Gotta Be On It!
Aloha Surf Europe aficionados, here I am on Oahu's North Shore for my usual late season mission enjoying the warm water waves and the tropical weather the Rock has on offer, and getting ready to spend another exciting year on the road. Well, sure you all heard about the swell that had Pipe on fire last week (Feb 15th and 16th) and it was every bit as good as they say. The Tour circus might have left for the opening WCT in Australia and QS's around the world but those in the know made the right call when they chose to stay. Hawaiian Pipe specialists and an assorted crew of international freesurfers were on it since the early hours to get the best waves seen during the 06/07 season so far, much to the entertainment of the large crowd on the beach and the many photographers that packed the beach and the lineup alike. Set waves broke consistently at Second Reef and occasionally even further out on the Third Reef jacking up perfectly on the infamous First Reef on the inside were some of the best and largest barrels of the season were ridden. Sure you all want to know who the standout surfers have been during the Day of the Season and it's no surprise that the locals walked away with top honors at the end of the day. Lifeguard Dave Wassel put on an impressive show charging some of the heaviest waves of the day along with usual suspects Flynn Novak, Kalani Chapman and Jason Frederico, while California's Nathan Fletcher and Shane Beschen, Japan's kamikaze (literally) Takayuki Wakita and Australia's Anthony Walsh were some of the international standouts of the day. Other than that, not much has been happening surfing wise over the last week on the North Shore, strong trade winds and lack of swell combined to keep conditions marginal most of the time. The only exception was probably Saturday late in the afternoon when a little pulse of the swell and a light offshore breeze teamed up to deliver some fun surf pretty much everywhere between Vland and Off The Wall. Luckily my roommate woke me up from my afternoon nap around five o'clock saying that Vland was firing...off we went and enjoyed an amazing session until dark trading barrels with the legendary Tom Curren, who was out there with his daughter (who surfs really good too, by the way), and a bunch of hot Euro kids. Then we woke up at dawn this morning ready to do it all over again but the swell had already faded and the crowd almost doubled...once again, this proves that if you wanna score over here you gotta be on it...or have a roommate that is such! Aloha, Emi.
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Emi Cataldi's 10 most recent posts..
- Team Italia at the Eurosurf 2007
- A family affair on the Waianae Side
- ONLY IN HAWAII
- Gotta Be On It!
- Reality Check
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