You’re making me homesick. I never intended to stay in the mainland but education, economics and marriage kept me in the Northwest. I tried to go back after I graduated but it just didn’t work out economically and for other reasons. But to this day I still consider Hawaii my home. Even though Oahu is almost unrecognizable to me these days.

It was sort of funny though growing up there in that we didn’t have any relatives except for my aunt (fathers sister) and uncle. We were somewhat Canadian renegades. And I used to sometimes wonder about my relatives that I rarely if ever saw as all the “locals”,
as you are well aware, have relatives everywhere. Only on a few occasions did my Canadian relatives came to visit us, as mostly they could not afford it and back then Hawaii was a very very exotic place. But I ended up knowing how to surf and body surf, and free dive with snorkel and fins for that matter, although the biggest waves I have ever ridden were probably 15 feet. “Tow in” surfing was unheard of back then, you had to paddle in and then drop in, and I suppose the biggest waves that could be ridden in days of yore
were either at Waimea Bay or Makaha.

30 feet was way too much for me. I would watch it in awe. But I managed to survive getting pounded on the lava bottom at Pipeline. It was funny, the old surf movies used to say it was a Coral reef down below Pipeline. Pee’-pe Leen-neh
(Old local joke) Sort of like Like-Like Hwy. or drive-in for that matter. It wasn’t…it was almost flat lava rock. But I suppose that made for good theater.

The thing I miss most about Hawaii is being in the ocean. I considered myself to be a dolphin when I was young. I used to miss the food there but now all that sort of food is available all over the place these days in the Northwest and I suppose elsewhere.

I digress…

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.