oahu day 26 - diamond head

Nah, me and Diamond Head don't get along...

Sure, it was slightly bigger than yesterday at Da Spot (before the high tide killed everything). But size is not everything (I bet you heard that one already).

Sure it was nice to be planing fully powered on the outside (once in a while, not even always). But that's not why I came here for (plenty wind in Maui for that).
I came here to ride waves.

Unfortunately, the waves at Diamond Head are infested by two deadly creatures:
1) chop
2) surfers

So, in my book, Da Spot wins all the times, even if it's smaller and it's purely slog and surf. It wins because it's clean and empty. You know, personal preferences...

Let's see what you prefer. Your favorite blogger took a few emblematic clips to let you judge by yourself.

Let's start from a wave ride. Notice the cross chop and the lack of power of the mushy wave.


This instead is the nice part: planing on an incredibly blue ocean.
Whatever... planing is so overrated!


Don't get too excited you guys. You still got to do your slogging on the inside!


And don't forget that on each wave you'll have to deal (asses their position and make sure you don't run them over or drop in on them or they don't drop in on you) with a bunch of surfers in search of the thrill of epic rides like this one.


At sunset, I surfed Bowls again. Once again, small but clean and uncrowded. I caught 19 waves, but blew the best one (a chest high perfectly shaped one).
Marcio was in the water and he let me try his board: a 10.5 Sean Ordonez heavy and narrow gun for really big waves. He surfed Jaws on it. Do I need to link the video again? Ok, I'll link the video again...
It's the board he was on when he caught that huge left at the end.

I sat on the board and I felt like I was on a piece of glory. It paddled like a paddleboard (once upon a time the paddleboards were these, today everyboady calls the standup boards like that...) and once you catch a wave it'll never stop. It just keeps going! That thing has the best glide I've ever experienced. It cuts through the water effortlessly. I guess that's the only kind of board you can use to catch a wave big and fast like Jaws. Well, you need to have Marcio's arms and balls too, of course.
Anyway, that was the highlight of the session also because I blew my best wave. Did I say that already?

waves today: 39
windsurfing: 332
surfing: 244
total: 576
average per day (24 days in the water): 24