Nothing like spending a few weeks in freezing cold Colorado to make you ready for a little Hawaii beach vacation, by the time the whole Grand Prix was over I was ready for a holiday retreat, unfortunately usually that entails heading back east for a icy, cold family gathering.....that sounds like my family is icy and cold which is not the case but seeing as how I am sitting here on the beautiful north shore of O'ahu listening to the wind rustle the palm trees and the waves crash upon the shore they might be feeling a little icy pang of jealousy but can you blame them, throw in the amazingly awesome and funny Lago brothers and you've really got someting to be jealous about. So yeah, I am here in the land of Aloha and perma tans, here to check out the last day of Pipe Masters and get a little bit of sunshine on my pastey white winter skin and it just so happens Scotty Lago and his brother Jason are on the same plan, and coincidently the same plane.
Scotty makes for a fabulous flying partner, good laughs, good crossword puzzles and only drooled on my shoulder once that I am aware of and was beyond pumped when he got to meet "DOG" the bounty hunter, and was only slightly bummer when he realized he was made of cardboard, and I just thought he was made of leather....tee hee hee.
Pipeline or Back Door or Off the wall, anyway you slice it it's flat as sh**.
The legendary Pipe Master Finals, something people put on their list of things to do in this lifetime and seriously, who doesn't want to see the best surfers in the world surf one of the best and most legendary breaks in the world blah blah blah but we couldn't help but feel slighty disappointed with the lack of waves. Still it is always impressive to see four of the best paddle and fight like hell for a chest high wave, or to watch Kelly slater go down as he sits scanning the Horizon for waves in a flat ocean for the remaining four minutes of the heat....yeah contests.
World Champion Mick Fanning....or wait is it Kelly Slater.
One of my new favorite things about going to surf contests is the row of photogs and the mad amount of shit that they talk about anything and everything, from the pervy ass shots they snap inbetween heats to all the dubious name dropping stories they spew, about how so and so is there bro and how they surf all the time with so and so. Yesterday was no exception, this one ultra cool (or so he thought) photographer was going on and on to Jeremy and I about Kelly being a dork and standing on the beach in a pink hat and trying to get all this attention and this and that, really bitching up a storm about Kelly. Now, I am no trained surf photographer but I have been known to do a little stalking in my day, and there was something about this supposed "kelly" character in the pink hat that just didn't seem right, first off he didn't exactly look like Kelly Slater, secondly I saw him later sitting with a bunch of Aussies, drinking beer during the Kelly Wardo heat, and finally I saw him drap his Austrailian flag over his shoulders and carry Bede Derbidge off the beach on his shoulders. So in reality this kelly imposter was really World Champion Mick Fanning, who by the way has the coolest pink hat that I am so jealous of.
Hawaii woo.......Lee Crane, me and Scotty.
More Hawaii fun times to come, so nice to be here a few days before Christmas with our feet in the sand instead of tightly packed into cold snowboarding boots besides that will be the rest of my winter......
xoxoxoxo t
