Filed under: Film, Sport, Surf | Tags: elvis, endless summer, laird hamilton, monster waves, riding giants
I’m not sure if it is possible to make a bad surf movie, given the subject matter. By surf movie, I am, of course, not referring to the ones from the 50s intermittently starring Elvis, though they had their charms. Those were beach movies. I’m talking about the genre of rambling surf documentaries initiated by Endless Summer.
Among its class, Riding Giants is above average. Given the subject matter – monster wave riding – the action is killer. I appreciated it for the well-executed history of surfing through to what the film presents as its natural end: the continued search for a bigger wave. Maybe a bit too much focus on Laird Hamilton, with no disrespect intended to what he’s accomplished.
Filed under: Film, Hawaii, North Shore, Surf | Tags: cheese, North Shore, Surf
North Shore: massive nug of 80s cheese, rich like Velveeta. Kind of like the Karate Kid on a surfboard. Love the local color. And to be honest, it’s not all that far off the mark. As a haole with the kind of questionable surf skills possessed by Rick Kane at the outset of the story, I have had a couple close calls with the locals that were practically carbon copies of scenes in the movie.
“He so haole he doesn’t even know he haole.”
Filed under: Gadgets, Hawaii, Sport, Surf | Tags: granny, kimo's, robert august, surfboard
I am now an official member of Hawaiian society.
Not because I registered to vote here – which I did recently, as if my vote will count in an overwhelmingly pro-Obama state – but because I stopped shelling out ludicrous amounts of cash for board rentals and bought my own. Come to think of it, they probably wouldn’t have allowed me to vote if they knew I was not a surfboard owner; I am now legit.
The purchase did not come easily, which was a surprise to me. I would have thought buying a board in Hawaii was like shooting fish in a barrel. I should clarify: it is easy to find new boards, of course. I was looking for a used long board for a decent price. One of the reasons this is not a buyers market, I would guess, is that serious surfers collect boards like guitarists amass stockpiles of guitars.
So there I was, scouring Craigslist and the local shops, and coming up with nothing. All I was looking for was a ten-foot-plus beater for around $300. Then we heard about a place called Kimo’s Surf Hut located in Kailua. So we drove over for a a few hours of sun on Lanikai, a superb and somewhat secluded beach, and stopped in at Kimo’s on the way back to Honolulu.
As soon as I stepped into the shop I knew I had come the right place. Kimo’s son immediately showed me a couple boards that fit my criteria. Then his younger brother came and told him Kimo had one that had just come in that was perfect for me. I walked back out into the sun and there it was lying out on a couple of wooden workbenches: an old, yellowing 11-foot epoxy Robert August longboard by Surftech.
It’s about the most dinged up piece of junk you can imagine, but it still floats, and for a guy who still surfs like a granny, it is choice.
Finally got around to having my first surf – four weeks too late!
Rented a board from the Ezekiel tent behind the Duke statue and, hoping for an epic experience of Biblical proportions that would live up to the namesake of my rental board, tried to run out into the surf before I had received my ankle leash and had to be chased down by one of the rental staff.
Fuckin-A, man, surfing Waikiki is childsplay. And it is, literally. I saw loads of kids tiny fractions of my age riding far bigger waves than the shorehuggers I was catching. Even I was getting some good rides. Sure, I looked like a tottering grandmother on my twenty-foot board.
But I was a surfing granny. And that’s cool.
