You owe it to yourself to surf Honolua Bay at least one time in your life. It's gotta be on a substantial swell, with wave faces overhead or bigger. Your surfing experience is not nearly complete until you do this. It's worth almost any sacrifice, any price, any obligation. I can guarantee that once you have a successful session at the Bay with solid waves you'll want more. You'll dream of returning, of shredding the most beautiful right break in the world. Those who have not yet surfed Honolua cannot even comprehend what they have missed. Those who have surfed the Bay remember it with a far-away look in their eyes, a whistful grin, and longing in their soul.

This column attempts to share the stoke of a mid-Winter session at the Bay. The wordz and pix are a meager reflection of the reality that is Honolua. There are two pages of pix, one filled with overviews of the area and the break, and the other with surfing pix. Click on the two thumbnails to open a new widow with the pix.

If you have a Honolua memory and experience, then please email DogMan, and we'll put together a future column from the response.

Over the years, resorts, golf courses and other developments have crept up the coast of Maui, coming ever closer to the Bay. As of today it still lies just beyond all this. You can indulge the illusion that you are going back in time to a simpler island paradise as you drive up the winding road to the pineapple field at the top of the hill that overlooks the world famous bay. The view from the cliffs is awe inspiring, and worth the drive all by itself. Across the channel is the island of Molokai; to the East, rising high in the sky are the peaks of the West Maui Mountains.

There are several breaks in the Bay, from Coconuts to the Cave. On a rare day you can ride one wave from Coconuts all the way thru the other breaks. At 3 to 5 feet the riding is ez, with fancy maneuvers, turns, airs, the whole enchilada. At 6 to 10 feet the going gets more serious; surfers abandon the flash for function. You gotta go fast to get down the line and make it in and out of the barrels. Much beyond double overhead surfers like you and I tend to hang on the cliffs and watch the real hellmen battle the watery monsters. Waves are rideable up to about 20 feet, but the price of glory can be steep. The underwater lava tube called "The Cave" eats boards and threatens surfers. The Bay can break on West, North West, and North swells; it goes flat and transforms into a snorkel cove during the Summer months.

You don't even know what crowded means until you've seen Honolua Bay on a pleasant day with a solid swell. Even super dawn patrolling won't get you any solitude; there are too many surfers lusting after the juice who also get up early for the drive to the Bay. One of the biggest challenges is just getting a wave, any wave. There's a real pecking order in all the various lineups, the locals get all the priorities, and you are an obvious haole invader who can only hope to get a few crumbs of leftovers. Still the lineup isn't hostile, aggresively competitive is a better description. Expect drop ins, snakes, and challenges for each and every wave. Still, one good wave at Honolua Bay is worth 10 or 100 waves at your home break. You'll remember it for the rest of your life.

Here's an account of the only good Honolua session DogMan got this past February while on Maui:

Finally got some Maui juice for breakfast early Thursday morning. Cruised to the North shore in the darkness to gauge the swell, which had indeed built overnight. Hard to say how big it was, since the NE trades were absolutely ferocious, blowing the ocean surface into foamy chaos.

Didn't waste much time there; jumped in the convertible and smoked it down to Ma'alea, then up and past Lahaina, heading for Honolua Bay. Pulled into Pohaku on a whim in time to see a rare rideable set of waves roll through the zone. And thus was I snookered. Pulled on my spring suit, paddled out, and congratulated myself on being the only one in the lineup. The only fool in the lineup, is more like it. The set seen from the car was the best set out there.

After catching a few nondescript rights and lefts, it was time to paddle ashore. Decided the Bay was worth checking. Indeed Honolua was definitely the choice that morning; it maximized the available swell and minimized the swirling winds.

Guess what? By that time of the morning only 100 or so of my island buddies were out; DogMan made it 101. Had to work hard for waves, but it was a great session of more than 90 minutes.

Caught a bunch o' rights, some great and some small. One folded over and I ducked under the section lip. Never made it out of that pipe, but did get buried deep After the session, it was photo time; snapped these pix for the DogMan column, then motored back down the coast to Kihei.

C had breakfast ready on arrival, complete with really really strong Kona coffee, strawberry papaya, andę bagels with lilikoi creamcheese. After eating, we sat on Kamaole III beach, trying to duck under the sweeping winds and still catch some sun. All in a morning in paradise.

CU Out There,

DogMan