Turtles and waves on the North Shore

Sunset, Diamond Head

The last 10 days of my trip have been spent on Oahu with my friend, Steph. I met Steph through a mutual friend in Bali at the very beginning of my trip and spent the first week with her surfing Canngu and Kuta. I love the circular motion of my trip....starting and ending a long journey with a wonderful new friend on a tropical island.

Steph lives on the south side of Oahu and surfs Diamond Head, a great longboarding wave breaking over reef. It is an incredible beautiful 'local', a very long and crowded ride, full of that Hawaiian spirit of Aloha. The swell was pretty small but we still had some super fun sessions on 9 foot longboards.

We also spent a few days on the north side of the island checking out the famed breaks of Pipeline and Waimea Bay. I loved the North Shore and really hope I will be back at some stage to stay a little longer. Some how, amid the circus that is professional surf competitions and heavy tourism, the small town of Halie'wa has maintained its beauty. The first day we visited the swell was huge with 8 - 10 foot sets coming through. The famous breaks of Waimea Bay, Halie'wa and Pipeline were all breaking and full of professional surfers waiting at the start of the HIC pro. I didn't paddle out. Heavy was a understatement.

We drove back to the North Shore several more times over the week. Both days were incredibly beautiful and made me fall in love with this little piece of paradise even more. On Thursday, I watched sea turtles feasting for an hour on one of the reefs and surfed a super fun Lani's on Steph's 7'2. The winds came up early on the Saturday so we spent the morning with Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii cleaning up one of the beaches up from Waimea Bay. Marine debris is starting to wash up on the Hawaiian islands from Japan - fridges, old bombs, washing machines. Its quite amazing what a big shake up like a tsunami will do.

I was really inspired by the clean up and will definitely look for opportunities to organise / participate in similar events in my home town of Fremantle. I'd also love to initiate / support similar events in Bali. The issue with plastics in Indonesia is unbelievable, incredibly sad and really takes away from the surfing experience. I am not sure what the answer is considering waste management practices are primitive but its got to begin with something.

Steph and I at the Sustainable Coastlines clean up

I head back home on November 13. I'm looking forward to settling down for a while, unpacking my backpack, sleeping in a king size bed and catching up with families, friends and my boy.