Welcome to Paradise

Aloha! (hello, not goodbye).

You might have guessed it. I have landed on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, surfing's Holy site, the mecca of big wave surfing, the cradle of wave riding. This place is pulsating with the adrenaline of some of the best big waves surfers in the worlds. I cannot believe that I am here!

I have come to witness the North Shore beaches light up with the winter swells. There is a stretch of coast known as the 7 mile miracle. It is probably the only place on earth with so many high-performance surf breaks in such close proximity. My first impression of Oahu? I must have died and landed up in heaven, because this place is just too beautiful to be true. I didn't visit Honolulu yet, I drove straight to the North Shore and I cannot believe how beautiful the coastline is. There is very little development and most houses are single story wood buildings that give off a paradisaical island vibe. The landscapes are stunning; rugged mountains, pineapple fields, deep blue ocean, roaring waves, golden beaches. Everything screams out surfing. The cars, the people, the people's gigantic v-shaped upper bodies, the mailboxes (old surfboards with the street name and number painted on them), the supermarket, everything. The Hawaiian islands are volcanic islands that popped out of the sea's depths after violent quakes and eruptions. This means that the islands don't have much in the way of a continental shelf... which might sound like absolute gibberish to you, but this means that the swells generated by distant storms in the North Pacific land onto the coast with minimal dispersion of potential energy, transforming into kinetic energy. Who would have thought that physics could be so much fun?? If only I'd known back in High School! Basically what I am trying to say is that the waves in Hawaii are a lot bigger and more powerful than in most other places around the world. 

Puaena Point. Caught some fantastic waves here. There are always at least 5 sea turtles hanging out at this spot.

3 tables beach in front of the hostel!

I have felt a strong connection to the Ocean since I can first remember. There are pictures of me on a windsurfing board at a very tender age. I remember the sea always being there somehow. Perhaps the voice of the ocean has been calling me all along, just like on of the characters out of “1900” Baricco's fabolous novel (read it if you haven't). What I am about to write is extremely cheesy, so please try to put up with me only a little while longer. When I was around eight years of age my father returned from a trip overseas and brought me a gift that I think might have infected me with the latent virus of surfing. The present was The Beach Boys' Greatest Hits (to this day I still love their music, even though many hardcore surfers will argue that the Beach Boys only wanted to profit from the cool image of surfing and contributed to the over-commercialization of surfing). On the cover of the cassette was a picture of a surfer riding a giant , gorgeous, aquamarine wave. I am pretty sure it was Waimea or Sunset beach. Either way, North Shore Oahu, Hawaii. The distinctive shape of the wave, the colour of the water and the size of the wave all seem to suggest that it must be one of the two. That picture was a time bomb, it remained engraved in my subconscious, waiting to explode. I am obsessed with surfing, the more I get, the more I want. The more I watch it, the more waves I want to see. Tomorrow I will witness a contest at legendary Pipeline, a hollow, fast, huge barreling wave that breaks close to the beach with such power that apparently the beach trembles on impact.

Aloha (goodbye)