Sunday is a day much like any other in da country. Cockerals cock-a-doodle-do the pre dawn. Other birds tweet and chime the morning chorus. Down the berm, a small 1ft NE swell puffs and spills semi reluctantly on the shore.

There was a party last nite at the sushi place in historic Haleiwa town. How do I know? Because a bunch of choads who are friends of the daughter of the lady who owns the house where I am staying came back at 3.30am and woke me up. They talked loudly in American and said nothing, over and over, loudly. They took flash photos in the loft room thingy where I am staying. There’s nothing like being woken up by a bunch of over-excited fully grown adult children who still live with their ‘moms’. Apparently they were ‘DJing’ at the sushi party. Of course they were, the assholes. I put 5live’s Sportsweek podcast on in my headphones and drifted off when Sir Clive Woodward came on. Then I woke up at 6.20am sharp and went downstairs where about 8 of them were strewn across the lounge area. I made a hell of a din making my coffee and toast and even washed some already washed dishes extra loudly in the sink. One, a white man with ‘dreads’ moaned and rolled over on the couch. Mental note to self; Fabreeze that shit before you sit on it again.

Had another glorious snorkel session this morning. Saw another big turtle face and hung out with him for a while as he munched moss off da reef like champ. I saw Cornishman Toby Donachie at Rockies. I believe he is the only member of the red hot UK shred community currently on the North Shore. I think the rest of them are at the BPSA Champion of Champions event on the Isle of Wight. Then I got down to Ehukai Beach Park and saw Aritz having a swim. Then, on the beach I saw Tom Roland Curren dropping his youngest son, Pat, off for a surf. He didn’t have much patter this morning, just a few muffled ums and ahs. He asked if I wanted a lift back to Kammies and I said, ‘No thanks, Tom Curren, I’ll walk.’ I popped in to see Timo at the Quik shack who was watching the Alf Stewart ‘Mexic**t’ clip on youtube. He showed it to Aritz who was now back from his swim but I’m not sure if Home & Away was real big in the Basque Country.  Think those guys were more into Neighbours. When I got back to near where I’m staying who should I see jogging along the bike path but Tom R. Curren. Jogging !?!?! Curren ‘trains’ ?!?! As he jogged passed I said, ‘Are you ‘working out’?’ And he said, ‘I coulda given you a ride…’ It was really, really weird. The I looked around down the bike path and he’d gone. Weird city.

Jumped in for a splash OTF on the low low tide and there were a few lil’ rip snorters. Ian Walsh (check his spread out in SE79 out next week on a massive wave at Cloudbreak) paddled out with Gavin Gilette and they smacked a couple of lips and fanged a couple of tail waftys. Walshy asked me what France was like in March. ‘It depends,’ I said. Walshy is a pretty cool dude. He has a real small head compared to the size of his body but he absolutely charges like a wounded bull and I like his voice. Throaty. I asked him about the swell coming on Wednesday that everybody is talkin about but he doesn’t reckon it’s gonna be all that good.