The hurricane surfing story to end all hurricane surfing stories!
You most certainly caught the story two days ago wherein Hurricane Lane visited the Hawaiian islands and instead of being scared/hoarding/cowering many brave locals went surfing instead.
As I remarked at the time, it is one of my favorite surfer traits. That big freaky storms evoke in us the unquenchable need to paddle and that news organizations love to gapingly stare at the spectacle.
Well, I thought all the angles had been covered. All the:
Reporter: “We’re here on the beach in Waikiki with Hurricane Lane set to make landfall in just a few hours, Jill and yet… (camera pans out) … we have surfers paddling out to ride the storm.’
Anchor: “Did you say surfers, Bob?”
Reporter: “I sure did. They have been here on the beach all morning, not heeding the sirens or the lifeguard warnings.”
Anchor: “Well I’ll be. Cowabunga. Stay safe out there, Bob.”
Etc.
But never did I think a man in Hilo would be Surf Ranching. And let’s turn to NPR for more.
As Hurricane Lane approached Hawaii’s big island, it dumped record amounts of rain on the city of Hilo, on the island’s eastern coast, causing flooding, landslides, and damage to homes.
But as all that water began draining out to sea, it also created the perfect conditions for Shawn Pila to grab his surfboard and jump into the concrete drainage canal near his home.
When it rains hard, Pila said, the torrential flow interacts with the shape of the canal to create a standing wave, “and we found out that we could surf it, so when it rains like this we’re surfing the trench like Ninja Turtles.”
Pila said the wave he rode on Saturday was the largest he’d ever surfed in the canal. The perils are many: the river carries logs and debris; after a fall, it’s easy to get carried out to sea; and then there are the police, who threatened to arrest him.
“They’re just doing their job,” Pila said after a police officer made him get out. But he’s been surfing that little wave during hard rain for almost 20 years, and said he doesn’t plan to stop now.
Hilo for the win.
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
Last seen shitting through the eye of a needle
How many backhand attacks to get 10 points again?
Take me back to skid mark city where the waters brown and the waves are shitty.
Webber Wavepools long promised release was underwhelming.
That guy could get just as memorable a cocaine + surfing experience, but without all the health risks by reading Cocaine + Surfing.
Heard this on NPR too. I guess it’s about what I visualized, but a bit darker.
I think I’m more interested in how he got in to it, and what happens after he kicks out, than the actual ride… very Flowriderish. Still though, that is a serious volume of water flowing through there… I don’t think I would do it.
“ what happens after he kicks out, “ … that was the last anyone saw of him…
He ended up in a Pila shit ?
No need to go to go all the way to Hawaii for Wind & Sewerage ?
look no further than a site toilet
Got some great waves during the construction of Darling Harbour in the late 80s when we realized that we had no covered access to the site toilet and were forced to go « out the gate for 48 « to rectify the problem ! After having surfed a few contests at Manly in the 80s I understood straight away ( like gargling salted shit laced with dishwashing liquid ) why there was a boardriders club there named aptly Wind n Sewerage .
Cowabunga, NSW, pop. 1982.
Not far from the hamlet of Cornholio.
‘Cowabunga’ in the local Aboriginal dialect means: “I’m not surfing that! There’s a shark the size of Steve’s bus there!!!”
Yeah. Nah.
Underwhelming
I think I’d prefer 4 days straight of Netflix, actually.
Better than going to work….
Someone should’ve ordered him a pizza.
The novelty wave soon to be known as “Staphs”
I watched the whole clip but didn’t see any Ninja Turdles.
Listened to Radio Birdman’s »Aloha Steve and Danno « and thought it was strange when I heard :
Book him Danno Turder One
Book him Danno Turder One ……….
Missing the rope he could have met Shredder!!!