Hawaii's North Shore of Oahu, Winter 2007
Viking Surfboard's Team Manager, Mauricio invited me to go with several of the Team Members and staff to Hawaii this winter for some promotional and fun surf sessions. As a young 14 year old, I was eager to accept (with my parent's permission) but nervous about the reputation of Hawaii's north shore.
Reading surf magazine articles about the north shore's seven miles of miraculous waves and watching videos of spectacular barrels, long rides and crystal clear water helped calm down my nerves about bone crushing pipeline drop ins, razor sharp reefs, horrendous local wolf packs and radical crowds of surfers. Even with such a reputation, I still wanted to try my forehand at the Banzai Pipeline on a decent sized day, if the swell cooperates.
Preparation for the trip included getting permission from my school (Merritt Island Christian School) to take a few days off (two weeks), bump up my quiver of boards for the larger Hawaiian surf, contacting my sponsors for financial assistance for the trip and making the necessary travel arrangements.
Viking Surfboards had all my accommodations covered and my newest sponsor SurfSling picked up the tab on my airfare. FCS helped with my travel equipment and extra fins I'd need for the trip and Matt Kechele's company Freak provided some much needed traction and assistance too.
CT Taylor immediately started shaping my boards for the larger North Pacific surf. My expert shaper added a 5'4" for smaller surf a 5'8" mini-gun for faster hollow and larger surf and a 6'0" gun for larger sunset and surf that would be difficult to paddle into with more standard sized boards. I would take one of my favorite medium sized Florida boards for the smaller days which should cover any conditions that I might meet along the way.
Now to convince my school that Hawaii was an educational trip and get permission to launch off to Honolulu. It just so happened that one whole week of the trip was Thanksgiving Holiday anyway's and one day of the previous week was a teacher's workday and then another day was the traditional day that our school celebrates Thanksgiving by having a Thanksgiving feast. This only left me with three days of missed school and my teachers and school administration were very supportive in my endeavors and provided me with my homework and assignments for the missed days. It seems as if the God that created heaven and earth (and it's waves) smiled down and blessed me with great support from sponsors, parents, school and friends. [the adventure continues...]
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