waikiki.

This past week flew by because of the half day conferences. Basically, Tue-Fri we had periods 1,2,3 or 4,5,6 till 11:30am. Students were released to go home, and we had either conferences or meetings depending on the day. This gave me a bunch of time to hang out with the staff. I met up with Kelli who is the art teacher to talk about a printer Marc's about to order for us. We also talked a bunch about the screen printing we're getting into.
I was also able to get a chance to figure out the stupid minute detail that prevented me from getting the CNC router to work. It's now up and running, and I'll be spending the coming weeks figuring out what's the best settings for different programs.
The weather this week was amazing. Upper 60s lower 70s and sunny. It worked out great with the surf. We were able to hit up Waikiki on Wednesday for one of the best sessions I've had in Washington. The waves weren't really that big, but it was super consistent and smooth. With the lack of force because the waves weren't huge, you really had to ride the face of the wave rather than the white water from the resulting crash of a wave.
After the success of Wednesday's session we were looking forward to Saturday morning. High tide was around noon, and if we got out there around ten we figured it would be set up perfect. The forecast called for BIG swells on the main ocean, but we figured we'd be protected.
As i was on my way to pick up Darren i received a text from Michael (he works at the ranger station right by Waikiki) saying it was HUGE, that driftwood was smashing up against rocks, and the crashing of the waves sounded like thunder. Because i was already on my way, Darren and i decided to check it out anyways.

This is when Waikiki is unsurfable.


Doom wave rolling in part one.


Doom wave rolling in/crashing part two.


Crashing against the rocks.


The clouds broke and the sun came out.


Crashing waves.



Darren took a couple shots. It almost looks like I'm superimposed.


Balancing on the logs.



Today i received a text message from Michael saying Waikiki looked amazing. Soon after i received another message from Travis saying he was heading down. I picked up Darren and we met up with Travis and his girlfriend. It was a lot bigger than Wednesday's session, but nowhere near as crazy as Saturday. The waves were big enough to give us a scare. Travis caught this one wave that was crazy. He like drooped into a huge wave, then a wave came from the side after bouncing off the cliffs, and formed this super wave. He carved the inside of the first wave while this like abyss pit formed from the union of the two waves. We like went up and around the pit and dropped in just before the two waves smashed closing out, and escaping death with a smile on his face. Definitely the gnarliest ride I've ever witnessed. I dropped in from the top of the biggest wave I've ridden and felt like a million bucks hanging on for the ride. We were having too much fun to stop and snap any pictures.