2016 Point Panic Experience

The 2016 Point Panic Experience

Written by Event Director Kanekoa Crabbe

All photos provided by Nick Ricca @nickricca

Congratulations to B.K Holt & Kai Santos for winning the Bodysurfing & Handboarding Divisions of the 2016 Point Panic Experience!  These individuals were also the only two wave riders whom advanced to both final heats on both days of competition.  Though the surf was small, clean and somewhat inconsistent, all 50+ contestants took full advantage of the opportunity provided.  From a fired-up 11-year old beach entry grommet to the small handful of elders in their 60’s, these pure wave riders came to Point Panic from the islands of Hawaii and Kauai, Australia, North & South America and various locations on Oahu.

Young Point Panic wave glider taking notes
Hugging the point on the way in
The Point Panic Headquarters
Strapping up and preparing for the slippery decent
High & tight and holding on

Much thanks and appreciation go out to ALL of this years’ participants, supporters and various sponsors of this 8th annual Point Panic wave riding event.  They include VISSLA, DaFin, Hawaiian South Shore, Soaptopia, Vertra, Custom Countertops Inc., EKM Records, Friends of Point Panic Foundation, Malama Point Panic, Menehune Water Company, Viper Surfing Fins, BSD Inc., International Bodysurfer, Manukai Handboards, Hawaiian Handplanes, Hawaiian Handfins and Wave Blades.  Mahalo nui loa for perpetuating the purest form of wave riding at the best bodysurfing wave in the world!  Hope to see you all again next year at Point Panic and don’t forget to pray for surf so maybe, just maybe, it’ll be “90 feet and glassy!”

2016 Handboarding Champ Kai Santos with tools in hand
Cherished for the memories, pride and joy!
Setting up for the inevitable
Point Panic Priceless Perfection

Swell Lines Magazine

Bound

In days of old we toiled asunder

while machines were dreams oft in slumber.

Each tribe alike yet spread about,

the wide word alive like bursts of thunder.

There stood kings and queens many,

on hilltops they wondered at a land so free.

But it was the kin of you and me

who were so bound by the rolling sea.

Along the shore we found our peace,

to live at the whim of the building gale.

We wade with our family who don the scale,

so bound are we to the rolling sea.

At night cross cliffs some of us may stray,

But the glistening stars will guide the way,

Back to the sound of wave crashing glee,

For we are bound to the rolling sea.

EJ

Swell Lines Magazine

Dawn Sunday

By Drew Green

It is dawn on a Sunday. The cold, metal railing seems to the draw the line between wild and civilized, dividing groomed, green grass from unkempt and restless waters. Up above, seagulls hasten to make their morning dives, squawking in their pursuit of crabs and fish, hoping to snag something fresh before the sun rises. As they break the glasslike surface of the water, a new world is briefly revealed to them, as much separate from as it is tied to their own. A sea lion glides past, curious of the feathered disturbance to its breakfast routine. The beast flies effortlessly through the obsidian murk, dipping and diving, reveling in the occasional catch. Once the fish is caught, the creature flicks it into the air, as if playing a game of aquatic basketball. The animal’s play inspires a nearby photographer to… “CLICK” The shutter of a Canon 5D slams down, and this moment is freed from the fleeting nature of time.

They never stay on the bluff for long, the photographers. The frigid offshore wind shoos them and their beanies along the path and eventually back to the refuge of their cars. As the photographer pulls out, his space is taken by a red VW van.. The owner knows the icy water is warmer than the air around him. A neoprene-clad foot steps out from behind the scarlet door, across the manicured grass, and past the railing; casually leaving the uniform parking spaces, grid-paper grass, and engineered symmetry of the apartment building behind it. The man steps down the jagged Torrey sandstone, and sits down on the damp, worn ledge that has been the seat of many a patient water-goer. With fins on, he casts off as water rushes up onto the thawing rocks around him.img_0822

Rocks that have been here for eons. Sometimes the rocks are friendly. Most times they are not. Occasionally they shift and clamor with excitement, when the waves get too big. Today the rocks just wait, immersed in the constant energy of the surf. Energy that has travelled long and far to deliver its fatal blow on this ragged coastline. All of the members of the morning cast feel it. The sea lion is lifted from its hiding place in the kelp, the gulls evacuate their roost on the once-calm surface, the man dives deep into the blue. While submerged, he pauses to look back through the vertical pane of water as it stands up on the reef. He sees the distorted form of the apartment building, complemented by a row of crooked parking spaces, a furry swath of green grass, and a twisted, gray railing.img_0833

Swell Lines Magazine