Pipeline, tennis and Scrabble
My plan of getting up before 8 AM was erased due to the need for more sleep. The idea was that I'd check out the quaterfinals, semis and finals of the Rip Curl Pipe Masters, last leg of the surf tour for 2005. The prediction from the surf condition forecasters was that the winds would stay out of the way until noon or so. Knowing this the night before was supposed to motivate me to get there. Anyway, I was lagging and finally managed to arrive at my sister's around 10 AM in the Ford Explorer with my big red-striped surfing machine barely fitting diagonally. The parking gets way out of hand, sis lives about a mile away. The plan is to park car, take board out and put it on her porch so the wax does not melt, grab a bike and head on down to Pipeline to check out Slater, 7 time world champion, 5-time Pipeline winner.
Liz spots me as I am putting the board. "Hi Michael."
"Hi Liz."
Roberto comes out and says, "Hi Michael, let me look at the ding." I never reported how I pulled a major grom out of my butt and dinged my brand new stick while taking it out of the back porch to go surfing one day. Anyway, Ro wants to fix it right then and there. Cool, I think... I'd actually brought it to go surfing after the contest.
First thing Roberto does is clean off wax and duct tape remnants with kerosene. Then he takes a razor blade and gets rid of all the loose fiber glass. Then he applies the fiberglass repair junk from a tube. It only takes like a minute to dry in the sun but we take off and leave the sanding till after the contes.
Liz, Roberto, Caio and Jade all decided to check out the contest. They only have 3 bikes but lots of skateboards. So I end up riding a skateboard and getting towed by Roberto. This turned out to be a lot of fun. Kind of exciting flying by all the tourists. Whenever you bike past Sunset Beach, you can count on tourists blocking the bike trail while they blab away or take endless photos. Today was no exception but as usual they moved quickly out of the way when their tired sense of danger clued in that we were barreling down on them. Jade rode in a bike seat on Liz's cool "Simple" powder blue beach cruiser. Caio rode his own mini BMX bike with huge pegs.
Just as we arrived I heard over the loud speaker that Slater had just been disqualified due to interferrence. Bummer. I'd wanted to check out his prowees and needed him to make the finals. But it was not meant to be. The beach was packed with people. Most of them pretty young or young at heart. The North Shore is dominated by youth. The crown cheered for the locals and was not disappointed when 3 out of the 4 fianlists were Hawaiian. Andy Irons ended up winning the contest as well as the Triple Crown. He kicked ass. His Brother, Bruce almost pulled it out but the waves seemed to favor his brother.
The last round was kind of blown out. The winds picked up right on the predicted time. Still, A. Irons still managed to pull out a perfect 10 on his first wave of the finals. His brother Bruce, made it interesting when he scored a high 8 on a killer tube ride but was unable to get anything workable in the quickly deteriorating conditions. The horn goes off and that is it. The crowd of several thousand gets up enmasse and starts to trudge off the beach.
The ride back is fun, we zip by the crowds crowding the bike path and arrive back at the Lopes pad in less than 10 minutes. When Roberto and I check the surf conditions at Backyards, we can see that it is blown out. Ro says that the whole North Shore is blown out and suggests surfing the east side of the island.
We finish up the ding repair by sanding and it comes out looking almost brand new again. I take off to get some food in me and then Bri calls up to play some tennis. Mom, Dad, Bri and I played doubles round robin style where everyone switches partners. Bri ended up winning all his sets. Some how, Dad and Bri shut Mom and I out. Ugh. Not happy about that. Next, Bri and I teamed up and shut out the folks 6-0. I think we may be having a changing of the guard here. The next set, Bri and Mom beat Dad and I 6-3. And as you might of guessed, I was not happy about that.
Tonight, Mom, Dad and I had another game of Scrabble. This one was tight right down until the end. Mom won it with a score of 197. Oh well, can't win them all. My first game under 200... hopefully my last.
Liz spots me as I am putting the board. "Hi Michael."
"Hi Liz."
Roberto comes out and says, "Hi Michael, let me look at the ding." I never reported how I pulled a major grom out of my butt and dinged my brand new stick while taking it out of the back porch to go surfing one day. Anyway, Ro wants to fix it right then and there. Cool, I think... I'd actually brought it to go surfing after the contest.
First thing Roberto does is clean off wax and duct tape remnants with kerosene. Then he takes a razor blade and gets rid of all the loose fiber glass. Then he applies the fiberglass repair junk from a tube. It only takes like a minute to dry in the sun but we take off and leave the sanding till after the contes.
Liz, Roberto, Caio and Jade all decided to check out the contest. They only have 3 bikes but lots of skateboards. So I end up riding a skateboard and getting towed by Roberto. This turned out to be a lot of fun. Kind of exciting flying by all the tourists. Whenever you bike past Sunset Beach, you can count on tourists blocking the bike trail while they blab away or take endless photos. Today was no exception but as usual they moved quickly out of the way when their tired sense of danger clued in that we were barreling down on them. Jade rode in a bike seat on Liz's cool "Simple" powder blue beach cruiser. Caio rode his own mini BMX bike with huge pegs.
Just as we arrived I heard over the loud speaker that Slater had just been disqualified due to interferrence. Bummer. I'd wanted to check out his prowees and needed him to make the finals. But it was not meant to be. The beach was packed with people. Most of them pretty young or young at heart. The North Shore is dominated by youth. The crown cheered for the locals and was not disappointed when 3 out of the 4 fianlists were Hawaiian. Andy Irons ended up winning the contest as well as the Triple Crown. He kicked ass. His Brother, Bruce almost pulled it out but the waves seemed to favor his brother.
The last round was kind of blown out. The winds picked up right on the predicted time. Still, A. Irons still managed to pull out a perfect 10 on his first wave of the finals. His brother Bruce, made it interesting when he scored a high 8 on a killer tube ride but was unable to get anything workable in the quickly deteriorating conditions. The horn goes off and that is it. The crowd of several thousand gets up enmasse and starts to trudge off the beach.
The ride back is fun, we zip by the crowds crowding the bike path and arrive back at the Lopes pad in less than 10 minutes. When Roberto and I check the surf conditions at Backyards, we can see that it is blown out. Ro says that the whole North Shore is blown out and suggests surfing the east side of the island.
We finish up the ding repair by sanding and it comes out looking almost brand new again. I take off to get some food in me and then Bri calls up to play some tennis. Mom, Dad, Bri and I played doubles round robin style where everyone switches partners. Bri ended up winning all his sets. Some how, Dad and Bri shut Mom and I out. Ugh. Not happy about that. Next, Bri and I teamed up and shut out the folks 6-0. I think we may be having a changing of the guard here. The next set, Bri and Mom beat Dad and I 6-3. And as you might of guessed, I was not happy about that.
Tonight, Mom, Dad and I had another game of Scrabble. This one was tight right down until the end. Mom won it with a score of 197. Oh well, can't win them all. My first game under 200... hopefully my last.
posted by Dij at 10:15 PM
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