazed and  demoralized as other surfers on the beach stared and pointed at the poor guy. Dazed, he even walked back to the wrong truck, about 50 yards down the beach. But at least he was safely back on land.


I had to use the restroom again (too much coffee), so I drove down to Ehukai Beach Park. As usual, I had a look at the water, and Pipeline was going mental. It was a little too north to be classic Pipeline, but it was big, round, scary, and stubbornly being surfed by a handful of capable guys. On the edge of the grass, there was a gathering crowd and a murmur on the beach, as an apparent water rescue was in progress and wouldn't you know it, another novice, had thrown caution to the wind in pursuit of mythical North Shore surfer-dude greatness. From what I could see, the guy was pale, not from here, wearing a pair of short elastic waistband ABC Store style swim shorts, and with his legs widely splayed, clinging awkwardly to a longboard that in no way was suited to the dangerously hollow conditions. When there's a northerly component to the swell, the end bowl at Pipeline pinches in hard on itself, making every paddle out attempt and every ride a potential life and death situation for surfers at all skill levels. This guy and his rescuers were right in the thick of it, buffeted by powerful closeouts. A few more surfers had swam and paddled out to help. They all rode out a scary second reef set together, and paddled him inside the impact zone. A small inside wave came through and they pushed him into it, hoping he'd be ferried to shore. Well, he managed to pearl headfirst into the reef, getting catapulted off his board, and taking a few more mountains of whitewater on the head. Yes, he got in, but not until he'd put himself and others in serious danger. I managed to get out of the North Shore that day without encountering another one of these geniuses, thank goodness.


It was a strange day, because I almost never go out to the North Shore unless I'm going to get in the water for a swim, dive, paddle, or surf. But because I was there that day as an observer, I saw things that I would've missed otherwise. It's really amazing how people can look out at an obviously dangerous situation and just go, "Yup, I'm out there!" Maybe it's partly attributable to how easy skilled surfers can make it look in big, dangerous surf. Maybe it's partly attributable to how reckless people can be when they're overcome by the hype and atmosphere of North Shore surfing scene that they put themselves in these situations, Maybe it's that God really does watch over fools. Who knows? If a person wanted to learn how to drive a car, it wouldn't be very wise of them to go careening out onto the track at Daytona and cause a crash, or get themselves or others killed because they weren't versed in rudimentary driving basics, let alone the neck breaking physics and obvious risk of NASCAR level racing, would it? It's really all about exercising simple common sense. So to these boys and those beyond, please be careful and heed that classic surfer's warning; "WHEN IN DOUBT, DON'T GO OUT!"

Have a happy (safe) holiday season and a prosperous and wave filled 2010!

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