NORTH SHORE NOTES
DECEMBER, 2019
It’s usually in August...
It’s usually in August that people start saying dumb things, like, “When Waimea breaks this year I’m on it, no matter what!” I’ve heard plenty of bold claims and bad ideas and they’re usually in the flattest moments of summer. When winter comes to the North Shore of Oahu, most people keep quiet. It’s easy to feel invincible when it’s warm, flat and calm, but when the ground beneath you is shaking and the sets obscure the horizon, reality sets in and, as they say, you’ll find no atheists in the impact zone. I enjoy enthusiasm so I always play along because, who knows, maybe someone will back up their wild claims.
When the phone rang I smiled, finding myself in a sort of ‘August’ conversation. It was Kevin Collins.
Kevin is a well known kiter on Maui; a figure in the kiting industry since the beginning and now an obsessed foil rider. He’s keenly interested in kite foiling waves, “maybe large waves”, he says. Knowing that I live on Oahu, a block from the spot where Keahi and Reo tackle some of those big walling rights at Backyards,
