It started with a casual paddle along the foreshore of Kailua, dodging and weaving through the reef, along to Waimanolo Beach. At this point, unprotected by the reef, the swell picked up and rolled thousands of kilometers across the Pacific Ocean towards us. We turned and headed directly into the cresting waves. Needless to say, Mandy and I in seats 1 and 2 had a lot of air time! I was glad we had the covers on - they were the only thing keeping us from projecting from the canoe like a human canonball at the circus. It also helped that Jimmy Austin, well known big wave canoe surfer, and top OC1 paddler, was steering.
We turned the canoe towards the shore and sat, rocking in the swells contemplating the beach, about 2km away. The waves were awesome. Bellowing and breaking occasionally around the canoe, big, but not scary. Rolling. We were ready to go. I felt the back of the canoe lift, and started to put in some big strokes, but heard Jimmy call, "no, not this one, we don't want this". I turned to see this massive wall of water rearing up behind us. Eeek! I agree, we definitely don't want to go down that. As soon as it had past, we were "on" catching the one behind. Whee! BIg strokes, the tap, tap, tap....tap, tap, tap.
There was spray in my face, there was spray in Mandy's face - I could hear here giggling behind me. I tried to keep paddling. Tap, tap, tap. Then I think I was actually underwater. Can you drown in an OC6? That wouldn't look cool. Before I had a second to contemplate my snorkle sitting back at home, all of a sudden we had burst through the back of the massive wave ahead of us, that I had previously been quite happy to let past, and were now in front, careering down its face. AND WE WERE STILL GOING.
We pushed again, down, down, down. Come on canoe, just urge that bit further ahead. Wheee! We're on again. More spray, more water. I couldn't see a thing. I heard braking wave and thought, gee, I hope this Jimmy guy is good. My arms were still tapping. Can I relax yet? All of a sudden, the water calmed and was at peace. We were about 200m from the beach. Did that really happen? I turned incredulously to Mandy behind me, and saw the crazy eyes. Yep, I'm not dreaming.
I looked across at Nic, Linda and Lisa who were on the OC1's. They also had crazy eyes.
That was awesome.
Let's go again!
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| Riding in the pick-up truck to a well earned lunch |
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| Canoe surfing from OCC |
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| Jim Foti walks through the plan for the session |
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| Hard to capture, but these waves are big! |
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