Our original purpose for driving to the North Shore of Oahu was to visit the famous surfing spots at Sunset Beach, Pipeline and Waimea Bay.

Here’s Sunset on a beautiful – but waveless – day.

Same story further down the coast, looking toward Waimea Bay…

…and back toward Pipeline.

We had to content ourselves with wandering through the surf shops and getting lunch at Hale‘iwa, before driving back to the windward coast through rush hour traffic.

We passed Honolulu, then Diamond Head, on our way toward the lookout at Makapu‘u. Nearing Sandy Beach S.P., we pulled over to take this picture back south…

…and looking to the north. That’s Sandy Beach in the distance. Waimanalo, where we’re staying, is just a couple miles further up the coast, over that ridge.

Well, they call it the windward coast because that’s the side that get’s the tradewinds, and they were blowing yesterday late in the day, whipping up a pretty big chop. We stopped to watch the bodysurfers and boogie boarders at what the locals call “Paraplegic Beach” where the crushing surf breaks right on the sand.

Then we noticed that there were a couple board surfers out at another beach break just a couple hundred yards away, so we trudged up there to watch them surf as the sun started to set.

Jim, David and Craig, these photos are for you.