isolated new-year's firecrackers, screamers + sparklers have been goin off in the street since yesterday, sure to build gradually up to a big crescendo of blazing noise as the night progresses...

followed through on getting out to pops early wednesday morning: surfed THREE hours for same thing as xmas eve: staked out the peak on long waits for ok waves, till there were just 3 or 4 of us old-timers out there, surfing between crowd shifts.

thursday, while poor steve had to work downtown all day, jimmy + conrad took all our boards + me in jimmy's new surfmobile ['jimmy defines the minivan - the minivan does not define jimmy'] to da west side, for steak plate at sunny's roadside steak plate truck in waianae, + big waves - not as big as the 40-footers on the north shore that day, and breaking just right to be manageable at the spot conrad picked - rest camp, in pokai bay, a military recreation area beach where you have to show i.d. to enter. still a very mixed crowd w/ some serious old time wesside kannaks boomin down the biggest peaks! actually managed to catch a few nice rides in the crowd out there - bigger waves that start w/ a gentle slope down their broad faces, a fun stage to carve a soul turn left then snap back around for a nice accelerated slide to the right across the peel ... tom-A-hawk's 1st wesside waves!!! going back for a new year's surf w/ conrad tomorrow! thursday night the three of us met up w/ stevie and jake took us all out for dinner dockside at the yacht club, where he paddles outrigger - mahalo jake! was very festive, w/ holiday lights on the boats reflecting in the water...

friday morning steve had to work again, but left the condo w/ his board by 8:30, proclaiming I GET TO HAVE FUN TOO. we passed each other in the street as he came in and i went out, for a rainy session w/ jake + jimmy that started great [tom-A-hawk was workin the right] but soon got overcrowded... jake still managed to get a few pics w/ his fun xmas present - a new gopro digital hero sports camera...

yesterday [saturday] jimmy, jake, conrad, stevie + me met up for the last traditional saturday morning surfclub event of the year - an expedition to diamond head [in the water by 10!]: which was windy, yes; choppy, yes; hard work constantly paddling against the current and the wind chop back into the lineup, yes - but we all still got rides. jake is really quite the surfer, and he had his new camera with him again, which the cute blondie shortboarder thought was pretty cool ... tom-A-hawk got a couple of his signature 007 late takeoffs / steep drop / bottom turns, but don't expect any jake pics - tom-A-hawk is just too fast. after that workout/battle we were all almost as RAVENOUS as conrad so we got takeout food, beer + dessert from south shore grill / diamond head market + grill, had lunch under the pergolas at queen's beach, where we were clearly being cruized by a nice beefy local loner ... and it really doesn't get much better than that, 'sCrunGE!' friends ...

went to see 'dreamgirls' at ward w/ jake last nite, resting up today for the big new year's eve fireworks party at alan's place up on the slopes of kapalama heights in kalihi valley, which is guaranteed to be going OFF w/ countless household fireworks displays, and views of the big town displays on shore plus lots, and lots, of boys. party of the year if you ask me.

HAU'OLI MAKAHIKI HOUUUUUUUU !!!!!!!!!!!!