Sunday, May 13, 2012

Threes

I took Cody to Trestles today, his first visit.  It was windy and sloppy and he didn't seem to enjoy a minute of the rocky bottom and algae ridden water, but it was an experience nonetheless.  I vividly remember the first time Craig took me to Trestles, on a visit from SF before I decided to move to SD.  That would have been about 14 years ago, though it was the same board and the trail and beach all seemed pretty much the same today as in that memory.

While Cody and I were out there, my thoughts drifted off to the summer before my freshman year in high school.  Punahou had a typing requirement which I think is one of the most useful of many useful things I learned.  So, at 9 or 10am we would gather behind these old manual typewriters and a man I remember as Mr. Kamemoto (but I'm likely mixing up memories with that) walked us through the basic steps of learning how to type on a QWERTY typewriter.  These days I wonder what it would be like if this class were taught on a DVORAK keyboard instead.

After typing class the four of us (Brandon, Rob, Craig and I) would hustle to the bus stop, and head off to Mie's house just off Kapiolani park.  We kept our surfboards there, in her garage.  I forget what we ate, I think we all relied on breakfast and anything we had with us on the bus, but I'm sure we all scavenged from the Reynolds' fridge a fair bit too.  We would walk across the park, barefoot, carrying our surfboards, then walk down the strip to the police station, and onto the sand in front of the Royal Hawaiian.  We then would walk out to the water on the short rock wall and push off, beginning our long paddle out to threes.  This activity was repeated every day, regardless of how good the surf was.  Some days it was forgettable, other days really fun, and a few days were unreal.  Then we'd catch a wave in, ride it as far as we could, paddle the rest of the way, shower off, and walk back to Mie's in time to get a ride from Lisa to water polo.  We were all too young to have a driver's license, even with Hawaii's very lax requirements which I remember as 15.75 for children of single parents and 16 for everyone else.  The beauty of this plan was having our surfboards stored at Mie's since lugging them around without a car would have been problematic (I don't believe surfboards are allowed on the bus) and since Rob and I lived so far away that going back to Kailua after typing and returning for water polo would have been a pointless waste of time.

What do I love about Trestles and especially about threes?  I love the inaccessibility.  I love that it takes some effort to get into the lineup, although Trestles with a bike equipped with surboard racks is significantly different than trestles without a bike, and even a skateboard makes a bit of difference.  I love that threes only suits those willing to work, the paddle out eliminates the lazy and the impatient.  I love that you can't really even tell what the break is like from the beach, that you have to either trust the surf report or just dedicate yourself to being there every day to experience the best.  I love those long sweeping rights that on the right day seem to go on forever.  And there is nothing in the world quite as beautiful as looking over to your left at Diamond Head and over to your right at Pearl Harbor.

All of this got me thinking about how I am affected by difficulty.  I am clearly highly motivated by a significant challenge, qualifying for Kona, completing Tabu's class, chasing the girl who doesn't seem interested.  But there are also certain things that don't interest me that much, ultraman, Barkleys, Badwater, Bikram, and they all seem to occupy a space of "too difficult" for me.  I don't know why there is a line, but I guess I definitely have one.  

2 comments:

  1. Mr. Kusanoki - saw him on the track last week. He looks exactly the same. And dude, we were driving at 15. Permit on 15th bday, license whenever you could take the test. Isn't that insane?

    I want to go to Trestles - never been.

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  2. ultraman and badwater--you could eat that shit for breakfast. sign me up for crewing duties!

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