For the months preceding the seasonal invasion by the best surfers in the world, we are all guilty of heaping endless lavish praises on the North Shore of Oahu.
We proclaim them, make them heroes, give them the love their sponsors need, and before you know it the season is over, everyone has fucked off, and the North Shore becomes an afterthought. There are so many reasons however, to go to the North Shore for the late Winter season.
1. Non-stop surf action.
Although it always seems to be firing during the final leg of the WSL season, it actually turns on for real just afterwards. Thing is, all the photographers, videographers web journalists and other bottom feeders have all gone home, and the only people watching are genuine Hawaiians. The last thing they want to do is tell the world how good it is so the only people who know are dialed into the Coconut Wireless.
2. Immediate lack of crowds.
Every one of the Championship Tour surfers, Big Wave Tour surfers and Qualifying Series surfers on the North Shore want to go home as soon as they can. Who can blame them? Without going into how blessed they are in having a pro surfing career, after 11 months on the road they are all pretty spent and want to go home to their families to rest in familiar surroundings. The North Shore immediately becomes a ghost town; the Kam Highway becomes empty and the queues stop at Foodland, although they somehow persist at the peculiar Teds Bakery, as well as at the drug stop known as Starbucks.
3. Time to hang with the homies.
If you’re there for the late season you’ll pretty much have no one to surf with except Hawaiians. There might be a bunch of travelers like yourself, but on the pro level everyone has gone home. This means you’ll be surfing with the world champ, and with Zeke Lau. You’ll see Sunny in the water as well as Kala Alexander, Dustin Barca, Mason Ho along with Coco, Derek and Michael, Sebastian Zietz, Keanu Asing, and you might even get to see a legend like Dane Kealoha or Darrick Doerner out there. Should a big swell rock up, then there’s Billy Kemper, Kai Lenny, Aaron Gold and Makuakai Rothman. Maybe, just maybe, you might bump into Eddie Rothman as well.
4. Sunset Beach
Finally, room to move. You can go out there and catch a few and not feel too stressed about it, about the crowds, about low-flying missiles, about surfers on 11-foot pins straight lining for the channel. You can almost go out there and have some fun, well as much as anyone can have while shitting themselves about west sets.
5. Island vibe
You’ll notice the change the first time someone hoots you into a wave. Might be Gums, might be Backyards, but when it comes you’ll hear it loud and clear like a gong. The Pressure is off. It gets better. When a local Hawaiian surfer pushes you into a wave, when you hear the ‘hoo bra this one’s fo’ you,’ the island vibe will wash over you, and you’ll start understanding what aloha means.
6. Lack of bitterness
Along with the aloha vibe, there’ll be a definite lessening of the underlying bitterness most of us feel when visiting the island. Without wishing to denigrate anyone, many of the visiting surfers, entourages, contest officials and brand managers are kind of sheltered from the real vibe out there, the dark vibes and the negativity that emanates from the local people. If you’ve experienced it however, if you’ve ever experienced a vicious and hurtful surprise and unprovoked attack of ‘fuck off haole!’ or a ‘it’s kill a haole day today!’ kind of experience, or a smack to the head for no real reason, you’ll understand the lack of bitterness vibe of which I refer. It’s a good thing.
7. Girls
Along with the mass pro surfer exodus, all the girls leave the island and head out for richer pickings than the Oakley house of yore or the Billabong house of yesteryear. The only girls who remain are the wives and girlfriends of the Hawaiians, and they are in a n exclusivity class all of it’s own. However, there might be a few girls who arrive to surf a few waves, to do their own pilgrimage of getting tubed at Gas Chambers, or riding a few lefts at Rocky Point, and they are generally the coolest girls you’ll ever meet on the North Shore. Their wave count is a far greater need than notches on the bedposts, they are simply surfers, and we all know that real surfers make the best of friends, gender nonspecific.
