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| North Shore |
The days in between the accidentally
horrendous Halloween and the credible, decent, and fun Halloween were spent
taking in the rest of Oahu. You can
probably take note that I don’t exaggerate on my adjectives…I like to describe
things as they are.
This is excluding the Sunday after the
terrible Halloween tsunami because my hangover would not allow me anything
outside of drinking water, watching basketball and laying the hammock. All actions that describe things that have
little to no movement involved at all.
I had met some really awesome new people so we spent most of the days hanging out together sort of, well the
nights really.
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| Mari & "Drunken" Barry Ronan |
Mari, Jess, Becki and their entire crew
of other quiet, yet very hot British chicks, Barry “Drunken” Ronan (self-named) and
some of the other Irish lads, my buddy Tajuan, Claire and some of the other
Americans. We all hung out
sporadically. As most relationships at
hostels go.
I figured out
the key to unlocking the fun at the hostel, well all hostels really. This one in-particular because it has a lot of potential, they just needed a little help harnessing said potential. Everything was too spread out at first.
The courtyard, with its various chairs
and tables, was too spread out in my assessment. So the
key was that every afternoon the best course of action was to pull all of the
tables and chairs together before anyone came in and got settled with their
computers/smartphones, basically rid them of any interaction killing activity.
Which worked of course because I’m a
genius, everyone wants to hang out naturally.
We are all looking for some form of acceptance. It’s just some people need a little help or a
push to get there. Once there, it's just a matter of time before the drinks, the fun, and the perverted jokes come out...okay, that last one is my "fault" usually.
I met Mari and the others on the Hallowbaloo Halloween night while I was getting my costume ready.
They were impressed with my “American enthusiasm” for Halloween. Not that you can tell that I have a certain
level of unhealthy enthusiasm about it, I’ve only written 3 blogs about this ONE occasion.
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| Dinner & shots of course |
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| Mari's also a TEACHER, so she rounded us all up for this |
It was a fun game, if we wouldn’t have had
so many people because it was incredibly easy to lose interest when your turn wasn't near. Once that
was gone, of course then naturally it became your turn and it was all over after
that. That was our one great night in
the “Irish Pub” (nothing Irish about it though) full of drunken buffoonery and
lots of laughs.
Not sure what it is about “Irish Pubs”
and why they allow them to be everywhere (whoever THEY are…probably “the Man”, “Oprah”,
“Donald Trump”, or some combination of rich people that make bad decisions
based on the “greater good”).
It is very rare that one can find an
ACTUAL pub that the Irish like to drink in (the blog’s first oxymoron!). I mean in the sense that most bars simply
call themselves Irish because they have Guiness on tap or something dumb, so
they slap a bunch of green and mildly racist posters on the walls and now they can claim themselves to be a “pub”.
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| Hanauma Bay |
To fill out the rest of the days
betweens Halloweens (bad grammar approved), I went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay
which was really great because I had never been snorkeling before and this is
apparently one of the premiere spots to do it.
I completely agree because I got to see multiple
Sea-Turtles and scare countless fish that I couldn’t name and there were plenty of
separate reefs to choose from.
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| Twan' and Me |
My buddy Tajuan had been before though,
so he showed me the ropes. I spent most
of those days hanging out with ‘Twan actually.
He’s a nurse from Los Angeles and we had a lot in common. He’s just a really chill and easy going guy,
so we hit it off right away. So that’s
who I did most of my exploring with.
By exploring I mean; checking out
chicks, finding good places to eat, watching basketball and sleeping off
hangovers (separately, not together. Just thought I’d throw that in there to
clarify)…after we hung out drinking naturally.
The Wednesday morning of Halloween my friend
Geoff came to pick me up at 6am to go surfing.
Or probably better described as: Geoff let me come along to the north
shore while he and his friend went surfing.
The North Shore is the best spot to surf
and where all the locals prefer to go. I
knew I was in trouble just talking to Geoff about the size of the waves. That’s before I got in the car and realized
all he had were short boards.
Geoff’s been surfing for years and his
friend grew up in Hawaii. I’ve been
surfing about 5 times, all of which were not completely successful. None of which were successful when I used a
short board.
I put on a brave face for the boys
though. I told them we would see what
the waves looked like and that I needed to learn to use a short board at some
point…not sure who I was trying to convince though, them or me.
They chose two different spots with good
sized waves. I thought that I may have a
decent shot of at least standing up. It
was apparent before I came, to me at least, that I came here to practice and
these guys came to surf.
So they hopped off one of ledges closest
to the rocks and swam out to the highest breaks. I however, finally made a decent decision in
my life and did not let my ego talk me into going with them.
I swam out on the opposite side in what
I assumed was the channel (still learning how to judge the water itself). Since I’m new
to the sport, I am trying to do a couple of things.
- Not die (pretty big on the list of priorities)
- Not get in the way of the people who know what they are doing
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| Nice view |
I’ve seen too many movies and TV shows
about people in Hawaii getting their asses kicked because they “took someone’s
wave”. Hawaiian locals can be a bit
intimidating (purposefully) to the “mainlanders” and I wasn’t trying to step on
any huge islanders toes.
Since I can’t fully control myself when
I stand up (aka avoid people), I try not to get in the way or do anything if
there are a lot of people in the line-up around me.
What I learned in the North Shore that
day was that I’m just going to have to get my ass kicked if I ever want to be
decent. Or learn to fight a little better because there really isn't much of a code of conduct in the water. The surfers like to say there is, but every time I was about to get up someone came along for me to kill...there were WAY too many people
in those line-ups and you can’t be timid about getting in on a wave, you just
have to go...and hope that you don't in fact, kill.
Needless to say, I was not successful at
either of the spots we went to for various reasons. At the first place I was in “no man’s land”,
with no waves to try to surf and no current to take me back in. So I spent most of the time paddling…and if
you’ve ever been surfing you know that is the least fun part of all
surfing.
My neck, shoulder, and arm muscles felt
like I was stiff-arming 2 fat chicks away from a donut.
I try to put a positive spin on things
and tell myself that was my workout for the day…or decade…whatever. So when I finally made it up to the beach an
old man began to chastise me for paddling-in through the wrong spot. I actually thought that was completely f***** obvious...not sure what his deal was, he was talking
about how I could have drowned…which is true I guess…but I was fine, so I think
he was making a big deal about nothing.
There was a lot of bad juju going on
with that guy so I walked down the beach away from him. I’m not sure what it is about me that make
people I don’t know come and tell me their life story, their every desire,
and/or what they do or do not like about me…but I treated him as I treat most
of those people that come to me with a negative energy.
Like a girlfriend throwing a fit. I calm them down with the ol’ “smile and nod”,
which I believe I have perfected at this point in my life.
I don’t actually care what that person
is saying, but they’ll believe I do. I
have the timing down for the nods, the smiles, and even the occasional “wow”, “yeah”,
“thanks”, or “really?”.
But most importantly, I’m not one of
those people who NEEDS to be right, or even heard for that matter.
So whenever I get a chance to agree, or
make a comment that will effectively end the conversation quicker, I do
it. No matter what, it does usually
entail the words, “I see your point, you are right”. (That one works EVERYTIME)
Example: “Where are you from,
California?”, annoying person I’d rather not be talking to asks.
“Sure, that sounds good”- Me, trying
desperately to leave.
Lie or no lie, I’m out. I could actually care less if I get my point
across to that person, I just want it to be over, life is too short to be
dealing with f***heads and their pointless conversations.
So after my “lesson” from the old man, I
went over to a nice shaded spot, waited on the guys and had myself a little
nap.
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| Photo has no purpose in the story, just thought it was cool |
At the 2nd place, there were
too many people and I froze. I did
stand-up on a few but I went right back down, on my own, because there were
people in front of me. So it wasn’t a
complete failure at least.
Geoff and his friend told me that it was
good that I had those thoughts and worries because most people just try to get
out there with no idea what they’re doing and no regard for other surfers…of
course, his friend also told me later that he was glad I didn’t go out with
them by the rocks at the first place because he would have been really worried.
This was a nice way for him to tell me
that “I suck”, which I do, so you can’t be mad at the truth and I do enjoy a
little sugar-coating from time to time.
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| Hmm...didn't really SEE the island of "Lost", but you can SEE it right? |
I did enjoy the North Shore though, I
got to see the island where they filmed “Lost” on ABC, and the two spots that
we surfed at (whose names I’ve since forgotten) are really famous and odds are
if you’ve seen a TV show or movie about surfing they have done filming
there.
After we came out of the water, I saw
Jack Johnson picking his kid up from school on a bicycle. This made me feel like I was in Hawaii even
more than before. It’s almost as if I
could hear his songs playing in my head.
I’m thinking, “how rich are you Jack
Johnson, and yet you still come pick your kid up on a bicycle that doesn’t look
big enough for you?”. I mean, how cool
is that?
There were also a list of famous surfers
that Geoff’s friend named but I have no idea about any of them.
That night was the Halloween in Waikiki
that I posted out of order, before this one. Which didn't get nearly as out-of-hand as I thought because I had to catch a flight in the morning.
The next day I flew to the island of Maui to see my friend Jackie.
