Surf's Up

The surf was up this week at North Shore. And by up, I mean UP. Forty foot waves in some places. It was a Wednesday, Husband had work, kids had homework, First Son had soccer practice, but we blew it all off because life is short but the waves were not.

I love the North Shore anyway. It's such a unique place, so rugged and natural. When I go there, I just sit and breathe. You can't get in the water in the winter because the surf is so rough. In some places the lifeguards won't even let children get close to getting their feet wet, which is a huge bummer for my boys who like to let the surf bowl them over and drag them out for a bit before they scramble back to shore. Scares the crap out of me, but Husband always tells me it's okay and sometimes I try to believe him.

Traffic out there wasn't bad initially and we drove through the fields of pineapple and coffee with excitement coursing through our veins. But before we even got to Hale'iwa, the small surfer town in the North Shore, the traffic came to a screeching stop. Apparently we weren't the only people on Oahu who wanted to get a look at forty foot waves.

Husband was low on patience, kids were high on energy. It was a deadly combination. We moved a few inches every minute or so, but were going nowhere fast. The playfulness in the backseat quickly turned to violence. Husband kept threatening to turn around and go back home, but once you've waited in traffic with restless children for an hour to see big waves, you might as well wait a little longer.

There was a fine mist of seawater in the air, like a light rain of ocean. The air smelled dangerous, like it does right before a hurricane. Finally, after many lifetimes expired and were born again, we were treated to a nice slow drive-by of Laniakea or Turtle Beach and we immediately agreed it was worth the pain of the wait.

Waimea Bay was closed, but there were cars and people lined up along the side of the road to see the surfers out there, catching these enormous waves. We parked up the road about a half mile and walked back to watch the amazing feats. I turned to First and Second Son who have recently taken up surfing and said, "You are never allowed to do this. Ever. For your entire life. Never." It was pretty cool, though, and made me wonder if you could be a surfer and not be spiritual. Doesn't seem possible.


After Waimea, we went to Pipeline where we usually go to see the surfers in the pipe. The beach at Pipeline is usually huge, with a big tidal pool in the middle where the kids play. That beach was closed too, but we stood next to the Volcom house which is featured on one of this boys' favorite surfing documentaries, True to This. The water covered the entire beach and lapped up to the stairs we were standing on. You could see the waves breaking one set on top of another out in the ocean. It was so big and constant, amazing. Breathtaking.



We went to Sunset Beach and checked out the waves there for a while before turning back to make our way home. The sun was setting and we decided to pull in at Shark's Cove which is a great snorkeling spot in the summer. We gazed at the waves crashing against the rocks, humpback whales spouting water against the horizon, and the sun setting behind the Waianae Mountain range. I'm not sure I'll ever see anything that beautiful again for the rest of my life.

I'm okay with that.

Lucky I live Hawaii.