Pipemasters

Friday morning, the roomies and I had an exit survey for our ASH program that was mandatory.  Kelsey and I had literally just gotten home from Stairway to Heaven at 9, and we had to get ready real quick to be at the meeting by 10.
Afterwards, we trekked to the north shore for Pipemasters, the biggest surf competition on the island.  The bus was packed, so we had to stand for the 2-hour journey.  Needless to say, Kelsey and I were doing our bodies a real favor before this marathon.

The waves on the north shore were GIGANTIC.  I had never seen waves like that in my entire life.  Well I guess that's not really saying much.  Before coming to Hawaii, I didn't get out to the beach that much, being in the middle of the mainland and all.

But you know how you've probably seen surfers in movies or on TV or somewhere and the waves look too big to be real?  I assure you, my friends, these waves are very much real, and so very large and in charge.  I'd be scared shitless to go surfing on one of those things!

The beach was packed with spectators, grandstands, and announcers.  We found Tawni right next to the Redbull house and that's where we parked our rears for the rest of the day.

It was while listening to the announcer that I realized I don't know squat about surfing.  But here's what I gathered throughout the day:

There are like 2 or maybe 3 surfers out at a time.  They surf in heats of 30 minute timespans.  One surfer will get priority over the other (I don't know how they figure this out) but that just means that if a good wave comes the one with priority has first dibs.  If no good waves come within the first 10 minutes of the heat and neither surfer catches a wave, they restart the heat.

They get scored out of 10 points per wave.  The judges take the top two scores of each surfer and combine them for their total score.

Don't even ask how the judges give the scores.  Maybe it's whoever catches the prettiest wave?  Who knows.

All I know is that it's cool as shit to watch.

We stayed until it was over, but by that time we were all sleep deprived and grumpier than the dwarf.  The bus ride home was not fun at all because there were annoying high schoolers on it being louder than my mother was when coaching first base telling me to take two.  They were being so inconsiderate.  They got on the bus sometime after we had gotten on and I had fallen asleep.  They literally stood right next to me and either didn't realize or didn't care that I was asleep.

So rude.  But of course I didn't say anything to them.  Of course I'm too nice.  Someone find my backbone for me because I sure as hell can't find it myself.

But the day still ended up being pretty awesome.

PIKCHAAAAS:

Yum.

Baby wave compared to the other waves that day

The only surfer I had really heard of: Kelly Slater

Aloha!!