First Maliko of 2018

[PonoBill]

Another good run today. Bill Boyum and his buddy Bill on their surfskis, Ralf on his SUP, Gregg in his OC1, Susie Cooney and a lady named Skylar (I think) on SUPS, and a lot of OC1 guys.

The top was good from the beginning, No giant drops but lots of mid-sized ones. People who have done Malikos know what I mean by mid-sized. Not Maliko 101, but not anything that stands your hair up on end when you look down into something as steep as a cow's face. At about the end of Sugar Cove I was happily catching one big right runner after another, some of the glides were a hundred yards plus. Then I realized I was way out (perhaps two miles) and the wind was blowing in my left ear--strongly offshore: The wind, the good swells, and the current. I was basically headed for Molokai. So I started catching lefts and working my way in. By the time I got to Camp One I was on a better line.

There were occasional big doubled-up wind swells refracting in towards Kanaha. They didn't look threatening, so I concentrated on catching the smaller stuff to get into the bigger stuff. I was head down, reading swells when the tail of my board lifted abruptly and I heard the hiss of a breaking wave. WTF?!!? I went down the face pretty straight, tried to turn left and saw whitewater. I stayed with it, probably turned too sharp, ran up into the foam ball, but it was already reforming. The foam forced the tail around and I rounded up out of the wave. Too bad, it would have been a super long ride. I watched it go for at least a half mile before it got close the reef and broke. Camp one has lots of shallow spots that hand out these little surprises.

After Kanaha the wind died pretty comprehensively. Turned into a slog in the big rollers. When the wind dies there aren't many small to medium bumps that accelerate the board so you can make it into the big rollers. I caught some, missed some all the way to the harbor entrance.

[TallDude]

Turned into a slog in the big rollers. When the wind dies there aren't many small to medium bumps that accelerate the board so you can make it into the big rollers.

So it ended like my typical everyday SoCal distance paddle. At times we'll get troughs 15+ ft deep. Near by ships disappear, but it's like pressing the button on an elevator. Music and all.