Nice stuff - Save our own Mr. Pinniped lover posting the map of every spot in town… Ha!
Here’s my town story: Lived across the street from the old Kaiser hosp. From my deck I could see the Kaiser bowl on one side, and Ala Mo bowl on the other… (Fours, when it broke, was a freakin’ magic fantasy… One day, over head sets… Me alone w/hundreds of guys at 3’s and a hundred or so at Kaiser’s… Ha!!!) OK - Sorry for ramblin’
I lived at the corner of Ala Moana Blvd and Piikoi Street right next to Ala Moana center and across the street from Baby Haleiwa and Big Lefts from 1983 till 1998.
I’ve seen perfect uncrowded days from my living room at every spot from Baby Haleiwa to Tonggs, but I usually just walked across the street and surfed at Courts, Big Lefts or Baby’s. I never bothered surfing at Bowls even though there were days when the crowd was only 2 or 3 people.
There was a swell when I lived there that was the biggest surf I have ever seen on the south shore. Wave were closing out a couple hundred feet outside of the big bouys and some closed out all the way across from Magic Island to rock piles. Ala Moana Park was totally closed out. The only place rideable was way outside Waikiki, and the lucky guys out there were getting long lefts. I have pictures and video somewhere, but it’s in a mess of stuff that I need to clean out.
The first day of the swell, I paddled out on a 6-2 rocketfish in the dark. The day before it was only about 4 feet, that day was triple overhead and it never gets triple overhead on the south shore. I caught 3 waves and 2 were drop ins on a local life guard captain who was riding a longboard. It was like the scene of Curran riding a fish in huge waves. I had to nurse the turn at the bottom and then there was so much face that it was surreal. Then it starts barreling on the inside and it gets intense. You never forget those rides. When it gets this big Courts and Big lefts become one wave going left. It’s only during the in between waves that you can go right, and a lot of times those are reforms of the wave that breaks outside then backs off and just barrels through before closing out. If the tide is high, you can go out to big lefts and ride the right but paddling back out is a night mare.
Getting caught inside meant you end up dumping and swimming under wave after wave, then if you get back out you find that you’re on the far left side of Courts, and have to paddle way back to get to the right. It was every bit as intense as any north shore session.
The waves were closed out for almost the whole week. I’d never seen anything like that since.
Aloha Richardk123:
When you get to Hawaii, I'll show you where to surf, where to eat and how to make boards if you like. PM me when you are in town.
Uncle D
Aoha Bernie, It looks like Ambrose has gotten balder since I left only 4 months ago. I know I have my one of a kind T from one of a kind Ambrose.They have a great thing going for themselves there. The lot across the little street used to have the shaping and glassing building on it plus a house, but the new owner tore them both down years ago. Aloha,Kokua