LASurfSpots Visits Oahu’s North Shore

01.03.2011 // Surf Rants, Surf Trips // lasurf // 4 Comments

The thing about Oahu’s North Shore is that it is nothing like Los Angeles. Which, as an eager LA surfer coming down from those pineapple fields with all kinds of fantasies in tow, can be a total reality check. Lots of places are nothing like Los Angeles, surfwise and otherwise, but as relatively few surfers can experientially compare LA to say, Sumbawa, the LA-North Shore storyline carries more common interest.

Lots of LA surfers do somehow find there way to Oahu, and often flounder. This chasm in the surf experience is paradoxical actually, as Los Angeles surf culture really gave birth to much of the modern day North Shore (read: Buzzy Trent, Greg Noll, Flippy Hoffman, et al), as well as the many California ex-pats that today call the North Shore home. Starbucks and Sunset Beach mansions aside, the point is that LA surfers can and often do find themselves completely, utterly lost and out to sea on these reefs in the wintertime. The waves are BIG! Few moments spent even at the reefs of Palos Verdes would compare, and so we usually play just triple-a ball. Regarding the big leagues, I would paint a picture of gasping for breath between whitewash poundings, and mad dash sprints towards the channel dodging sets, all the while, bronzed, local bruddha-kine guys blaze past them, getting barreled on well-overhead waves.

While the LA surfer might find solace in social media, text messages, Facebook etc, the North Shore local might not really know what day it is. Might not really know what year it is. And might not care. And why care when King Neptune is throwing lightning bolts at you? (note: the smartphone virus is certainly alive, well, and growing on the North Shore nowadays as well)

I suppose the point is that the essence of surfing is some connection with God, and surfing the North Shore brings an honesty and clarity that gets one closer… Perhaps when we were more primitive, the hunt for game and battles against real predators would compare. From my own North Shore experience, I felt this primal fear and rush of adrenaline, and though I’ve never hucked a spear at a saber-tooth, I would liken big Sunset to any Neanderthal versus Mammoth showdown.

Fit, aware of the elements, ready to take down some big waves, all common threads in the North Shore surfer’s storyline. The LA surf experience comparison would be more akin to trapping rabbits. Little victories that sustain but leave a hunger.

I am, unfortunately, good at trapping rabbits, and as my North Shore experience showed me, I get bent out of shape by Mammoths charging at me. We LA Surfers simply do not get anywhere near this type of raw energy in Los Angeles and Southern California, and I fear that we are (and at least myself) made soft by this, distracted and disengaged from that fear of God.

Consider this then a call to action! We LA Surfers need not be relegated to the soft-core league, many of us have hopes and dreams similar to our North Shore brethren, but as we don’t have a similar canvas to paint, we are vulnerable to this apathy. So get out there LA surfers! When it does get big, savor and gorge yourself in the cold punishment. If the waves are flat, pull the e-brake on the 405, jump into the rushing LA River in the rain, roll Crenshaw rocking a red bandanna and bumping bass music… But do something!! Life is Too $hort!!!