To live and let go

This story makes up the first part out of a series of four about my trip to Hawaii and Baja, Mexico

When I started surfing, around 15 years ago, my ultimate goal was a surf trip to Hawaii. It was like a place in a parallel universe to me. I knew it was there, but it seemed so far away.
Growing up in the Netherlands, getting into surfing doesn’t come naturally. Our North Sea provides waves, but not on the regular and the windows in which to surf them are small. I got hooked nonetheless.
Surfing has given me so much over the years. I find a lesson in every session. I’ve surfed in Norway, Ireland, Indonesia, the Maldives and Peru. But Hawaii always seemed out of reach. It would take me two transfers and a total flying time of 28 hours to get there.

I’d been warned about the high costs of living in Hawaii. About sharks. About locals. About the power of the ocean. On the other hand I’d been promised epic waves, abundant sea life, clear waters, lush mountains and giant waterfalls. It was only a matter of time before I’d get there.

Back in 2015 my chances of making it to Hawaii started to look better. I met a guy named David. He was teaching surf lessons in the Netherlands in the summer season and we became good friends. We spend a lot of time together while being part of a crew that organised surf trips in southern Portugal, northern Spain and the Azores. Besides being a good friend, David happened to be living on the Big Island of Hawaii. My trip was now bound to happen soon. But like always, life happens when you are busy making other plans.

Me and David living the vanlife in Brittany

In 2018, I was in Northern Spain, taking photos on one of our surftrips with Dutch guests. My mom phoned me and told me my dad was in hospital after being nauseous for two days. My gut feeling told me to go home, so I booked a flight back to Amsterdam. Two days later we found out that the lung cancer he was cured off in the late nineties had come back. Two brain tumors sent us straight into a rollercoaster ride that would last for the next eighteen months to come. My father passed away at 70 years of age the day before my birthday on April 30th 2019. My first nephew was born twelve days later.
I lost my father, turned thirty and I became an uncle in a matter of two weeks. It was too much to process to be honest. Besides that, I took on my mother’s suffering and grief. I started to forget who I was. I needed a time out and I knew Hawaii was calling. Raw nature and new horizons, that’s what I was craving for.

On the 2nd of January me and my friend J started our Hawaiian adventure from Amsterdam. On our second layover, our patience got seriously tested. When we got to the border security in San Fransisco, our trip almost ended prematurely. After telling the officer about our two month adventure in Hawaii, we apparently aroused suspicion and got taken into an interrogation room. I told about the break I desperately needed and about my fathers passing. We had saved up enough money to easily stay for more than three months, but our story was not convincing. The officer turned our bags inside out only to find a small jar with some of my dads ashes. His ego crumbled on the spot. A reminder that my dad was still present, just not in his physical form, his spirit there to guide and protect me. We made our flight to Oahu with minutes to spare after a ten minute sprint.

Map of Hawaii with Oahu close to the center

The Alps on our approach to Zurich, our first stop

Decided to take the beard off on arrival on Oahu

Strolling the streets between the high-rise buildings of Honolulu, I felt out of place. But the North Shore was awaiting us and we had to get ourselves some secondhand surfboards. We found a store with a lot of boards and I settles for a 6’’0 Tokoro with a pintail. J scored a simular board with a squaretail. We threw all of our stuff in our Ford Transit Connect that we rented through Turo. Turo allows you to rent cars from private owners instead of rental companies. This turned out to be a good option during our entire trip. We threw our stuff in the car and hit the road.

I once heard a story that came from the native Americans. They believe the mind can only travel at walking speed. So when they travel by horse, it will take their mind some more time to arrive at its destination. My mind didn’t feel fully present in the first week either. The North Shore felt so unreal. I’d seen so many videos about this place and now my feet were touching its sand We surfed on different parts of the North Shore. Haleiwa and Laniakea is where we mainly paddled out. One day we paddled out on the peak next to Pipe. I think we both felt pretty high on life at that point. A dream come true. The water so clear, the waves fun and powerful.

View of the North Shore from the pillbox

We explored all of sides of the island. The westside was dry and felt really different to the North Shore. Heaps of people live in tents on this side of the island, a shocking reminder that these island are part of the USA, lacking social security. It was not easy to get to know more about the history of Hawaii and its native inhabitants. On the eastside of the island we found the Polynesian Cultural Centre. It turned out to be an expensive theme park and we didn’t go in.

What has always intregued me is how the Polynesians found these island in the middle of the big Pacific Ocean. They did so by navigating the stars and by their knowledge of ocean currents and swells. The first settlers probably came in from the Marquesas around 900 AD. The islands remained isolated from the world for some 500 years. Around 1542 the first European probably visited the archipelago. British explorer James Cook arrived to Hawaii in 1778. Within 5 years after Cook’s arrival, Hawaiian king Kamehameha united the islands into one kingdom for the first time. Immigrants started coming in from America, Japan, China and the Philippines. The traditions and cuisine that these immigrants brought with them are clearly present today and they still make up a large part of the current population. In 1898 Hawaii was annexed by the United States, a sensitive subject for native Hawaiians today.

Chronological dispersal of Austronesian people across the Pacific

On a rainy day we were out playing in the shore break at Waimea. As we dove under the waves I could hear funny sounds. At first I thought it was the air escaping my ears, but I kept hearing it and I soon realized the sound wasn’t coming from my ears. These were whale sounds. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard and I spend the next thirty minutes floating around to hear the whales talk.
We prayed for Pipeline to show its fury during our time on the North Shore. We were lucky enough to see its spitting pits on a windy morning. A humbling experience. A wave so big and powerful that breaks so close to the beach.

On one of our last days, we managed to go on a shark snorkeling tour. This was on our bucketlist, but the weather had been pretty rough and our previous attempt was cancelled. The boat took us out to sea about 2 kilometers. The sharks are attracted to the sound of the engine as they are curious animals. We plunged in and held on to the side of the boat. A Galapagos shark appeared shortly after. It circled us in its curiousity. A few more sharks appeared out of the dark blue including a Sandbar shark. I felt calm and excited, but never in panic. My respect for these amazing animals grew a lot and I’m very greatful for this experience.

On our last night at Oahu, we held a ceremony on the beach for a loved one that had passed away that day back home. We made a small fire, burned some Palosanto wood and threw a message in the fire. Making a fire wasn’t allowed, but this was a special occasion and besides that the beach was deserted. Only five minutes into our ceremony an army helicopter flew by very closely and got me on edge. A minute later, another army helicopter clearly started heading towards us. We panicked and quickly put out the fire. The helicopter hovered over our heads with a searchlight that blinded us. It flew away shortly afterwards, leaving us baffled and scared. We rushed to our car and drove off in search of another spot to camp for the night. A strange goodbye to a rather epic start of our trip on the island of Oahu.

Read about our experiences on the island of Kauai in the next episode of my journal.

Tomas Grootveld31 March 2020hawaii, oahu, surfing, tomasgrootveld, seastories, journal, diary, personalblog, lifelessons, northshore6 Comments

Journal

To live and let go