Super spontaneously we decided to learn SUP, stand-up paddling! We were confirmed the time and hurried from Honolulu to Haleiwa, one hour distance. We first did a dry run before we went out for the real paddling in the midday heat. It was just an amazing experience. We paddled beneath bridges into a river populated by dozens of green sea turtles. They had a favorite place at the riverside where at least a dozen of them rested tightly together. They came so close to our boards that we could clearly observe them.
Of course we not only learned how to paddle straight, but different kinds of turns, like the "kick turn" or "nose turn", and different positions how to stand on the board. After having paddled up the stream for some time, we turned around and lay down on the board, letting us float down for a while. This didn't even felt shaky! But the hard part was yet to come... The small bay that we first crossed kneeling on the board was now to be passed standing. My sister and I did well, almost to the end, when some mean waves stole our board from our feet. Bye sunglasses! The good part: it was very refreshing after two hours in the midday heat ;-) fortunately a SUP board is (compared to canoes) easy to re-climb.
Hale'iwa beach park is equipped with a shower, so that we didn't have stay salty for the rest of the day. After we had witnessed quite a heavy accident (total crash so that the airbags exploded which produced a terrifying bang and smoke, and a piece of the car's lights was thrown at my mother's leg) we had Mexican lunch, then a Shave Ice with canned milk from the most famous Shave Ice shop of North Shore Oahu. The queue was about 30 meters long, and in the shop there were six persons working nonstop to process that number of orders. The main attraction of Hale'iwa however (at least for me) was the gallery shop of Clark Little! I enjoyed his pictures on Instagram for several years, and now I was on site! What a moment. Unfortunately we missed Christmas Day where he was in the shop himself for autographs and talks. As there was a monitor in the gallery screening life-size shots of him, we were in the end able at least to take a virtual selfie with him.
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| There are two versions of this iconic Hale'iwa sign at either side of the highway: Politically correct: one displays a guy, the other one a lady surfer. |
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