A co-worker was telling me about this great spot, called China Walls, where expert surfers go this time of year. The water is a great green color, and turns a deep blue tint as it gets further offshore. The waves just roll along the volcanic rock wall, which increases the wave size.
China Walls is at the tip of a bay so looking back is still O'ahu. It was a little bit
hazy this day so it's not very clear when looking back at the main part of the island.
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| FL 18mm, SS 1/125, f/8.0, ISO 100 |
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| FL 18mm, SS 1/50, f/8.0, ISO 100 |
This is the wave rolling along the side of the wall.
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| FL 18mm, SS 1/250, f/9.0, ISO 100 |
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| FL 135mm, SS 1/2500, f/4.0, ISO 100 |
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| FL 18mm, SS 1/40, f/10.0, ISO 100 |
There's Dave way over there.
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| FL 18mm, SS 1/40, f/10.0, ISO 100 |
This is a large cove. Picture on the left shows the water headed back out,
while the picture on the right shows the swell coming back in. (this is the
same cove that Dave is standing by in the picture above; just a different angle.
FL 18mm, SS 1/100, f/14.0, ISO 200 // FL 18mm, SS 1/125, f/14.0, ISO 200
This picture shows a wave rolling along. The picture directly
after shows the same camera angle, just a few seconds later.
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| FL 18mm, SS 1/30, f/12.0, ISO 200 |
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| FL 18mm, SS 1/40, f/12.0, ISO 200 |
Next are some shots of the surfers. The water flowing along the volcanic rock creates a great wave. If you thought this might be on the North Shore where all the famous waves are (Pipeline, Sunset, etc...) then you'd be wrong. The North Shore is flat this time of year. China Walls is on the Southeastern corner of O'ahu. The southern shoreline is the place to be for surfing this time of year (ie. the Honolulu area for those that are geographically-challenged about the islands).
In goes a surfer! The only way in is to jump off the rocks with your board,
and the only way out is to climb back up. It's a bit challenging since they have
to pick a good moment (when a wave is not coming) and have to be quick climbing
back up. If a wave comes along while they are climbing back up, or they would get
pounded into the rock wall. (no worries, they all scurried up the wall pretty fast)
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| FL 70mm, SS 1/250, f/11.0, ISO 100 |
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| FL 29mm, SS 1/250, f/8.0, ISO 100 |
Just to the right of the surfer is another surfer diving
under the wave to get out of the way. They call that
"duck diving." (a skill I haven't quite mastered yet)
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| FL 70mm, SS 1/200, f/7.1, ISO 100 |
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| FL 70mm, SS 125, f/16.0, ISO 100 |
This surfer attempted to turn up back up the wave's face only to have his
board completely swallowed by the wave. His body still continued travelling
up, and he went up and over the top. He's actually really high up since he then
came down the back side of the wave which has a low water line. (looked like
a fun ride though!)
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| FL 125mm, SS 1/125, f/15.0, ISO 100 |
There was one lonesome girl out there. I was excited to see her surf, unfortunately,
she didn't attempt to catch any waves for the two hours I was there! The most
action she saw was fixing her hair so I tried to catch a shot of it (haha). But she
was an expert at sitting on a surfboard with style! ;)
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| FL 200mm, SS 1/120, f/12.0, ISO 100 |
Mahalo for visiting!
I was driving by Sunset Beach on the North Shore, and, luckily, had my camera in tow. The North Shore this time of year is full of big surf, professional surfers and heavy traffic - there is only a two lane road that runs past it. This day was during the Vans Competition, however, a competition was not happening at the moment I was there; probably because the surf was not big enough. Fortunately, that meant I found a parking spot and did not have to wait in 1 mph traffic for 2-3 hours (seriously not exaggerating the potential traffic situation). Competitions often last for a week or so. The organization running it picks which days the competition will happen based on surf forecasts. Ideally, they pick the days with the biggest surf. At the bottom are a few sets of pictures strung together of surfers riding the waves. I'm a sucker for some good scenery shots so I took a few pictures of the beach too, so I'll start with those.
