First Boat Trip

Or, How easy it is to disregard years of experience and nearly kill yourself surfing.

Pulling up to the surf, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.  December, 2001.

This session ranks up there among the stupidest things I've ever done.  The Eddie Aikau contest was being held on the North Shore in Hawaiian size 25' surf.  For some reason, we decided this would be a good day to take a boat out and surf a spot in the middle of Kaneohe Bay.  I had never surfed from a boat before, so I was eager to give it a try.  Once we rounded the airfield on the Marine base, we began climbing and dropping down swells.  We were in a tiny ski boat, so eventually there were 4 of us sitting on the transom to keep the bow from going underwater.  I joked to Eric about whether this is one of those boats that would float if it filled with water.  He didn't laugh.

Rights peeling down the line, just north of Pyramid Rock.  I think this spot is called "Suicides."

The lefts in the middle of the bay.  This surf was alot bigger and more powerful than it looked.  If you look closely you can see Tim on the left side of the picture working towards the channel.

I was the first one out, and as soon as I began paddling to the lineup, I realized this was a mistake.  First of all, the waves were alot bigger than they looked.  Second, the current from all the water moving made it impossible to hold position.  And third, the tide was pulling me straight out to sea.  Realizing my mistake, I waved to Eric to come back with the boat.  Of course, he had anchored it about 300 yards away in the channel, then jumped in and started paddling out.  Now there was nobody in the boat to come get us. Eventually I got pulled into about the middle of that picture above and got worked repeatedly.  Gasping and pissed, I made it back into the channel as Eric paddled up.  Tim had gotten washed so far inside and towards Chinaman's Hat, that I thought he had drowned.  "Eric, this isn't safe man.  I'm paddling in!"  "Yeah, I know Mike, I've never felt this much water moving out here!"  Great.  I started paddling towards the boat.  The thing is, I swear I paddled for what felt like 20 minutes and didn't move an inch. I sat up on my board and took stock, and understood that this was a serious situation.  Even if someone made it to the boat, a water rescue would be tricky, and to lose the boat would be disastrous.  Knowing this, I put my head down, and paddled like never before.  I angled differently, and after a solid 40 minutes made it to the boat. Then I had some water and watched the fun as everyone tried to get out of the impact zone and back to the boat.  As we pulled up anchor, waves were cloudbreaking outside, the swells were definately picking up, and we were all a bit sketched.  Lucky to get out, and lesson learned- trust your instincts!

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