Full moon waning, bright and high in the heavens. The heavens themselves a starry blanket of indigo, stretching from the shadowy looming visage of Haleakala in the east to the twinkling city lights of Kahului and Waluku in the west. North shore filled with modest swell offering waves of eight to nine feet, six inches Hawaiian ;>} Even a chest high north shore Hawaiian wave packs a wallop when it hits you square, much like a California wave that's head and a half.

Sunday: the first full day of holiday on the Valley Isle. Also a weekend day, so the locals all come out to play. This means a full local crew of skilled, knowledgeable, aggressive-but-friendly surfers.

Ho'okipa is a compact stretch of rocky and sandy coast filled with many surf breaks. Lining up can be confusing for the occasional visiting surfer; there's shifty peaks, rogue waves, and clean up sets. Jumped into the water with the earliest locals, paddled out adjacent to the rocky point to take my place at a particular peak. Not the largest waves, but not the smallest. Even with the weekend crowd growing minute by minute I got some waves; a bunch of junky short lefts and rights sprinkled with three or four decent rides, and one excellent wave that broke and reformed again and again going right and careening toward the rocks.

With many surfers arriving at the various takeoffs each minute, I took refuge in that redeeming wave and proned to the beach. After changing I snapped some pix for this column, then drove back to Kihei for the morning repast of tropical fruit, yogurt, kona coffee, and a coconut bagel with lilikoi cream cheese. Yum!

More substantial swell was in the forecast for later in the week. There'll be another column in the coming weeks featuring those waves, so click back. Might even show some side-by-side pix of the same break with the earlier modest swell compared to the larger swell.

CU Out There,

DogMan