Flying into Oahu – snapping some pics of the other islands as we go by – the girl next to me asks “first time to Hawaii?”; guess it was that obvious.
Met my brother and his girlfriend at the Honolulu airport and we were off to our hotel in Waikiki – since I was tagging along on their trip it wouldn’t be a straight surf trip, but I couldn’t complain for nearly free lodging and it was a good intro to Hawaii. Didn’t take our boards last minute, as my old triple bag had a zipper welded shut and we were out the door; gonna have to rent or buy used.
Swam around in the warm water for a bit, then watched our first Hawaiian sunset – small and packed with beginners at Waikiki.
Headed to the North Shore in the morning, picked up a couple rental boards for a few days and drove around checking out the spots I’ve read about for years in SURFER ™. 
Sunset’s lineup
One of the bigger ones to come through as we checked it
Found somewhere to park near Rocky Point and started walking towards Pipe to check out the contest. Gotta love the amount of girls that surf in Hawaii.
Near Rocky Point
Wave quality at Pipe wasn’t that good (first day of the contest) so we didn’t watch for too long.
An empty one (~6’ face)
Easy paddle out for the contestants
Looking down towards Eukia
The beach was pretty empty for how many cars were parked for miles along the Kam – can’t imagine what the finals will look like.
We surfed Lani’s that afternoon, it was a good intro to the North Shore. Some lined up decent for a few long rides, mellow crowd, a little OH on the drops. No pics, though. g/f couldn’t pick us out of the lineup so far away.
Next day we saw two guys surfing Pinballs, so we decided to give it a try after seeing some sets roll through. A little soft, but you could get a good one or two hits on them before they died out.
Pinballs lineup – “yeah dude, we surfed Waimea bay!”
Did the Waimea falls the next morning, then ended up surfing Pinballs again after checking a few spots and seeing empty sets roll through inside the bay.
Sunset that afternoon – don’t think the direction was good during our trip, the inside bowl wasn’t working and it was kinda sectiony.
SE side of the island – tradewinds blew everyday and made for some good wind swell…
Blowhole
Take warning.
Found Sandy Beach and had to stop for some bodysurfing – hard to do with no fins, though. We played it safe and swam through the gnarly ones and watched other guys get pounded by the walls of water sucking the sand off the bottom
Sure, she’s hot, but can she bodyboard?
Apparently, so
F’in sick tube
Did the Diamond Head hike the next morning – amazing and disheartening to see such development right up to the shore. Keep the Country Country.
We then hit Sandy’s again, but equipped with fins and boards…
My brother, about to bottom out
Me; I got obliterated in the tube about 2 secs after this shot
Bro again; it helps to get in early we noticed
I found having a board was pretty dangerous still, so I went to fins only and had a few fun ones (still took beatings, though)
Tired, sand everywhere (trapped in-between the layers of my boardshorts and won’t come out), but stoked
…er umm, look at that wave
My bro found out that there’s more than sand on the bottom of Sandy’s
Shot a few more photos myself before we left
Last night for them, second to last for me, best sunset we saw
Parting shot – last one I took before getting on the plane
In case anyone cares, most of the landscape/sunset shots were with a Fuji F20, all others with a Panasonic FZ7. I have bigger images to link to if there are requests (didn’t want to flood with all huge ones)
A good introductory trip and not a bad way to spend a week in December. Lots of respect to the locals who charge Sandy’s – that wave is heavy! Some had 6’ faces with 2-3 lips!