Kona vs Lahaina?

Did six months on Maui there a couple of winters ago. Best thing I even did. Went from kook level one to like kook level 3 or 4 in that time. Fell in love with the sport and being in the ocean. Just came off heavy work push and am planning on 6 months in Kona as of jan 2015. Surfing subpar compared to maui? Looks like a lot of good stuff on youtube. Pros cons?

Choose Kona because we have house swap opportunity. Would make it cheap, comes with forerunner and Ill ship my truck and tools over. Sounds like lots of construction work kicking around. 5 year old gonna be in kindergarten. Wife gonna have baby in late april. Part of going is so she can gestate on the beach. Nothing hotter then pregnant wife in bikini.

meth heads? Tourists? Localism?

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Originally Posted by carpathian

meth heads? Tourists? Localism?

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Yes, yes and yes. Muggy, Vog, Dismal…. But it is still Hawaii and a free house is a free house!

My buddy in Kona said he couldn't leave a window cracked in his condo for fear some mef head would try to squeeze through it.

They still bringing in that Phillipine meth to the islands, Crampedon?

But if you start surfing, who's gonna give us killer AK stoke?

Kona is super sweet. At least it was 9 years ago. I spent a summer living on various beaches there. Sleeping out in the open, surfing, and working every day. I thought it was great! Decent waves. Nice people. Lots of tourists, but that goes for almost anywhere in Hawaii. And yes some sketchy people. I sold my 1000 dollar station wagon for 700 bucks the night before I left to this meth head lady. She paid cash and was certifiably insane. I'd consider it plenty safe enough. I did spend a few nights sleeping with one eye open though as partiers or late night drunken fishermen hung around.

Decent Waves? Kona? Compared to the rest of that island, the most tourists, with lots of crappy tacky mega resorts. this place and people is so fucking baffling to me.

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Originally Posted by splat

My buddy in Kona said he couldn't leave a window cracked in his condo for fear some mef head would try to squeeze through it.

They still bringing in that Phillipine meth to the islands, Crampedon?

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I don't know where that shit comes from, my guess is the west coast and Vegas.

Lotsa fresh boomers in the pastures this week!

Yeah, Kona, Meh.

Tough when you live Haiku

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Well the deed is done. Bought cheap one way tickets for jan 10. All I can hope is to rise through the ranks and maybe be a Kook level 10 and then graduate to Barney status. I reckon Ill catch a few waves either way. It is pissing rain here in Girdwood thanks to the 'largest storm of all time' spinning across the bering sea right now. Get me out of here...

I'll take the vegan Haiku pasture boomers overlooking the break makai in Ho'okipa any fucking day over Kona.

I still gots that condo to use in Kapalua, Crampedon.

You know Ho'okipa Dave? He trademarked Ho'okipa for shirts.

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Originally Posted by carpathian

Well the deed is done. Bought cheap one way tickets for jan 10. All I can hope is to rise through the ranks and maybe be a Kook level 10 and then graduate to Barney status. I reckon Ill catch a few waves either way. It is pissing rain here in Girdwood thanks to the 'largest storm of all time' spinning across the bering sea right now. Get me out of here...

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Cool good for you.,. It could be worse, like spending those 6 months on the east coast of the USA.

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Originally Posted by carpathian

Did six months on Maui there a couple of winters ago....meth heads? Tourists? Localism?

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It's actually called Batu or Ice..

However drugs don't make you a bad surfer


9:20 Uncle E legendary waterman

48 hours in Kona and I have to say that I like it so far. Reminds me of the hot desert around Lahaina but more spread out. Seems like more people but better traffic flow. I got in the water for an hour today and was the whitest of kooks you ever saw.

Goodbye Girdwood with your warm mountains and cold rain.

https://scontent-a-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/...0e&oe=55223BFD

It is like she has never seen green grass

https://scontent-a-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/...b7&oe=556DCBA2

or green geckos

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scoping waves from the house

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Big Brudda air drop

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Double air drop on the big brudda head.

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Grrrr

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Not bad first day!

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Wow, looks good!

Kona is rad! Enjoy!

Finally getting some of these waves figured out. They all seem to be pretty technical as far as I can tell, but really what do I know? Real deep water jumping up onto reef shelf. Some serious reef suck today.

Maybe buy cheap piece of paradise in one of those weird subdivisions down south. Anyone know much about Hawaiian Ocean View Estates? Did a drive through yesterday, kind of weird but no more then Old Girdwood.

Watch the wave/reef closely, and figure out where that spot is that it goes from deep water to shallow reef. Those super sucky, technical drops become super easy if you are just in the right spot. You almost do not need to paddle into them, just point in the right direction and stand up as your board drops to the bottom. In fact, if you are finding you need to paddle hard to get into them, you are probably sitting in the deep water and trying to get into the right spot as the waves jacks. Have fun with them. Best kind of surf there is, IMO.

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Originally Posted by carpathian

Finally getting some of these waves figured out. They all seem to be pretty technical as far as I can tell, but really what do I know? Real deep water jumping up onto reef shelf. Some serious reef suck today.

Maybe buy cheap piece of paradise in one of those weird subdivisions down south. Anyone know much about Hawaiian Ocean View Estates? Did a drive through yesterday, kind of weird but no more then Old Girdwood.

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I stayed in an airbnb in Ocean View estate for a few nights a couple weeks ago. Definitely a weird neighborhood, we didn't have any problems, but got the sense there are alot of tweakers around there. Cheap property since its all built on an old lava flow. It's a bit of a ride from ocean view down to the water though and the coast in that area is pretty rugged. FWIW I much preferred the Hamakua coast north of Hilo. We stayed in another airbnb in Pepeekeo on a small cattle farm that was pretty sweet.

^^ Thanks for your thoughts, yeah the HOVE is kind of weirdoville but for $5000 an acre you can have your own piece of weirdeoville and be only 30 minutes form this break in Kealakekua Bay:

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A couple of weeks ago the 'swell of the decade' rolled though. It was fun see the ocean get crazy.

Started out reasonable, Kukio in the morning:

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Went to check out the Harbor in the afternoon, swell growing rapidly:

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Pete was feeling brave, I am always glad when I can opt to be camera guy!

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Don't look so bad…

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Oh wait, closeout. Pete is 6' 7" for what it is worth.

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He prudently opted to stay on the inside

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The next day, closeout across harbour entrance

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These guys are more brave/skilled than I

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https://scontent-a-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/...09&oe=554B2AAF

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Pummeled

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...d0d921e5525367

The next day

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Duck dive?

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He caught this back into the harbour entrance

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So all in all there seems to be waves around here though locals are saying this has been the best winter season in a while...

You picked a good year, it's been a pretty crazy run of W swell lately- Kona gets shadowed by all the other islands on a more northerly direction.

I took a couple of weeks off from wave catching after my long swim out at the harbour break.

Went and got a job doing finish carpentry on these 10 million dollar houses in Kukio.

This is my after work wave.

Pole plant

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The swell jumped up to 4-6 ' yesterday

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Swell bumped to 8-10 today. Went back to Harbor for first time in three weeks. Glassy goodness

^That's especially painful to look at given the crappy snow conditions most of us are dealing with this season.

Nice.