Crashing surf on the north shore of Hawaii is legendary. It’s the stuff of movies and (these days) professional competitions. It is also seasonal - winter brings the big waves. For the occasional tourist, this has two cautions.
First, if your trip is during the summer you will be able to see beaches made famous by surf legend, but you won’t see the legendary surf. On our second visit to Hawaii, we stayed at a bed and breakfast with a family from Germany (now THAT’s a plane ride). They rented a car and drove to the north shore of Oahu hoping to see the famous big surf. They returned quite disappointed. They had found traffic congested with fellow sight-seers but not the sights they had hoped for. The surf looked pretty much like it had in Waikiki, especially to the untrained eye. At the time, my entire body of surfing knowledge also came from movies and books so I don’t feel too badly about not telling them that the drive was a waste of time. If you truly want to see the beach itself, by all means go. The north shore area of Oahu is funkier and has more personality than other areas. You’ll get some great souvenirs and the beaches are beautiful. Just be aware that the big waves won’t be there until late November.
Second, if your trip is in winter you will be able to see the big waves but that means it may not be so good to try water activities for the first time. At least, don’t attempt to surf for the first time on the north shore of any of the islands. On our recent Thanksgiving trip, Rick and I drove to the north side of Kauai to see the big waves. They looked much like the ones on the north shore of Oahu - VERY impressive. Most of the people on the beach were also tourists with cameras taking pictures of the waves, or of themselves in front of the waves on the beach. The people in the water were locals. It was a very rough surf day and not one for beginners.
In winter, there are more sheltered beaches were learning to surf is possible. All sorts of water activities go on year-round: surfing, snorkeling, kayaking. It is easy to rent equipment to explore on your own or with a few lessons. But don’t plan to return with a great story about surfing for the first time in epic north shore waves — one part of that sentence should always be false.
Triple Crown of Surfing has once again come to Oahu’s North Shore, and with it hundreds of the world’s most accomplished professional surfers, their wives and/or girlfriends, their kids and innumerable surf industry company representatives. Certainly, the spectacle of three world class surfing competitions, the Reef Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa, the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing and the Billabong Pipeline Masters are what brings a nomadic tribe of surfers from all over the world to Oahu’s North Shore each year, but for most of the temporary denizens of the “seven mile miracle” of the North Shore, just being there during the winter wave season is the point itself.
There seems to be three schools of thought about the onslaught of people and vehicles onto two-lane Kamehameha Highway, creating traffic and parking gridlock and increasing chances for car break-ins and other opportunistic, petty crimes. This bothers many residents who look to the impending circus with apprehension each year. Personally, I grew up surfing on the North Shore, but the glut of media attention makes the trek from my apartment in town to the country more trouble than it’s worth (25 miles is a long way to ride with two surfboards on a bicycle).
But for area businesses on the North Shore, the winter wave season provides a windfall of revenue that, in many cases, provides a boon to get through the leaner months of the off-season summer months. Eateries, coffee shops, pubs, surfboard shapers and technicians, crafters, property owners looking to rent their homes and all manner of vendors are more than happy to see the crush of humanity invade the North Shore each year.
The third school of thought would have to be the state of mind of non-competitors who arrive either as companions or as soul surfers who come to Hawaii as a part of an international rite of passage. The North Shore of Oahu is the epicenter of the surfing world each year, a sort of aquatic Hajj, or pilgrimage, that every devoted surfer is compelled to make at least once. For those not competing, their stay here is rather like a vacation, free of the rigors of clocking in to work and other mundane aspects of adult life that we all face. Days upon days of enjoying perhaps the most beautiful seven mile stretch of accessible coastline in the world.
Competitively, the events of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, sponsored by Rockstar Energy Drink (sponsorships at the Vans Triple Crown are many and, frankly, a little confusing), are among the most important on the World Championship Tour and its feeder circuit the World Qualifying Series. In many years past, world titles for both the men and women have been decided at Vans Triple Crown events. With enormous pressure from sponsors, peers and a profound athletic competitiveness, the level of surfing at the Van’s Triple Crown is of the highest caliber to be witnessed anywhere in the world.
While the quality of surf varies from year to year due to global atmospheric and oceanic conditions, the North Shore of Oahu has always, and always will, deliver the best waves to be found at any time anywhere on Earth.
Obviously, if the people most adversely affected by traffic, parking, crowds and stores that run out of beer still choose to remain on the North Shore during its busiest time of year, it’s no small wonder that thousands from all over the world are willing to brave the temporary population boom.
This is the time of year surfers and surfing followers wait for. The Vans TripleCrown of Surfing Series is under way, beginning on Oahu’s north shore.
The Billabong Pro Maui women’s surfing competition — the third and final event of the women’s crown — is the only outer-island event of the world-championship Series. It’s held at Honolua Bay on Maui’s rugged north shore and will crown the women’s world champion. Competition will be held on the two biggest and best days of surf within the designated holding period: December seventh through twentieth.
Honolua Bay Beach is a seldom-visited area of Maui, but it’s worth the trip if you enjoy snorkeling, scuba diving or surfing. The beach is located in a marine life preserve, so the fish are plentiful and the coral formations are spectacular. The right side of the bay has the best snorkeling and diving scenery. Remember that you can’t fish or spear fish here because of its protected designation. Water conditions can vary dramatically in this area depending on ocean currents and rainfall. If you’d like to watch the competition and you are not a local, find a hotel or condo in Maui near the event.
Winter’s approaching. That’s significant in Hawaii, when the season brings the big waves and attracts the big surfers from all over the world. They arrive in early November in anticipation of competing for one of the most coveted awards in international surfing – the Vans Triple Crown. The event started its six-week run on November 12th and run through December 20. This year’s prize purse will be the largest in the Series’ history: $815,000.
More than 260 of the world’s best competitive surfers — men and women — will seek six titles as well as the series crown. The events all will take place at three venues on Oahu’s North Shore: Haleiwa, Sunset Beach and the Banzai Pipeline.
Each event will have a 12-day window in which it must be completed.
You may have considered surfing to be a very personal activity, surfer against nature, but the Vans Triple Crown is an enormously popular spectator sport and crowds will gather to see the best in the world compete on huge, awesome waves in a gorgeous setting. You might consider being there yourself. Find a hotel near Oahu’s North Shore to watch the surfers compete!
Winter’s approaching. That’s significant in Hawaii, when the season brings the big waves and attracts the big surfers from all over the world. They arrive in early November in anticipation of competing for one of the most coveted awards in international surfing – the Vans Triple Crown. The event will start its six-week run on November 12th and run through December 20. This year’s prize purse will be the largest in the Series’ history: $815,000.
More than 260 of the world’s best competitive surfers — men and women — will seek six titles as well as the series crown. The events all will take place at three venues on Oahu’s North Shore: Haleiwa, Sunset Beach and the Banzai Pipeline.
Each event will have a 12-day window in which it must be completed.
You may have considered surfing to be a very personal activity, surfer against nature, but the Vans Triple Crown is an enormously popular spectator sport and crowds will gather to see the best in the world compete on huge, awesome waves in a gorgeous setting. You might consider being there yourself.
