The beginning of the North Shore season is always something to get excited about. Technically speaking, we’ve barely touched fall in this part of the world. When it comes to Oahu’s showtime months, however, there’s a strong urge to simply bypass trivial technicalities and jump straight to winter. It’s where and when all of our attention will turn to the Seven Mile Miracle, so even a glimpse of what’s to come gets the rest of us prepping our step-ups.
Cue the first few swells to grace the North Shore each fall (aka now). It’s highly unlikely a single wave filmed in October will make any highlight reels that survive past Thanksgiving, but that’s not the point. It’s the signal of what we all know is coming. So Eli Olson did what a lot of North Shore surfers did during the most recent run of swell: he turned the camera on. He and Koa Rothman sessioned in peaky, disorganized surf.
They ran out to Rocky Point and basically shared the lineup with anybody and everybody you’d expect to find a few hundred yards down the beach when Pipe goes off, only this afternoon was a bonafide air show. All three of the Florence brothers were present, with John John putting on an absolute clinic. Kai Lenny was strapped up. And Olson sprinkled in a little bit of his own aerial repertoire.
It wasn’t a massive North Shore swell with heaving barrels. But it’ll hold us over until those days come.
