12/08/2008

When does a surf trip end?


I think that trips end at different times for different people. Its one of those things that only surfers really understand I guess, because we all have our own rituals and habits (Jeez, that brings back memories of those old Instinct posters, with quotes from Shaun and Barton on them... anyway...).


For some, surftrips end at the airport, when they check in for their flights. For others it's that final, last moment when those mighty Boeing engines kick in and the plane hurtles down the runway, onwards and upwards. Thats really the ending, when you can’t catch any more waves, and you’re packed and done, and the trip is physically over.


Other people swear that it ends before that for them, when they drop a mate at the airport. They reckon that when the first one of your crew leaves, the adventure ends. Because that’s when you know your time is limited, and you start making all of the final preparations to go home. Mentally, your surf trip is done.


For me, the trip always ends earlier than that, and it always ends at the same time. For me it's when I catch my last wave at my favourite spot that I’ve travelled to. That’s always the moment when I know it’s finished.


You know that moment, it’s the last barrel, or the last turn, it’s when you kick onto the shoulder and think “That’s what I came here for,” and it can happen 5 days before you go home, or 15 minutes before.


That moment happened to me 2 days ago here in Hawaii. I was out at Sunset on a pushing swell and was ridiculously undergunned on my 6’3”, thanks to a photographer mate who told me that it was 4 feet, when it was actually nearly double that. To catch some waves, I migrated to the Boneyards bowl, which is normally a little more controlled than the West Peak. Two hours into my surf a wedging bowl came my way and doubled up on the reef. I have never paddled so hard for a wave, and as it drained off the reef, I crouched and slid into it, keeping every centimetre of rail in the thick, steep face to set a line before standing straight up in the tube, right arm raised over my head. I stood in the barrel for a long time, and Paul Patterson paddled over the shoulder staring in, hooting and hollering.


As I rode onto the shoulder from that tube, I knew that I had got what I went to Hawaii for, and I looked to the sky and said thank you.

Of course, there have been other clues that this trip is winding down too. I took Corey to the airport, where he was wheelchaired into the queue while I carried his boards. We cleaned our rented house because we have to move out, and Dave and Ant and Jacob are long gone. The crew who I shared all of this with have dispersed to California, London, Cape Town, Durban and Brisbane.There are still waves to be surfed, and final preparations to be completed before I pack my boardbag and get ready for the long flight home too, but it kind of feels like my brain left Hawaii when I came out of that tube at Sunset.