Gutrs, the summer of '63 saw swell after swell out of the south, epic. Roger Brucker, “Cleanlines” and I would scout the reef east of the Pearl Harbor entrance for surfable spots from atop the navy dump with binoculars. Most of the reef was unridable, came up from thousands of feet to nearly dry reef, but we finally spotted one area that wasn’t like that and had a good right and left.
One day we go for the check, KUMU surf report was calling for 10-12 feet on south facing shores, it is f-n huge with a Makaha style bowl at the end of the wave. Roger, my younger brother Terry and a couple of others decided to paddle out, there was a nice channel between the left and right, but it was a lot bigger than 10-12, with the biggest going unridden, I was still only 2-1/2 years into surfing.
We told all the other surfers at Radford about our experience at “Outsides”, we were laughed off the planet, we were Hickam gutter surfers, kooks,I was called Outhouse Phillips, cuz my stance looked like I was trying to take a shit, but it was the real deal, our own spot, named by us, ridden only by us, I don’t know if this was the Big Wednesay, but it was big something.
Got another swell like that at Barber’s when I had been surfing for about a year, mom drops us off and it is again f-n huge, breaking about a mile out, a series of breaks, each with a trench in between the reef sections. It was challenge, make a wave on a reef, paddle out to the next reef. When we got to the final outside reef the waves were nice A frame shapes, very makable, I stroked for one big mutha at an angle, stood up and side slipped down the face, with nothing but luck, the fin caught at the bottom without me falling off and a giant tube threw out with me standing inside with my mouth open in amazement, the board shot out to the shoulder, my first tube ride !
Learning to surf in the nearly constant onshore wind conditions prepares you to ride anything