DC & Transworld’s Hawaiian Vacation
ADMIN
- June 04 2008
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The end of May is an ideal time to visit the Hawaiian islands. You’ll find air temperatures in the mid 80s and water temps in the high 70s. Oahu’s numerous skateparks are lit up at night and are rarely crowded. The warm evenings are ideal for staying out late and soaking up local culture with an umbrella-clad drink in your hand. You absolutely must drive to the North Shore for some hiking, swimming, snorkeling, and general country-style relaxing. It’s the island’s true heart. So it only took a nanosecond for Jamey Stone and myself to say yes to a week-long excursion to the Aloha State with our homeys from DC Shoes.
Upon arrival, it was critical that we stuffed ourselves with local pineapple and iced coffee—50 cents a can at the ABC Stores. You can’t match these flavors anywhere in the world. After checking into our beachfront hotel, we mellowed our jetlag with some mai tais and pina coladas at Duke’s. We met up with our DC counterparts and headed off for our welcome party that night at club Fashion 45. Dirt Nasty (formerly Simon Rex of MTV fame) and Andre Legacy were performing and the VIP room was laid out for our crew to lounge in. The Hawaiians really know how to host a party. The night didn’t go too late (unless your name is Lance Holcomb) because the DC team had a demo the next day at noon.
We all rendezvoued the next day at the Aloha Tower to do a demo for local shop Pipe Dreams. The demo went off despite the heat and humidity, and after a lengthy autograph signing, we hit Zippy’s for lunch. The chili on rice is a must. We finally got a session in at the famed A’ala Park with locs Applenuts, Silent John, and Sunshine and sweated some more. Everyone was pretty much pooped, and after a dip in the warm ocean, we rested well for a full day on the North Shore.
Up early on a Sunday morning, our crew hit Haleiwa Cafe on the North Shore for some Portugese Sausage and eggs (you’ll note a very foody theme going on here, I can’t help it, the food in Hawaii rules), then Jamey Stone took us on a historic hike into the Waimea foothills. Past the dirt road where theives have discarded rental cars stolen and stripped from tourists, we came upon the ruins of the sacred Waimea Heiau temple. Jamey Stone regaled the crew with a vivid tapestry of legends about sorceresses, fire goddesses, ghosts, tidal waves, the creation of man and more as we passed around a baseball bat of the island’s finest pakalolo. Back in the Kastel days, Jamey was at this same temple with Steve “Crazy Monk” Olson who wanted to enter the Heiau to get even more in touch with its aura, but Jamey had to dissuade him saying, “You’ll get cursed with some Brady Bunch shit.”
After gazing upon the crystal clear waters of Waimea Bay from above, we couldn’t wait to cleanse ourselves in it. We hit the ocean, snorkels up, and swam amid the ancient coral for what seemed like hours. Though the colors of the rare tropical fish had our imaginations reeling, it was the secret underwater cave that we discovered and the giant green sea turtles living within that put our snorkeling experience over the top. The enormous graceful creatures delicately nibbled algae off nearby rocks and couldn’t care that we were mere inches away admiring their beauty. Snorkels on the sand, and a couple of hoale rock jumps later, and we were ready to continue on with our day.
It was still just past noon so we continued the Jamey Stone tour of the North Shore on to the “seven-mile stretch” of the world’s most famous breaks. We saw Rocky Point, Bonzai Pipelin, Shark’s Cove, Sunset Beach, Goat Island and more. Then it was lunchtime and Jamey had a surprise for us all. Hidden in the back of an unassuming supermarket in Kahuku is a deli counter with fresh seafood. Here, ladies and gentlemen, is the best Ahi Poke in the world. I dare anyone to challenge it. Amazing. We grabbed a hhalf pound bowl and hit the original local shrimp truck, Giovanni’s, and sat down to one of the most delicious meals I’ve ever eaten. The locally harvested shrimp were cooked in-shell, covered in garlic and served with a homemade chili sauce on the side. After all this, hard as it may be to believe, we all had the urge to skate.
The new North Shore park is amazing. It sits right across the street from Sunset Beach, has no fences, and the locals come with generators at night to keep the sessions going. We all had an amazing session with the locals, Wes Kremer and Jani Laitala especially killed it, and we threw heartfelt shakas to one another as the sun set in the distance.
All good things must end, and the next morning, we boarded our flight home loaded down with unforgettable Hawaiian memories and Kona coffee and chocolate covered Macadamia nuts for all our loved ones.
Mahalo to all our homeys that made this possible: Keola at Pipe Dreams, Jimmy Astleford, Mike Blabac, and Sean Rogers at DC, Adam at T&C, Alex, Chris Kays, Applenuts, all the DC riders, and Lance Holcomb. Hopefully we’ll be back soon. Until then, Aloha.—Blair Alley
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