Haleiwa at a good size is an incredibly difficult wave to surf. It’s heavy — heavier, even, than it looks — and the current is a nightmare to deal with. When it’s maxing, it doesn’t matter how good of a surfer you are, how fit you are, or how much experience you’ve got there. It’ll still kick your ass, because, as you (hopefully) know, the ocean is a hell of a lot stronger than we are. And on November 25, Haleiwa let the surfers there know, once again, that she’s in charge.
The swell that lit North Shore up was a bit of a surprise — the sheer size of it, anyway — so it’s likely that a lot of people were scrambling to wax up their bigger boards when they got a good look at what Haleiwa was doing.
The wave, as I said, isn’t an easy one. The real peak is roughly 250-350 yards from the beach, and it’s a shifty one. After navigating the paddle out and the sheer amount of water moving around there, a surfer on a wave will find themself dealing with a series of thick sections that end at the Toilet Bowl. On a big WNW, you basically don’t stop paddling, lest you find yourself sucked into the channel and eventually, pushed out to sea. Stuck inside at Haleiwa? Watch yourself, because you’re in for a licking. Waves from the west will bear down on you as the current pushes you east, and that current is a lot stronger than your shoulders. Experienced surfers know that riding a wave to the end and kicking out into the channel is the smartest way to do it, because that eastward current can pull you back around to somewhere near the peak.
“Not-so-smart surfers go straight to the takeoff spot,” wrote Surfline, “then spend the next 15 minutes paddling against the rip just to stay in position.”
The 25th was the day before the HIC Pro kicked off (watch that here, if you so desire), so the conditions served as a hell of a warm up for those competing. Among them were Eli Hannean, Noah Besehen, and Barron Mamiya, just to name a few.
