Howzit North Shore! It’s been kind of a small winter so far. In fact, the waves have been almost non-existent. Sometimes winter seasons on the North Shore work that way. There is no surf in the fall and then the winter and the spring waves come booming in. In other years, the fall season has bigger waves and then the spring waves wind down early. Let’s just hope we get some surf soon!

There was some surf down in Manu Bay near Raglan, New Zealand for the finals of the Oxbow Pro Longboard Championships. On Nov. 15TH, Australian Beau Young took home $7000 and 1st place in the final event on the ASP World Longboard Tour. He also clinched his 2nd ASP World Longboard title. Joel Tudor of California took home $3500 and 2nd place. The final ASP Longboard ratings for 2003 looked like this: 1) Beau Young 2) Joel Tudor and 3) Bonga Perkins of Hawaii. No other Hawaiians made the Top 14 ratings. The ratings were mostly dominated by Brazilians and Australians.

Pancho Sullivan of Sunset Beach won his 3rd XCEL PRO by winning the 2003 event in early November at Sunset Beach. Pancho also won the XCEL PRO in 1998 and 2000. Pancho took home $5000 for his win. 2nd place and $2500 went to Fred Pattachia, Jr. of Haleiwa. 3rd was Nick Muscroft of Australia, 4th was Nathan Carroll of Hawaii and equal 5ths went to Gavin Beschen of California and Myles Padaca of Hawaii. Love Hodel of Hawaii was tied for 9th, but clinched the 2003 Hawaiian Pro-Am Circuit Championship by way of rating points with his result. In the Longboard Expression Session division of the contest it was 1) Dino Miranda 2) Kapono Nahina 3) Joey Valentin. This was the 20th Annual XCEL PRO contest at Sunset Beach and it is considered the kick-off event for the North Shore surfing season.

The Island of Kauai is still reeling with the news of the recent shark attack on 13 year old Bethany Hamilton. Many other surfers on Kauai have been concerned about a large tiger shark that appears at the edge of the reef at Hanalei Bay in the late afternoon. “The Shark Task Force has argued against shark hunting after attacks on humans, saying such efforts have little likelihood of getting the attacker and can cause imbalances in the marine environment.” (Honolulu Advertiser Quote) Nevertheless, fisherman Ralph Young along with Bruce Chapin and Bill Hamilton worked on setting a trap for a “Big Shark” using a 6 foot grey shark as bait. On Thursday, November 13th… after leaving the trap out for four days, Young found a 14 foot shark on a hook that was buoyed just off the surf break at Hanalei Bay. Although it cannot be determined if this was the shark that bit Bethany Hamilton, it was about the same size. Hanalei residents are somewhat releived because the dorsal fin of the shark that was caught matched the description of the shark sightings. Young “believes that the shark is the same one that was cruising the surf zone, because of the description people gave of the shape of the dorsal fin. It was ragged looking, with notches out of it.” (Honolulu Advertiser Quote)

There was a Kaiaka-Waialua Bay Watershed Meeting at Waialue Library on Nov. 25th and there will surely be future meetings to deal with the pollution factors in this area. The University of Hawaii’s Environmental Center is conducting a data gathering project to identify the sources of pollution in the Kaiaka-Waialua Bay Watershed. To find out more about how you can help or for further information, please call Peter Rappa or Dan Hoover at 956-7361.

On Friday, November 14th… there was a story on KGMB Channel 9 news about Haleiwa and the central theme was the 20th year anniversary of the tearing down of the Haleiwa Theatre.

The final leg of the ASP World Tour, the VANS Triple Crown of Surfing… is here in Hawaii once again. It’s going to be a real showdown between Kelly Slater and Andy Irons for the ASP/WCT 2003 men’s World Championship title. The VANS Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa along with the Roxy Pro for the women should be just about finsihed, and then it’s on to the Rip Curl Cup at Sunset Beach. For any info of the events or specifiic inquiries call Randy Rarick at 638-7266. For daily updates on where the contests are and whether or not they are on… call the Surf News Network 596-SURF Surfline. Much more to report next time! Pray for surf! Aloha… Ace Cool!