TOWN SURF SPOTS EXPLAINED | South Shore, Oahu

what's up guys so today i'll be taking you through a south shore breakdown um of each spot here on the south shore i think it's just a really important thing for people to know and you know let's get to it so right here behind me we have the point and this is the main surf break here at kewalo basin we call it the point because this is the last point of all of all moana and obviously this is where you enter the water and when we're little kids this was like the most exciting thing to me ever to be able to just run off the point and jump in the water it just seemed really cool to me you notice there's no sand here it's all rocks this is where i grew up surfing i feel like this way really shaped me as a surfer but it was just one of my favorite waves mostly because we could come here every day no matter what and there's always something to ride now it's known as being more of like a spot for kids and a lot of the young up and coming good surfers that come here to kind of practice and get better at surfing so this is one of those spots that have a heavy pecking order where people come out and they take turns in the lineup based on who's who who's been serving here longest you know there's been a lot of uncles and guys that come down here that been coming down here for generations and kewalo's is actually a really heavy spot for locals so when i first started surfing here as a kid we weren't allowed to just go sit out the back we had to sit on the inside and wait our time and put in our time over the years and really work our way up the pecking order to be able to go sit out at the main peak of the lineup but this is kewalo basin this is the point i would rate this a five out of five surf spot here on the south shore [Music] so right behind us we have uh renix and straight outs so renix obviously doesn't sound like it because it kind of just got slurred but rednecks actually stands for right next because it's right next to the point which is the main break here at kiwali basin and after that more to the left of it will be straight out which is straight out from the pavilion right here in the parking lot typically renix is a really shallow place there you wouldn't surf it on low tide because it's p pretty much dry reef but straight outs kind of likes the low tide because it's a softer wave so it'll break a little more on low tide but it's more of a longboard spot so a lot of longboarders and guys riding soft tops and more beginners will go out to somewhere like straight outs just because it's a little easier there's not as much of a pecking order out there everyone's just going out there to have fun and ride some waves and a little more to the left side of it is called marineland and that's another kind of longboard spot it's a left as well as straight out straight out to the left so marineland kind of breaks very similar to straight outward it's kind of a running left like the lower tide and there's a more easy going spot so people go out there you just have fun and i wouldn't say is the best spot but again on the right tide it can get pretty good i would rate it a three out of five just because of the shallow reef it's kind of a hard way to surf and a lot of people will end up doing damage to their board because it's too shallow to surf but on a high tide it gets pretty fun so i rate it three out of five straight out depending on what you want to get it's a really fun way to longboard so i'd actually give it a four out of five to longboard because it's such a good setup and i think if you're learning how to surf and you're not really at that wiki key level you're a little better than that and you want to figure out a little more of a lineup and somewhere to sit where you're getting more of a down the line wave straight outs is that way for you and i would rate it a four out of five and marineland i would rate that a four out of five because it actually gets really good on the right swell on the right side and stuff so i think marineland's a really good wave [Music] so now we're here at ala moana beach park we have three more high performance surf spots first we have uh big wrights which is typically a more high performance wave i grew up surfing out there a lot when there's more swell actually they call it big rights because it's predominantly a right-hand break and i guess the only surfing one is big so you call them big rights but um that's a really good wave i actually have done a lot of surf photo shoots out there just because of the water color and the backdrop of all the the buildings and stuff but that's another one of my favorite waves usually good on a lower tide yeah i would rate big rights probably a five out of five just because it's a really good wave when there's the right spell on the right time and then moving to the left again we have uh concessions concessions is actually not as much of a high performance wave i think it's more of a fun wave where a lot of guys go out there to you know get that feel of a proper lineup where you know you take off on a peak it's mostly a left but you can also go right but the rate kind of closes out at concessions but concession is a really fun wave and there's not as much of a pecking order out there big rights is more of a pecking order type of wave where you know a lot of guys sit out the back and they wait for the best ways and usually the older guys or guys that have surfed out there more are going to get better ways where concessions is kind of more up in the air whoever's in position and wants to go on the wave can pretty much go a lot more long borders and stuff are surfing out of concessions and it's more of a friendly user friendly zone i would rate concessions a two out of five it's not as a high performance as big rights but it's still fun if you want to just get a few waves and then moving more to the left we have uh quartz quartz is in my opinion one of the best ways we have here on the south shore but in saying that it's also somewhere that i don't surf as often because you need a lot of swell to surf that wave so i pretty much wait until i see the right swell or if i know there's going to be a lot of swell i usually always check out at quartz just to see how it's breaking because i think it's one of the longer right hand point breaks that we have where you're pretty much you're not going to go left that court you're pretty much only going right and it's just one of the longer right hand waves that we have because for whatever reason the way the reefs are in the direction of swell here on the south shore a lot of the better waves are less but quartz is one of those places that you know i really look to um for when there's swell and i would rate courts uh five out of five and it's a high performance wave but not as much of a pecking order a lot of guys go out there to longboard and um a lot of the uncles are out there because it's just a really fun way to surf it's a really long wave which is rare here on the south shore we don't have much long waves and they actually call it quartz because it's straight out in front of the tennis courts here at ala moana beach park so a lot of the places are a lot of these surf spots are named after uh these specific landmarks here on the in alamana so it's pretty cool and it's funny when you hear the names because you know it's hard to put together when you're looking at the surf spot but then you look in on land and be like oh yeah that's why it's called quartz because it's raining from the tennis courts it makes sense i guess so we're here at all moana bowls parking lot that is the famous all-mountables wave right there it's mostly a left but this is probably one of the most high performance waves here on the south shore it's just famous for high-performance waves where all the best surfers in hawaii would come and surf in the summer so if you're looking at a spot like that that spot has a heavy pecking order you have guys that have surfed out there for generations and i think this particular spot really breeds hawaii's best surfers coming out of the south shore so if you paddle out there just know that this is a very high performance spot and i would rate that wave a 5 out of 5 just because it's such a good wave pretty much on any tide any swell you can pile out there and get really high quality high performance waves and moving further down to the left we have rock piles left which is a funner more beginner type of wave where the wave kind of just comes in and breaks all at once and it's just really easy to learn at and there's no pecking order out there you can go out there and pretty much catch waves and just have fun and a lot of beginners go out there to just uh you know get their reps in i would rate rock piles left at probably like a two or three out of five just because it's not the best way but it's good to learn and practice surfing and taking off and standing up is pretty much the only thing you're going to do on that wave and go straight moving more towards the left we have rockpile's right i think it's a little bit more of a high performance wave than the left it breaks up along a channel so it kind of has an opening to the wave that allows you to kind of do some turns and practice going down the line a little bit more so it just has a little more opportunity to to surf and do turns and things like that it's not really a long wave so you don't really have much time on the wave it's just get up do a couple turns and kick out it doesn't really have that that much of a pecking order but there is an order out there just because of the way you take off there's a small line up so everyone's really sitting close together so you pretty much want to take turns or else you know everyone be getting in everyone's way but i would rate that at a three out of five just because it wouldn't be the wave that you come here to surf you kind of just be going there to get your own waves and and uh stay out of the way but keep going down is the famous kaiser bowl so out there is called kaiser's it's actually a peak situation you can go right or left but the right is usually better than the left and that's another spot that has a heavy pecking order a lot of uncle's been surfing out there for generations and they kind of hold it down out there so if you're paddling out there just know that you have to wait your turn wait in line and uh take turns with everyone and i would wake kaiser bowls a four out of five it's a really good wave i just don't really surf there as much just because it's a small lineup it's a shorter wave you kind of pretty much only get one or two sections to do maneuvers and turns but it can be a fun way when there's a right swell this is probably the second most famous place to come surf here in hawaii just because of the setup and where it is it's really close to waikiki so um if you're coming from waikiki this is probably the next step at like a high performance surfing uh surfing break so we are here at the famous waikiki beach um this is actually where i learned to surf originally my dad brought me down here was pushing me into waves pretty much just like everybody else but here it is there's a few spots here at waikiki to the right we have canoes this is where they take the canoe out and ride a few waves that's why it's called canoes but this is where everyone's out there just getting pushed in the way it's pretty much just learning how to surf a lot of surf lessons are going down over here um so if you're looking to learn how to surf and you know stand up on a few ways this is pretty much your spot right here out the back to the right we have a couple other spots called pops and threes those waves actually get pretty good on a big south swell but those are typically waves that people paddle out there's a really it's a really far paddle so not many people surf out there but when you have long boards it's easier to paddle so a lot of longboards paddle out there and surf out there and then to the left we have a spot called queens queens is just the most high performance longboard wave we have here in waikiki they have a lot of longboard contests or keiki contests that they hold out here i think my first ever competition that i entered the tnc grom contest was held out here so my competitive career started right here in waikiki beach and this is just one of the most iconic beaches in the world i'm proud to be from here i'm proud to have learned to surf right here on this beach um we have the statue of duke right here behind me he was just one of the most famous beach boys here of waikiki born and raised here in waikiki and he actually was the one that traveled and took surfing around the world and that's why surfing is well known everywhere in the world now but i'll rate waikiki a 5 out of 5 beginner spot this is the best place for you to learn how to surf you're gonna do a lot of long boarding not much short boarding going down over here mostly learning and having fun and enjoying the ocean these are waves that are really easy to ride so for beginners i rated a 5 out of 5. we are here at diamond head there's a few spots here that we like to surf it catches a lot of wind as you can see so it kind of keeps the crowd away a lot of people stray away from the choppiness of the water and it's just kind of difficult to surf with this much wind but the first one is called lighthouse there's actually a lighthouse that the brake is straight out from that's probably the best spot here at diamond head it's the most high performance wave we have on this little stretch of coast so when people come here to surf they're mostly going to surf lighthouse if they're a better surfer i'll rate lighthouse at about three out of five it's not really good all the time but when the winds are right this place is really good because i think it picks up more swell than um town does right in front of here it's called cliffs because it's right in front of this big cliff that i'm standing on right here this was actually a good training round for me as a kid growing up it's a little more of a difficult wave to surf just because it's real choppy and kind of like a slower paced wave so you really have to get your speed going and really uh manufacture everything that you're doing on the way whichever maneuvers you're going to try and do and navigate the wind uh a lot of the times it catches a lot of this east wind so if you're paddling out to the break a lot of the wind is just blowing in your face the whole time so if you're looking for a fun place to surf when it's windy this is not your spot if you do want to come and get your wave count up this is probably where you want to come um there's not really a pecking order out here everyone just goes out catches whatever there's kind of peaks everywhere so you kind of just go out there find your own peak and get your own waves typically you can longboard or short board it's a weak flatter wave so longboards kind of typically go better here but like i said there's a lot of wind here it's actually a really famous windsurfing spot so on other days you'll see a lot of wind surfers out here we use the elements that we have here and we make it work like i said we just get in the water and just do what we do every day we just use the resources that we have and diamond head is just a really good training ground to get stronger um test yourself and get your wave count up so if i were to rate cliffs for surfing it would probably fall into like a two out of five you're gonna catch a lot of waves and get away from the crowd so if you're looking for those two things cliff's diamond head is your spot now we're here at sandy beach this surf break is the furthest southeast point of the island that picks up south swell so this is the furthest point you can go in the summer time to get waves towards the east side yeah this is somewhere that i actually always love to come surf i think it just has more power it picks up different swell but you got a bunch of spots here we're gonna start over here this is uh sandy beach shore break really famous shore break here but very dangerous so you come here you're gonna see all the signs on the beach saying no swimming but even though you see people swimming and flopping around in the shore break out there they're gonna have no swimming out there because this is not for inexperienced swimmers or people that are not typically experienced being in heavy water so there's a lot of water moving a lot of current and like i said because these the swell and the energy of the waves come from deep very deep water and they hit the shore really fast these waves are just really powerful so when you have that and you have a really shallow shore break it's really easy to get injured so a lot of people break their necks break their arms legs here at the shore break so it's very dangerous but if you do know what you're doing um and you like playing in the short break bodyboarding or body surfing this is a really good spot it's really fun but you really have to be careful and know what you're doing out there body surfing 10 out of 5 best place to come body surf but if you're a beginner not really experiencing the water this is not where you belong do not enter the water if you don't know how to read the ocean and know what you're doing out there moving on the next spot we got right here is called pipe littles they call it pipe littles because it barrels really hard it starts off and it breaks on a reef and then it finishes in the shore break so this is a fun wave that i like to surf now and again just to jump in the water real fast and just get a couple turns in but this is mostly known as body surfing or bodyboarding waves so there you won't find a lot of surfers out here moving on we have half point here half point is a really shallow spot so it breaks on really shallow reef but like i said because it comes from really deep water and hits shallow reef really fast it has a lot of power and actually creates a really good barrel we call this like a a slab type of wave so really the wave really slabs on dry reef and it's really dangerous so actually right here you're gonna see this guy the lifeguard's gonna go tell this guy to get out of the reef because when the waves wash up on the reef it can pull him out and next thing you know he'd be rolling around in the reef get all cut up and then he's getting sucked out to sea half point is one of my favorite ways to surf on this side of the island i just like the way it's set up i think it's a cool setup where it's a hard take off it really just like jacks up really fast and kind of barrels and it's really shallow and it's hard to surf you're mostly just gonna see bodyboarders out there but every once in a while me and my friends like to go out there and surf and most of the time a lot of surfers get redirected out of this area because it's just too dangerous for them to surf and they get pushed out to this spot on the outside called full point so you got half point and full point full points kind of a harder way to surf more similar to diamond head that we just looked at where it's kind of a real choppy wave it doesn't have really clean lines but it has a lot of power so you can go out there and get a couple turns in if you want but this won't be your typical surf spot where you're gonna go come and get good waves you're just coming out here because you live out here it's close or you just like the area but i would rate pipe littles a two out of five it's not really a real wave but it's really fun to just take off real close to the beach and hit the clothes out into the short break i would rate full point at probably a two out of five and i would rate half point for me a three out of five but a lot of guys just hate it but again the open ocean makes it very dangerous in a split second you can get sucked out into the current and next thing you know you'll be swimming out to sea so definitely be careful listen to the lifeguards they're very knowledgeable and they know this area very well so definitely want to be respectful of them read the signs listen to them and really watch the ocean if you're not an experienced swimmer or surfer this is definitely not where you want to be but if you are this is a really fun spot so that concludes our south shore breakdown we're gonna end it here at sandy beach thank you guys so much for watching leave a comment below let me know what you guys think if you have any questions about anything like this video and don't forget to subscribe see you guys next time

Channel: Ezekiel Lau

Views: 48,229

Rating: 4.9359384 out of 5

Keywords: where to surf in hawaii, hawaii surf spots, oahu surf spots, honolulu surf spots, beginner waves in hawaii, learning to surf in hawaii, the best surf spots in hawaii, best surf spots on oahu, hawaii vlog, pro surfer vlog, zeek lau, zeke lay, zeek lay, ezekial lau, ezekial lay, ezekiel lay, the ultimate surfer, abc, wsl, world surf league, professional surfer, where pro surfers surf, waikiki, queens, bowls, kaiser bowls, diamond head, half point, full point, shore break

Id: 2hfnWwAIEPg

Length: 20min 9sec (1209 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 23 2021