NE swell with hurricanes far away, Sunset(right of photo) 20 guys out and Kammy land(Left of photo) 5 guys out. Five guys having way more fun in my opinion.
Kammie land was my favorite wave on that side of the bay until Eddie Rothman and Squiddie started coming out and be total assholes in the late 70s early 80s. Too many times I'd be the only one out and they'd show up and start dropping in on every wave. During High School, Bernie, me and friends would camp out right off the break there in the bushes. We'd go up Friday and stay until Sunday. Surf all weekend then go back home. We could walk all the way down to Rocky Point and surf any of the breaks between, or go over to sunset and surf the inside. Sometimes we'd do the west side at Keaau.
Sounds like you got some serious time there Harry. I used to go there cuz I would meet up with friends there. Certain swell directions it can really perform and unlike sunset, no 10 year olds dropping in on you with uncle sitting on shoulder with a watchful eye.
At one time in the early fifties, according to JimFisher, Greg Noll tried to name the spot after himself. Along about 1961 or 1962, Diff and Hynson made a run at it, calling the two peaks ''Hynson's Humpers'', and ''Diff's Dumpers.'' In 1963 I was calling it ''Kammie's'' after the Kam family's little store across from the break. One of the guys in our crew, one Henry Sutton, was calling it ''Kammie Land'' which I scoffed at, BUT somehow that's the name that stuck. So, KAMMIE LAND it is, even to this day.
cool story bill. I once had a winter of good luck that I could do no wrong and Jocko's. Started calling it Charlie o's but it never caught on. This winter look out for the newest named break called Charleiwa directly next to the haleiwa boat harbor.
We had a friend who had a family home above uppers, so we called it Keahi's. Just down the road at Marijuanas, our friend's family had their beach house, so that was Lisa's.
My tow partner lives in front of marijuanas. My first big wave undergunned situation happened there by total mistake 1991. three guys out and I am thiniking I am at Chun's Reef.
We used to go to Lisa's a lot when it was about 2-4 feet. When it's small it has a left like pipe, but you can also ride the rights, and they eventually end up at Aligator Rock. When it get's big it's an intense pipeline like left. The reef is shallow there, then it has deeper water before the beach. The water runs along the beach north towards the jetty that sits on the Waimea side, heavy current when it's big.
I got close to dying out there. One of the days when it goes from 4 feet to crazy huge in just an hour or so. My friend and I drove past Puaena and it looked like it was 4 feet, get to Lisa's and by the time we park and get our boards out, the waves are big, but we don't know how big. Just see the tops of the waves and the guys going off the top disappearing then back up again. Maybe 3 or 4 guys out, so we go. By the time we reached the break, there were only 2 guys out and the waves probably close to 10 feet. We'd paddle way off to safe water then paddle in catch the smaller sets until we felt confident enough to sit in the break. We could see way down past Waimea from where we sitting and down towards Lanis, it was big.
By then it was just me and my friend, and we started catching set waves. I go for a wave and it jumps up to at least a 20 foot face straight up like pipe. My friend is apddling back and yells no, no, but I think he's saying go, go. Last second I know I won't make it and somehow as I back off the wind blows me back over the top onto the back of the wave. When he got out he tells me that the wave sucked up pretty heavy and he thought it was over for me.
We surfed for a while and I eventually get a nice one and go a little too far. I can't get back out and I get nailed. I swam for a good 40 minutes going in circles because the rip was so bad, I'd get 10 feet from the beach but I couldn't get on to the sand. When I did make it, I just crawled up the sand and passed out. My friend came in and got me and we went looking for my board. It ended up on the jetty on the Waimea side. It had a nice dent in it and I never rode it again.
We used to go to Lisa's a lot when it was about 2-4 feet. When it's small it has a left like pipe, but you can also ride the rights, and they eventually end up at Aligator Rock. When it get's big it's an intense pipeline like left. The reef is shallow there, then it has deeper water before the beach. The water runs along the beach north towards the jetty that sits on the Waimea side, heavy current when it's big.
I got close to dying out there. One of the days when it goes from 4 feet to crazy huge in just an hour or so. My friend and I drove past Puaena and it looked like it was 4 feet, get to Lisa's and by the time we park and get our boards out, the waves are big, but we don't know how big. Just see the tops of the waves and the guys going off the top disappearing then back up again. Maybe 3 or 4 guys out, so we go. By the time we reached the break, there were only 2 guys out and the waves probably close to 10 feet. We'd paddle way off to safe water then paddle in catch the smaller sets until we felt confident enough to sit in the break. We could see way down past Waimea from where we sitting and down towards Lanis, it was big.
By then it was just me and my friend, and we started catching set waves. I go for a wave and it jumps up to at least a 20 foot face straight up like pipe. My friend is apddling back and yells no, no, but I think he's saying go, go. Last second I know I won't make it and somehow as I back off the wind blows me back over the top onto the back of the wave. When he got out he tells me that the wave sucked up pretty heavy and he thought it was over for me.
We surfed for a while and I eventually get a nice one and go a little too far. I can't get back out and I get nailed. I swam for a good 40 minutes going in circles because the rip was so bad, I'd get 10 feet from the beach but I couldn't get on to the sand. When I did make it, I just crawled up the sand and passed out. My friend came in and got me and we went looking for my board. It ended up on the jetty on the Waimea side. It had a nice dent in it and I never rode it again.
This is the board.
hey!
that looks like my old board
the one Gooney made for Boogs
Was that after I left for college when you and my classmate were getting in all kinds of trouble?
PersonaIly I hated kammieland
it was just a peak like that spot just north of makaha we used to also camp out at
remember when we got chased out of kammies when mark was trying to steal some food while we were camping in the bushes across the street?
also remember walking down to rockies in the dark to be the first ones out and stepping on all those hash stoned out haole hippies passed out in the sand.
good times those 4-5 years in th early 70's discovering the northshore from puaena to sunset.
so much easier camping out than making that long drive home totally wasted from surfing all day and other stuff.
Trying to stay awake when everyone else was passed out sleeping.
Charlie
pretty interesting timing,
When I returned home I got my first custom bpard from Ed Searfoss in 91 too. I used to see him selling boards at the swap meet and I ordered a custom 10' high performance longbaord that would help me get back into surfing after 15 years away from the ocean in seattle going to school and working. I wanted something that could paddle and surf well but then use as a tandem for my brother and his kids after I was done with it. Ed had Jim Turnbull make it for me. It was a bonzer bottomed 10' x 24' x 3" longboard with glass on thrusters.I ordered it in "pale pink" because a friend of mine told me that "think pink" was used to calm rock climbers when they got into tough situations. Ed delivered it hmself to my office in Mapunapuna with his old van. I have to leave it on my desk till I got off work and it caused a huge commotion among my coworkers because of the size of it and the color. That nght I came home with a giant pink board and pierced ears and my family thought I had finally lost my mind.But it was the start of my hard core return to surfing
That 10' ended up being a very special board I still have today(27 years later) and hope to one day restore back to its original condition. I wish I ordered more boards especially longboards from Jim Turnbull before he passed away. I went from that 10' to a 7' 2" Country Surfboards baby squash also in pink I bought used from the mad hatter at surfnsail. It was shaped by a lifeguard named "Hall" for a girl to surf sunset. I also still have that board and it was another great shape.
The thing about kammies is that no one wanted to surf there with sunset and rockies just down the beach. I think the most GUy I saw out their back you could count on one hand.
here's some before and after shots of the 10' custom Ed had Jim Turnbull shape me. It's a great board
Jim made my wife's 9 footer with tourquoise bottom and wrapped rail like yours. I asked for full tourquoise top and bottom but ed said it woulb bee too much. Did not understand this comment until I statrted doing some color on my boards. Way cool stories about your surfing advnetures in the 70's. By the time my upstate new york farmer ass got into surfing I was too committed to family, as in wife and kids, to experience it like you guys did. The last time I rode Jim's board he made for my wife was the day Todd Chesser died. I was at haleiwa and the surf came up HUGE in a few hours time and I got so barrelled going left I was belly laughing. Sold the board on the way in to surf and sea to a local for $200. Got deployed in the army to the desert and got to come back to hawaii alive 2 1/2 years later. The same board came back to me for a repair from a different customer that fell off the roo fof his car on H-1 in 2000. Unreal the circle of things. I wasn't belly laughing with the effed up board repair that I last got tubed on however. Great story Bernie. Love that you still have the board also.
Kammie land was my favorite wave on that side of the bay until Eddie Rothman and Squiddie started coming out and be total assholes in the late 70s early 80s. Too many times I'd be the only one out and they'd show up and start dropping in on every wave. During High School, Bernie, me and friends would camp out right off the break there in the bushes. We'd go up Friday and stay until Sunday. Surf all weekend then go back home. We could walk all the way down to Rocky Point and surf any of the breaks between, or go over to sunset and surf the inside. Sometimes we'd do the west side at Keaau.
Sounds like you got some serious time there Harry. I used to go there cuz I would meet up with friends there. Certain swell directions it can really perform and unlike sunset, no 10 year olds dropping in on you with uncle sitting on shoulder with a watchful eye.
SSHHH. Only Kuks and mainlanders surf Kammies. Ain't no waves there. Shoots.
Same same Kawela's. SSSHH.
At one time in the early fifties, according to JimFisher, Greg Noll tried to name the spot after himself. Along about 1961 or 1962, Diff and Hynson made a run at it, calling the two peaks ''Hynson's Humpers'', and ''Diff's Dumpers.'' In 1963 I was calling it ''Kammie's'' after the Kam family's little store across from the break. One of the guys in our crew, one Henry Sutton, was calling it ''Kammie Land'' which I scoffed at, BUT somehow that's the name that stuck. So, KAMMIE LAND it is, even to this day.
Bill Thrailkill
SHAPER SINCE 1958
cool story bill. I once had a winter of good luck that I could do no wrong and Jocko's. Started calling it Charlie o's but it never caught on. This winter look out for the newest named break called Charleiwa directly next to the haleiwa boat harbor.
We had a friend who had a family home above uppers, so we called it Keahi's. Just down the road at Marijuanas, our friend's family had their beach house, so that was Lisa's.
My tow partner lives in front of marijuanas. My first big wave undergunned situation happened there by total mistake 1991. three guys out and I am thiniking I am at Chun's Reef.
Glad to be alive.
We used to go to Lisa's a lot when it was about 2-4 feet. When it's small it has a left like pipe, but you can also ride the rights, and they eventually end up at Aligator Rock. When it get's big it's an intense pipeline like left. The reef is shallow there, then it has deeper water before the beach. The water runs along the beach north towards the jetty that sits on the Waimea side, heavy current when it's big.
I got close to dying out there. One of the days when it goes from 4 feet to crazy huge in just an hour or so. My friend and I drove past Puaena and it looked like it was 4 feet, get to Lisa's and by the time we park and get our boards out, the waves are big, but we don't know how big. Just see the tops of the waves and the guys going off the top disappearing then back up again. Maybe 3 or 4 guys out, so we go. By the time we reached the break, there were only 2 guys out and the waves probably close to 10 feet. We'd paddle way off to safe water then paddle in catch the smaller sets until we felt confident enough to sit in the break. We could see way down past Waimea from where we sitting and down towards Lanis, it was big.
By then it was just me and my friend, and we started catching set waves. I go for a wave and it jumps up to at least a 20 foot face straight up like pipe. My friend is apddling back and yells no, no, but I think he's saying go, go. Last second I know I won't make it and somehow as I back off the wind blows me back over the top onto the back of the wave. When he got out he tells me that the wave sucked up pretty heavy and he thought it was over for me.
We surfed for a while and I eventually get a nice one and go a little too far. I can't get back out and I get nailed. I swam for a good 40 minutes going in circles because the rip was so bad, I'd get 10 feet from the beach but I couldn't get on to the sand. When I did make it, I just crawled up the sand and passed out. My friend came in and got me and we went looking for my board. It ended up on the jetty on the Waimea side. It had a nice dent in it and I never rode it again.
This is the board.
6-8goonie_small.jpg
hey!
that looks like my old board
the one Gooney made for Boogs
Was that after I left for college when you and my classmate were getting in all kinds of trouble?
PersonaIly I hated kammieland
it was just a peak like that spot just north of makaha we used to also camp out at
remember when we got chased out of kammies when mark was trying to steal some food while we were camping in the bushes across the street?
also remember walking down to rockies in the dark to be the first ones out and stepping on all those hash stoned out haole hippies passed out in the sand.
good times those 4-5 years in th early 70's discovering the northshore from puaena to sunset.
so much easier camping out than making that long drive home totally wasted from surfing all day and other stuff.
Trying to stay awake when everyone else was passed out sleeping.
Charlie
pretty interesting timing,
When I returned home I got my first custom bpard from Ed Searfoss in 91 too. I used to see him selling boards at the swap meet and I ordered a custom 10' high performance longbaord that would help me get back into surfing after 15 years away from the ocean in seattle going to school and working. I wanted something that could paddle and surf well but then use as a tandem for my brother and his kids after I was done with it. Ed had Jim Turnbull make it for me. It was a bonzer bottomed 10' x 24' x 3" longboard with glass on thrusters.I ordered it in "pale pink" because a friend of mine told me that "think pink" was used to calm rock climbers when they got into tough situations. Ed delivered it hmself to my office in Mapunapuna with his old van. I have to leave it on my desk till I got off work and it caused a huge commotion among my coworkers because of the size of it and the color. That nght I came home with a giant pink board and pierced ears and my family thought I had finally lost my mind.But it was the start of my hard core return to surfing
That 10' ended up being a very special board I still have today(27 years later) and hope to one day restore back to its original condition. I wish I ordered more boards especially longboards from Jim Turnbull before he passed away. I went from that 10' to a 7' 2" Country Surfboards baby squash also in pink I bought used from the mad hatter at surfnsail. It was shaped by a lifeguard named "Hall" for a girl to surf sunset. I also still have that board and it was another great shape.
The thing about kammies is that no one wanted to surf there with sunset and rockies just down the beach. I think the most GUy I saw out their back you could count on one hand.
here's some before and after shots of the 10' custom Ed had Jim Turnbull shape me. It's a great board
BA-Turnbull-1.JPG
PICT0542.JPG
PICT0544.JPG
PICT0545.JPG
PICT0727.JPG
PICT0745 (1).JPG
PICT0746.JPG
PICT0735.JPG
"ain't no big ting brudda"
Jim made my wife's 9 footer with tourquoise bottom and wrapped rail like yours. I asked for full tourquoise top and bottom but ed said it woulb bee too much. Did not understand this comment until I statrted doing some color on my boards. Way cool stories about your surfing advnetures in the 70's. By the time my upstate new york farmer ass got into surfing I was too committed to family, as in wife and kids, to experience it like you guys did. The last time I rode Jim's board he made for my wife was the day Todd Chesser died. I was at haleiwa and the surf came up HUGE in a few hours time and I got so barrelled going left I was belly laughing. Sold the board on the way in to surf and sea to a local for $200. Got deployed in the army to the desert and got to come back to hawaii alive 2 1/2 years later. The same board came back to me for a repair from a different customer that fell off the roo fof his car on H-1 in 2000. Unreal the circle of things. I wasn't belly laughing with the effed up board repair that I last got tubed on however. Great story Bernie. Love that you still have the board also.
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