THE DAY
Monday November 14th 2016 actually started off pretty mellow. I’d been watching the charts all week prior and they had back-to-back swells hitting. I’d been out every day either paddling in or towing on the outer reefs. I felt ready in my mind to go but the swell looked smaller than the previous ones so it wasn’t a sure thing.
Sunday was the Aloha Classic closing party and I wanted to celebrate with everyone but instead went home early to get a good night’s rest. I woke up at 5am on Monday, did a quick meditation and yoga session before driving down to check out Pe’ahi from the cliff. It was looking pretty small but breaking really nicely and the wind forecast looked solid so I sent out an amber alert to Sarah, Kai Katchadorian and Rudy Castorino who were waiting to go up themselves on their skis. I then came into work early and kept an eye on the buoy readings. As we started to see them rise, Sarah and I decided to call it. By 10am we were at my house loading all our gear into the truck, hooking up the ski and heading to Maliko Gulch. Sarah and I have been training together for over a year now and have our drills for launching and landing the ski pretty dialled, the major downfall being my beaten up Maui cruiser which may fall apart at any moment. Together we loaded up the sled, launched and rode up to Jaws in pretty rough conditions. I was still nervous about anchoring the ski up there as last year it nearly sank. The wind and waves come in from opposing angles which can swamp a ski on anchor. This year I’d put the time into the ski and it all seemed to be floating so we rigged up. Sarah is used to rigging up on boats from sailing outer reefs in New Caledonia, so we made a pretty awesome team from our tiny platform.
It wasn’t the biggest, gnarliest day out there but it was a perfect day for a first attempt. There were some solid bomb sets coming in and a few west bowls to watch out for, but in general it was pretty mellow. Lots of guys were here after the event so it was busy but everyone was super respectful. I took my time catching waves and working my way in deeper each time. My final wave I was deep enough to bottom turn, top turn and cut back before hitting the channel so I was really happy with that. Sure I could have gone straight for the hell man approach and wipe out but I have a longer-term vision, so for me the day was a success. Sarah and I, as an all women team, ran the whole mission from start to finish successfully, no injury and no drama. That for me was the ultimate accomplishment.