Surfin' USA

A bit of disappointment lay over the hostel in the morning. The predicted storm had turned and the waves were high but not higher than usual.

Perfect chance for me to try out my own surfing. I got a tip from the owner where to go for smaller waves that also a beginner like me could ride.

The place was called Kapolei and was on the south coast of Oahu. It was a good 60 km drive down there and the only way to get my borrowed surf board down there was to stick it in the open mustang.

Now this is what I call beach boy feeling... driving along the hawaiian beach in an open Ford Mustang with a surfboard sticking out.

The beach was previously restricted military personal and their families but had now opened up to the public as well.

I found it with a little bit of difficulty and set out into the waves.

I didn't even care to go out any further than the white wash.

From what I learned in Lahinch in Ireland I though I should be ok to do this but it seems the waves here in Hawaii are not just bigger but also much quicker than on the atlantic coast where I tried it last.

So also these little white wash waves didn't make it easy to ride them. I did however get one and a half rides on them after trying for nearly two hours.

This was enough for me and I can now state that I surfed Hawaii.

When back home in Ireland I will certainly have to improve on my surfing a bit and schedule the odd visit to Lahinch and maybe do another course there.

I was very tired after this but did a short side trip up a mountain on the way back to check out a view point I was told about.

It was a nice view but I was a bit worried about the surfboard sticking out of the car in the parking lot as there are warning sings everywhere not to leave valuables in cars (especially rental cars). So I came back quickly to the car and was happy to see it still all in place.

From here I thought it may be nice to take a curvy mountain road back (just like in the game "Testdrive Unlimited") but this was not possible since the road that my map showed me was there was a hiking path.

So, on the way back to the hostel I stopped off at the supermarket to stock up on fresh burger ingredients like tomatoes and beef and got back a little earlier and was able to continue my Burger session out on the patio of the hostel.

Next to the broken BBQ grill a new one has arrived and today I didn't need to risk burning down the house to get my burgers.

Later on in the evening Rachel, one of the girls working in the hostel, decided to clear out the fridge of all the stuff people had not used.

She threw everything on the table and we relabelled everything that was ours.

Soon, a little raid for everything that was not labelled but looked tasty started between us. There was lots of slagging and it was great fun to come up with new culinary creations with the leftover foods.

There were beers, pretty old and manky steaks that were picked up by some of the guys and we ended up making a huge bowl of nachos with all sorts of ingredients thrown on top of them and microwaved it.

This tasty desert was then enjoyed while we watched November Man on the patio.

It is always an early night in this hostel, but this doesn't bother me at all. Tonight I even had the room to myself as all the other guest had left, so I could read my book for a while before dozing off.