This is a personal account of my trip to be in the Pipeline Bodysurfing classic. 25-JAN-04 Arrive in Hale'iwa around 9PM. Meet Mark & Daniella & Daniella. Got rental thru www.vbro.com. Go to 7/11 for some microwave dinner. 26-JAN-2004, wake up ~7, go to Starbucks near Waimea Bay for a triple grande latte and a cinnamon roll. (ditto for every single day). Drove to Ehukai and then back to the rock piles parking lot. Looking at the water and along comes a bodysurfer. He is french and focussed on the water. I said I'd join him. He did not seem too impressed. In the water a log cabins, some small waves. Good to be in the waves. Haleiwa to check email and scout out the Coffee Gallery. Great Mocha frosty, but, mediocre wrap sandwich. Drove down to Pt. Panic - small waves. Drive back to Ehukai. Walk down to off the wall. Some nice waves big and small. Rode some too far and pulled out too early on some. 27-JAN-2004 met Gwenael LeFranc at 7:45 at Pipeline. Nice and big. Out 2 hours, got 4.5 waves. Foodland salads, each across the way. Catch a few waves at Waimea bay after lunch and then to the competitor's meeting at 2PM. Meet David Love and Kelly with Gwen. register. Give Dan Watman a rid to Mokulea. Pick up David, Kelly and Gwen and go back to Pipe. It is huge. Some 20 foot faces. It took me a long time to swim out. Third swim of the day. I'm too tired to catch the big ones. I float and watch for a long while. Finally I drift down a bit and catch a wave into shore. Resolve not to go out to Pipe for my 3rd swim again. 28-JAN-2004 out to Pipe in the morning. Caught a good size wave and slid down the front and then got pitched into the washing machine. I'm on the inside. Diving down below the next wave I cut my finger on the coral. My Pipeline souvenir. Then I caught a great shoulder - nice long wave. Take a third wave into shore. Life is good. Salad for lunch and then back to Waimea Bay for the afternoon. It is good for the psyche to have sand in the afternoon. Dinner at Kua Aina with Dan and David Gochros. 29-JAN-2004, first day of the holding period. Arrive at Ehukai at 7 AM with coffee. no go. David, Gwen & I went out for some fun in the smaller waves. The we all went to the temple with KC. Cholo's solo for lunch. Back to Waimea bay. 30th? Swam twice every day. Dinner with Tim, owner of my rental and his dad and Mark and Daniellas. Interviewed by Sports Illustrated, I hope I said something quotable. It is very cool that they are covering it. 31-JAN-2004 swam twice - good in the morning, frustrating in the afternoon. David Love and Kelly Bolsover got engaged today. Tofu dinner with Champagne to celebrate, hence the "Tofu Gang" is born. Finished book: Elegant Universe. 1-FEB-2004 out with LeFranc in the morning. I got some nice waves. The swell is picking up. Take LeFranc to Tim's big TV to watch the beginning of Superbowl, off to swim after the 1st quarter. Pat's win. Eat a cheese burger at Pizza Bob's and compile statistics for the the competition. 2-FEB-2004 - got plenty of sleep. Arrive with coffee at 7:10. Judith is waiting. Alan Lennard is a nut. Call the contest hotline. says call again at 7:15. Then Alan puts up the sign. We are a go. The 34th Pipeline Bodysurfing Classic is ON!!! Nervous. LeFranc shows up. Chaos is setting in. Take the famous Tofu Gang picture. Gwen is in the 1st heat. I'm in the third; David in the 4th. I spot for the first heat. Gwen does well. Get ready. Alan has a million things going on. I'm red. Rogerio and I wait for the signal. Finally, with five minutes to go, we swim out. I'm in good position. I catch a nice big wave to start, but, slide into the soup. Then I get caught in a time warp. Should I try for the biggest wave? I swim around. I'm in the perfect spot for 3 huge waves, but, Rogerio and Kai have position on me. Finally I catch two more and then a decent long ride. So, 4 waves. When they announce the heat, I'm in fourth place. Only three advance. I check the details, really I'm in 5th place. I got a 4th, a 5th and a 6th. I am content with my performance, but disappointed. Then sad that I will not get to surf Pipe when it is uncrowded again. I could have done better, but, I did well enough to feel that I definitely belonged in the contest. I could have made it to the second round if I had been more comfortable with Pipe. But then what? I need to learn tricks to do well in this contest. In the 4th heat, David gets a solid 4th. Gwen had a great quarterfinal showing and advanced to the semifinals. Greg Rice has a picture of me on a wave that had a 10-12 foot face. I hope KC has some video. 3-FEB-2004, swim early and then the Tofu Gang goes on a Turtle Safari. We drive around the north side of the island stopping for pictures and food and getting lost. Finally we make it to the bay with the turtles. A local woman says they come in to feed with the high water. Off to Sandy Beach. Small waves breaking on the sand. I try Gwen's vipers. Back to the bay for the turtles. The water is even lower. Off to Waikiki with a "wicked awesome" sunset over Diamond Head. 4-FEB-2004, right out in front of Ehukai there are some very nice waves. A huge set came in and I come up in the foam of the first one. So frothy it is hard to swim. Stroke out and swim under the foam of the second wave. Sprint out and make it under the curl of the third wave. Breathing to hard to catch the 4th wave. Then the 5th & 6th break in to far to catch. Still hanging around the outside I caught some nice ones. KC interviews us for the bodysurfing video. Off to Haleiwa with the Tofu Gang. I see myself in Greg's pictures! David & Kelly get some pictures. Lunch at Kono's made by Daniella #2. Back at Pipe, the backdoor shoot out ends and I swim over to catch the wave I should have caught during the contest. Nice long shoulder almost all the way in. My last wave at Pipe. Out to dinner with Mark Johnson, Larry Basegio, Chris Robinson and others at Breaker's. very pleasant. 5-FEB-2004, rainy, mediocre waves. Break my rule and go back to studio and begin reading Consciousness, a user's guide. Pick up David and meet Judith at Ehukai. Sloppy. I get 3 short rides and one very long ride into shore. Judith swims to Pipe. David comes in and goes back out. Several bodysurfers out there getting some good rides. I saw David get one that seemed 12 feet from shore. Fun to watch. Gwen was out there, too. Kelly makes the last Tofu supper - she refuses to give it a name, but, I call it Tofu Teriyaki. I leave the next day. That bittersweet feeling when a great time starts to end. Christine the body boarder joins us. Kelly puts healing balm on all of our "sea ulcers" - and it works wonders. We resolve to get to the beach early. 6-FEB-2004, meet LeFranc at Starbucks at 7:45 and David is at Ehukai. the surf is still messy and fairly small. I go out anyway and catch a few good rides. I catch a nice long ride into shore. Good size wave that I waited patiently for on the outside - nice steep drop down the shoulder and then a series of small drops that you sometimes get on messy days. Always nice to end a session on a wave like that. Hang out at the Plantation with David & Kelly & Christine. LeFranc joins us. Kelly's Tofu Gang - Kelly, David, LeFranc and YON head down to Cholo's for lunch. Do some 'Net. Get some color copies at North Shore news. Drop Kelly off, hugs and good bye. The last wave session is OK. Time to go. More hugs and goodbyes. foot note, coming into MSP airport, I can see Spirit Isle in new snow. Slowly cruise over it. Home in time to see Cadence's talk during the service at FPS.