Learn to surf!

Waikiki beach is not a great place for many water sports. The snorkeling is weak; in many spots, as soon as you step into the water you're walking on dead coral, which can make the swimming awkward and uncomfortable. But the waves off of Waikiki are probably the best ones on which to learn how to surf. The ocean floor rises very slowly towards the shore, which means that the wave breaks are gradual and provide long, gentle rides for beginners. Yeah, it's crowded, but there isn't much jockeying for position and friction usually found where experienced surfers surf because, hey, we're all beginners and having a great time in the sun. It's generally fun and relaxed out there. Generally.

I called Hawaiian Watersports, based in Kailua, about 20 minutes away by car, to sign up for my first group surfing lesson. They told me to meet the van at the Waikiki Library parking lot, a very short walk from my apartment, at 9:00AM on a Saturday. There I met my instructor, I forgot his name, and I found out that my group lesson has become a private lesson, lucky me (warning sign #1?). My instructor, I’ll call him Dave, kind of a pothead burnout, said that we’re going to drive a short distance to the breaks at the base of Diamond Head. During the trip over he surprised me with his interest in current events and politics, even if he was a bit of a conspiracy theorist. From where we parked the dilapidated van it was a short hike down a steep path to a patch of beach below one of the bridges, around on the Hawaii Kai side of Diamond Head (Kuilei Cliffs Beach Park). Dave’s instructional style was fun and relaxed, but, unfortunately, the conditions were not the best for a beginner – the wind was strong and from the south, creating a lot of chop which made paddling away from shore an even more onerous task than it already would have been, and knocking down the breakers into what Dave called “mashed potatoes.” I didn’t last much more than 30 minutes on the rough water before I was exhausted and called it quits. I had made a couple of attempts to catch a wave but I never got on my feet.

At least for beginners, surfing is 95% spent paddling on your stomach, working your way out a channel between wave breaks and then positioning yourself to catch a wave. If you haven’t done much swimming you might find this exhausting. In addition, my posture isn’t the best, and paddling requires you to keep your head up and arms churning – it became clear that surfing would give my upper body a workout that it had never before experienced. Also, you have to be able to push yourself off of the board and hop onto your feet quickly to get the most out of the wave. A little land-based training can help you with this, and you don’t need any special equipment – just practice pushing up off of the floor from a prone position and getting on your feet as quickly as possible, either by first kneeling and then standing, or hopping up with one motion. Make sure that your feet are positioned along the spine of your imaginary surfboard, otherwise you’ll have difficulty staying upright once you’re on the water. If you can make surfing a regular activity, your abs, back, neck and shoulders will be strengthened enormously while doing something enjoyable outdoors. These are the ideal workouts – when you’re having so much fun that you don’t even recognize it as a workout. I just needed to keep at it for a while to get past the steep part of the learning curve and get to the fun part.

The next time I went surfing occurred a month later when a buddy of mine from the East Coast came out for a visit and wanted to try surfing. I recommended that we go with a more mainstream outfit, so we signed up for a group lesson with a popular company 2 blocks from my apartment on the corner of Kalakaua and Kapahulu, Hans Hedemann Surf. OK, so they cater to tourists, mostly. It turned out to be a better overall experience, but that could have been more due to the superior weather conditions that day than the quality of instruction, which was actually pretty good. There were about a dozen of us, and they had us practice on a simulator indoors before donning a “rash guard” shirt and carrying our boards a short distance down Waikiki beach in the direction of Diamond Head. Due to the size of the group two or three assistants were also present to provide coaching and a little extra push on our boards from behind to help us drop into a wave. My friend Aaron who was visiting me was actually in Hawai’i to meet a group of his college buddies to swim from Lanai to Maui as a relay team – so he had good shoulder strength for the paddling. I had done some windsurfing on a lake in Maine so I had decent balance on the board once I actually caught a wave. We both had a couple of pretty good rides, and the surf school had a photographer on the shore to catch us when/if we caught a wave and successfully stood up. They coached us to pose and ham it up if we got on our feet, and I obliged them, never one to shy away from an opportunity to look stupid for the camera (an inclination which I’m trying to curb).

I had a golden opportunity to get better at surfing if I had only spent even just an hour or so after work a couple of times a week. I spent an entire year a mere 2 blocks from some of the best practice surf in the world! But I got caught up in other things, made different choices, and sometimes that’s the way it goes. I only went surfing twice after that group lesson with Aaron. The next time was probably 8 months later when I rented a board for an hour from a place on the beach near the police station, and returned after only 40 minutes without getting a good ride – I was way out of practice (ha! I was never “in practice!”). However, let me be clear – even when you’re not catching waves, you’re still on the warm water enjoying the sun with other beginner/intermediate surfers offshore of a tropical paradise – it is not time wasted!

My final experience surfing was only weeks from my departure from O’ahu. I was on the Fort DeRussy side of Waikiki and it was a very light surf day. There weren’t many surfers out there, and I headed out towards some waves where there was no one else. I had a waterproof case containing my hotel room key (I was in temporary lodging leading up to my relocation) and $20, and at some point, probably after a fall, it floated out of my swimsuit pocket which I had forgotten to zip up. I also stubbed my big toe on the coral and ended up with a nasty gash that I didn’t notice until I was out of the water and walking on it. However, this final surfing session ended with a good, solid ride, so those negatives were happily forgotten.

Surfing is a fun way to exercise and becomes increasingly enjoyable with practice. Give it a try if you're going to O'ahu or Maui, the two islands where you can consistently find the best conditions for beginners and pros alike.

Aloha

Ono Hawaiian Food

For months during my daily commute I drove past this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant on Kapahulu Street called Ono Hawaiian Food. I was mildly curious, but I figured that I'd get around to checking it out soon because (a) it was within easy walking distance from my apartment, and (b) I make it a practice to try something new every couple of nights for dinner. I had only a couple of months left in Hawai'i when I finally went in for the first time -- and I went back three or four times in the time I had left. Darn, I wish that I had discovered it for myself earlier! I loved the first thing I ordered so much that that was all I ordered upon subsequent visits (so much for trying new things). I had the chicken lau lau combination plate, to go. They give you a piping hot lau lau, pipikaula (spicy beef or pork jerky), poi or rice, lomi lomi salmon, haupia (a firm coconut pudding), some raw onions, a little container of hot sauce, and a little kosher salt twisted in wax paper.


What is lau lau? The filling can be anything, usually pork but it can be chicken, fish, vegetables or a combination of several, which is steamed in an inner layer of taro leaves and an outer layer of ti leaves. The taro leaves become soft like spinach, and, although I was initially unsure if it was part of the meal, I tried some of it and found that it went well with the salty chicken inside. This is also part of the purpose of the poi; it is bland by itself, so it combines perfectly with spicy or salty food like the lau lau or pipikaula. I really fell in love with poi after eating it with these combination plates from Ono Hawaiian Food. I added the bit of salt to the poi and even the onions, and it made a great side dish. When you put in your order, they might ask you if you want fresh or day-old poi. GET THE DAY-OLD. It has a slightly tangy-fizzy flavor from a day of fermentation, barely noticeable but I think that it adds tremendously to the experience. The lomi lomi salmon is essentially bits of chopped, raw, salted salmon mixed with chopped onions, tomatoes and some red pepper flakes. It's pretty good, but the highlight is definitely the lau lau and poi. It's a great, unique, healthy Hawaiian meal.

Travel Channel focus on Hawai'i

The Travel Channel has been showing several Hawai'i-themed shows -- but checking their schedule leads me to believe that today was the last day they are planning to run six or seven of them together in one marathon for a while. Next Friday a couple of shows will be aired: check out their schedule here.

Fortunately, I recorded the ones that were shown today. I'll check them out and if I learn anything fun and interesting I'll post it.

Aloha.

Deepening chill

I used to welcome the return of brisk, frosty mornings -- or, at least, not be so troubled by it. In New Hampshire where one spends over half of each year in sweaters and sweatshirts anyway, dressing for the day properly, taking extra time to warm up and scrape the frost off of the car, and wearing socks indoors to keep your feet warm, barely register as inconveniences. I know that I'll come to appreciate the change of seasons once again, but having returned to the East Coast in August from my first year without a winter, the readjustment is noticeable. For 13 months, all I needed to wear outdoors were flip-flops (known to Hawaiians as "rubber slippers", "rubbah slippahs" or just "slippahs"), swim trunks and, if intending to dine at a sit-down restaurant, perhaps a t-shirt.

In June of 2006 I moved into a newly-renovated 2BR 2BA apartment in Waikiki that overlooked the zoo, Kapiolani Park and Diamond Head. I was 2 blocks from the ocean and a short walk to all of the shops, restaurants, hotels and clubs of Waikiki, yet I had almost nothing but trees, sky and a beautiful mountainscape to look at from my living room through the sliding glass doors which led to the lanai. I also had easy access on and off of the H-1 "interstate" (I'll discuss highway traffic on O'ahu in a later post -- it's not pretty). Now, anyone who lives in Hawai'i or has spent some time there might sniff at the idea of being a "townie", or living in or near the city where you have to deal with traffic and crowds when you could be surrounded by lush tropical rainforest or live on a quieter section of beach, since O'ahu's coastline consists of some of the best natural beaches in the world. Waikiki is not one of them: not natural because they've had to stave off erosion by pumping sand off of the ocean floor back onto the shore; and not all that beautiful, except perhaps for the Fort Derussy/Hilton Hawaiian Village end (west). However, for me, an introvert who often enjoys to be around people anyway, living in Waikiki was satisfying. That's not to say that I wouldn't have been happy living in a quieter, more natural setting as well. I'm a closet botanist. Frequent visits to botanical gardens, arboreti and going on nature hikes give me time to think and regain perspective on life while learning about the dizzying variety of life forms (still remaining) on this planet. But I also love cultural events and getting lost in the crowd from time to time, so for one year I decided to live in the city. Besides, in Hawai'i, you're never far from nature's beauty.

Nearly every Polynesian and Pacific Rim culture is well represented in Honolulu. Every couple of weekends there was some cultural festival going on in Kapiolani Park or in the city, and occasionally they would close down the main drag along Waikiki beach (Kalakaua St) and throw a street/block party. I didn't always keep up with the calendar of events and so some nights I'd walk out of my apartment just to look for something to eat, and I'd stumble upon some glorious festival with parades and musicians playing on several stages and booths offering tasty treats from around the Pacific Rim. I loved surprises like that. I'd soak up some of the atmosphere, enjoy the entertainment, watch some of the festival-goers, and then retreat to my apartment amazed that this New Hampshire boy was living in such a place. But even when there weren't special events occurring, every night in Waikiki offered street performers and artists and tourists to watch. For me, for a year, it didn't get old. If I had had the opportunity to stay for another year, perhaps I'd have looked into living on the North Shore for year #2, just to try something new, but I have no regrets in choosing 240 Makee Rd., 96815 as my temporary residence.

So while cold weather now closes in on me for the first time in 20 months, I'm going to try to reflect upon and articulate some of my experiences in Paradise. If you're planning on going to Hawai'i sometime and find something I mention interesting or useful, wonderful -- I'd love to hear about it. If you have a planning question and you can't find a satisfactory answer on the web, post it and if I don't have the answer for you right away I'll see if I can get it; I still have a ton of literature. If you're in a cold climate and reading these posts warms you up a little, that makes me just as happy. I'm hoping for a similar effect myself.

Aloha!