These are from a fun day we had back in December. We were hoping to catch the Pipe Masters, but the waves didn’t really cooperate.

That’s cool – we had a nice chill day on the beach with good friends.

Things have changed. Fueled by Oahu’s climbing headquarters at Volcanic Rock Gym, a few friends and I have been practicing at the gym and finding new spots to climb around the island. The Mokule’ia Crag (or the Moks), is one of the better spots to play on.

Gearing up for a the 30 minute accent to the face. It isn’t super hard but with gear you start a huffing and a puffing.

See – there’s the huffing.

…and a puffing.

Mokule’ia boasts about twp dozen routes – various difficulty levels but all good fun.

David Chat making it look easy.

Kim calculating here first few moves.

Captain Jack and some smearing action.

A view from the top.

Me rocking the one foot in front of the other technique – and needing a haircut.

Closing time…

Celebratory beers, food and tunes are in order after a great day of climbing.

Being more accustomed to outdoor multi-pitch climbing, bouldering is still new to me. Most boulder problems start in strange and in uncomfortable “sit-start” positions that make the routes challenging right off the get-go. It’s pretty much the reason why I need to get my butt to the rock gym on a more regular basis.

David Chat planning his next move while Waimea stays calm behind him. It’s hard to believe that the Eddie Surf Tournament was held at this very spot only months ago.

Bouldering, like surfing, somehow creates new friendships rather quickly. We met Mike on the rock, and he helped with some strategy from below.

Depending on your size and shape, your climbing style will vary greatly. Unlike myself, David can use his light weight and agility to get around tricky edges like this one. Here he’s sporting what I like to call, the “angry monkey.”

Only a little higher up, boulder problems are still demanding on the fingers. Crimpers…

Try left. Nope. Try right. Nope. What about more right? Nope. Yeah, I’m pretty much stuck.

Another benefit of climbing at Wiamea, a nice ocean to jump into to quench the heat. This rock offers a fun mellow cliff jump around 15-20 ft high.

5:00 am. We got up and packed. Kim was barely awake when we jumped into the car. I was too excited to notice if I was tired or not. The day before was big, bigger than it had been in years, but still not big enough. Some people thought that the event should have went off the day before, but they decided to wait one more day. I was happy that they did.

We picked up Neal who was packed to the brim with camera equipment and food, and we headed out. Although we agreed to drive up either way, I was really hoping for the chance to see one of the most unique and memorable sporting competitions to go live. We lucked out.
We parked 3 miles away from Waimea, grabbed our coolers and some bags, and started walking.
Some folks rode bikes.
It was crowded when we got there, at 5:45am. It stayed crowded until about 5:45pm.
It was crowded in the water too. At this point, none of the Eddie competitors were out there yet. Nuts.
Some guys caught some waves. I caught some photos.
A rare single surfer on a good size wave.
Some of these waves were not meant to be ridden.
A room with a view.
A view.
Our view of Wiamea Beach Park below. We were up on the ridge. The mezzanine section, if you will.
More waves.

Dicey closeout potential.
More crowds.
And some more.
Down at base camp.
I wonder if he’s any good? (That’s Greg Long, he ended up catching the event winning wave).
Neal watching another bomb go off.
Another bomb going off.
More rides.

Kelly Slater riding in a 98 point wave! Nearly a perfect ride, all the way into shore.

@NealKido got some video of the memorable ride.

Some more footage captured by our friends over at the Surfboard Shack.

Amazing experience… mahalo.

The rest of the weekend was made up of a few surf sessions at Diamond Head and watching the Giants pummel the Redskins. The north swell was huge so we enjoyed the shoulder and head high waves at the windward side. As for the North Shore, my buddy Jack and I decided to check out the rainy, stormy, and windy day at the Triple Crown. Despite the chilling 75 degree temperature (ha) and the wet conditions it was good fun. The waves were peaking at around 10ft (Hawaiian) but because of the wind there were a lot of close outs. We caught some great sets from a few Brazilian surfers going against a few of our own locals.

I haven’t been to a major tournament before so it was fun just being up there during all the madness. It’s cool being around so many people stoked on surfing at the same time. From 70 something year old women to 4 year old kids, everyone was cheering on the surfers while getting soaked in the storm. Although we had to catch the end via the web, on Wednesday December 4th, CJ Hobgood took the crown, congrats!