West Side Story

 

Surfed Makaha yesterday. It's been a long time since I surfed any quality waves after sustaining a high ankle sprain on October 12th. I guess these injuries take a long time to heal. Still not 100% but with some tape and an ankle brace I braved it. Funny thing is that I was on my way to the North Shore but I timed it so that I would make the call to SSN before I hit the exit for the North Shore to find out the wind conditions. Still wasn't decided after taking the H2 exit but listened to my inner voice and made a U-turn at the Kauka Boulevard exit and headed west. I thought that with the strong trades it might be blown out on the NS and straight off on the west side. I knew I'd be sacrificing some size but I thought the conditions would be good. I was not disapointed. I love the West Side! It really feels like your getting away and in touch with the real Hawaii.
Te first two pics show why I love Makaha so much! It doesn't look very big from my crappy shot with my Iphone, and it wasn't, but the photo was in-between sets and we did have some head high waves outside in the beginning.

The last photo is of my new KIMO GREENE 9'0 round pin. I honestly thought it might be too much board for me but it floated me perfect, paddled awesome and is fast as heck. Believe it or not I can duck dive it too. Kimo always makes killer boards and gets the dimensions right. My advice to any novice is to meet with a shaper personally, preferably one that's a little older, he will get the dimensions right and after talking to you about where you surf, how often and what you want in a board as far as performance goes they will take those factors as well as your age, size and fitness level into consideration and get it right. Speaking from experince, being a bigger surfer(6' 225lbs) qane trying to surf something too thin/narrow will be quite frustrating and hinder your advancement.