When it rains on Oahu, it pours. Sure, it’s a relatively nice rain, one that’s warm and tropical, but it still rains. That’s why the place is so lush, after all. Can’t have the tropics without the rain and the sun, so let’s not complain about it. And when it rains on Oahu, the Waimea River swells. When the Waimea River swells, all that rainfall needs to go somewhere, and that somewhere is Waimea Bay.
You’ve seen it by now, right? Jamie O’Brien or Ben Gravy or someone else surfing a weird, temporary wave breaking over the mounds of sand created on the beach when the river busts through. Most of the time, when it’s done for YouTube, anyway, someone’s in there with a shovel, sweating away. You gotta earn your turns when surfing the Waimea river wave. But when there’s enough water, the shovels aren’t necessary and the river breaks through on its own. It does a bit of damage to the beach, but the sand it washes away is quickly replaced.
