Treeline Sports

Oahu, HI-  Oahu Hawaii is a jacked up playground for the true water men, gear heads and in some cases psycho thrill seekers who can (and can’t) handle the inevitable pounding the island will give you. With our home base on the 20th floor of a hotel room in Honolulu overlooking a metropolitan paradise, fully locked and loaded with beautiful young people, mellow rippable waves and a little too much pavement, we made the trek to Oahu’s world renowned North Shore on a day when the swell was ‘solid’ and the weather was a perfect February 80 degrees.

A popular saying on the North Shore is “Keep the Country, Country”, on the 45 minute drive from “Town” (Honolulu) to “The Country” (The North Shore) we went back in time about 100 years from a land of highways and skyscrapers to the middle of a pineapple farm which welcomes guests to the North Shore with a panoramic view of the monster waves, endless dirt tracks and long lines of massive groundswell creeping in from the horizon.  The Country was exactly what we needed.

The citizens of Hawaii are fighting to prevent any type of industrialization from poisoning the North Shore. Locals told me that there were almost riots 40 years ago when the main streets were paved, and the first surfers of the pre pavement era who were crazy enough to want to surf the North Shore, routinely lost their cars and jeeps in mudslides and impassable conditions on the pineapple farm.  (These guys just hiked the rest of the way and lived of fish, waves and local alcoholic concoctions until someone came looking for them) The North Shore is still the country- careers and dreams have been made and broken on waves like Pipe, Waimea and Sunset, three of the world’s heaviest waves, all in walking distance from each other. The front yards of homes on this 7 mile miracle are surfboard graveyards- a warning to those young overzealous surfers who think they are invincible enough to tackle these waves.

What few people realize about the Country is that along with the adrenaline addict surfer scene up there, there’s also a huge motocross contingency living and traveling to the red dirt tracks and roads that weave and wind through jungle, the volcanoes, the beaches and the main streets of The North Shore.

Even with the swell pumping, motorized vehicles were out in force; buzzing through the woods and cruising down the breakdown lane while we sat in traffic on The North Shore’s single lane main street. The Kahuku Moto X track was open because “it’s always open bradda” according to local knowledge and the clay like dirt track looked vertical and intense.

Oahu’s North Shore is a living relic that caters to both Motocross and surf enthusiasts alike. If you think you’re going to go out there and run the lineup you’re wrong, chances are you’ll realize like we did that the place is as dangerous as it is famous and inviting. There are plenty of great waves to be had on the island, and that is why everyone is so laid back, but it’s easy to get tempted into a paddle out at Pipe or Sunset and at that point you’d better be ready for a full-on commitment.

The people in Hawaii are as friendly as they come, from the most beautiful Wahine to the most hard core tattooed 250 lb. dirt biking tow in surfer. Respect them. The land belongs to them and even though they’re welcoming, they are people with an extreme passion, an obsession, a primal connection to their birth right and you don’t want  to find yourself in the middle of that wolf pack.
KEEP THE COUNTRY, COUNTRY.

Jimbo’s Surf Co.

February 2010