oahu day 12 - Rice Bowls... not!

Wow, it was big today!

Probably the biggest since I'm here. 5 feet and 15 seconds at the west buoy, that's a lot for a south swell.

I went to check a spot called Rice Bowls, allegedly a hollow and fast wave when it works.
First, just to warm up, I set on the next break over where there were far less people and it was far less consistent, but when the set arrived it was pretty intense.
I managed to make a couple of drops and that felt good. But then it happened that I had to duck dive under a big one that was doing the barrel right where I was. I pushed the 6.10 as hard as I could under the water and I think I went down two-three feet at least. It was like those two-three feet didn't offer any protection at all. The heavy lip hit me hard on the head, like I never was hit before.
Actually, now that I think about it, those two-three feet probably saved my neck!
Anyway, after having been punished and humbled, I observed a guy catching a bomb and standing tall in the tube at Rice Bowls and wisely decided that that was going to be a bit too much for me.

So I paddled down to Publics.
What? Only three people out! Mmm... there must be something wrong...
And in fact there was a simple problem: it was too big for that spot. You had to sit inside and wait for a peeling one, but once in a while a cleanup close out set would push you all the way inside. Geez, so much work to paddle out again!
In two hours I caught a total of four waves and probably paddled half of the time.

In the afternoon, the wind was too light to sail and I went to check China Walls. This guy was taking off so close to the rocks that most of the times you couldn't even see him! That's why I don't have any of those rides... but I have this other one. Beautiful colors, that place is magic.


Yeah, so beautiful that I couldn't resist and, despite the tiredness, I had to jump in the water again. Didn't do too much, but it was worth it...
I got a little clip of a wave caught on the inside shoulder, but no time to upload it. Check back later. Exhausted. Need some sleep.