21 days on the North Shore of Oahu….

Daily news from Pipeline Pro Wildcard recipient Lilly Pollard
Keep checking this news post for regular updates from Hawaii!

Many thanks to Milkshakes Designs, Hive Swimwear, Zion Wetsuits, Treehugger wax, IGA Gerringong, and GoPro HD cams for making this trip possible!

27^th Feb 2011

Day 20:

Got up early for the complimentary buffet brekky…. Mmmmm pancakes, coffee, fruit, cinnamon and cream cheese on toast….. Our bellies were so full we could barely move.
Had a little rest then wandered down to the waters edge to live our Hawaiian dreams of longboarding at Waikiki. It was a beautiful warm sunny day, loads of people about. We hired a couple of huge boards between Loren, Kirby and I. I’m the first to admit how shit I am at surfing, but in my defense, I’ve only just started learning! Ha. After a couple of failed waves alone, I jumped on the 12ft board with Kirby for a tandem attempt. Thankfully Kirby is a surf instructor back home. We snuck a little wave off the crowd and with GoPro cam in hand, I got up! Kirby got up behind me and held me up, stopping me from falling off. So fun!!

And yes, as you can see, I bought a “Hello Kitty” Hawaii kids t-shirt to wear in the surf to fit in with the billions of other tourists there lol….. Meanwhile, Bree and Julia had bought $3 lilo’s from one of the many ABC stores in town and had fallen asleep on them in the line-up. They were woken to an angry surf instructor asking them to get out of the way ha. The crowd was huge out there but everyone seemed to be having fun.

Afterwards we all ventured into Ala Moana shopping centre. That place is huge! And has so many beautiful and expensive stores… Nice to wander around and do a little shopping. Loren was dying to look inside Tiffany’s. Wow, the jewellery was well worth a gawk at.
Diamond encrusted watches from $24,000 were the norm and amazing pendants and rings and more were on display. While Loren made use of the luxury amenities, I looked around at the people shopping here and wondered more about them, what sort of people they are, why they spend their (or their husband’s?) hard earned dollars on this rather than on travel, cause I know that’s what I would be doing! ha… Yeah it’s nice to look pretty but really, $24,000 on a watch! Man, if you have that much spare money, wouldn’t you give it to a charity instead?

Anyways, found a couple more bits of clothing to buy and jumped on the bus back to Waikiki. We were stuffed so couldn’t be bothered walking far for food. The nearby sports bar looked inviting enough with the Sunset Beach surfing event on one tv and the Oscars on another. We shared a pizza and talked stories from the trip, enjoying our final night in paradise, it was a really nice way to end our Hawaiian adventure

26^th Feb 2011

Day 19:

Spent the morning packing our bags. With only tiny waves forecast for the rest of our trip, we decided it was time to leave our Sunset Beach abode and find some fun in the bustling city of Waikiki. Hawaiian shredder, Jade Robles kindly came and picked us up in her truck. We stopped in at Waikele factory outlets for a few hours for some more tasty bargain hunting. In need of shoes I ventured into Vans, Converse and Adidas, where I worked out that I fit into kids size shoes which are half the price of women’s…. Scored two pairs of converse shoes and a tee for $60, then a real good pair of Adidas joggers for $35. So stoked!

Jade then drove us into Waikiki to our hotel. Thanks to Aqua Aloha Surf and Spa who sponsored the Pipeline contest, we scored a really cheap deal in a really nice room!  (http://www.alohasurfhotelwaikiki.com/) Pool, spa, free wifi, and free brekky included too Definitely recommended!

Dragged ourselves from the comfort of our room in time to get down to watch the sunset from the shoreline at Waikiki. We were in for a treat as it was beautiful and bright red (probably from all the volcano smog lingering at the moment).

Spent the next few hours walking around Waikiki, the girls were frothing on Sephora –all the free make-up and perfume testing, pretty fun, but I didn’t think we’d be able to tear them away for dinner. I was starving, so headed next door to Taco Bell, where we all ended up getting dinner for three dollars, so cheap! The crunchwrap supreme is pretty tasty… Finished our night watching an awesome street show, cant remember their names but they were a crew of breakdancers who were insane! Apparently they were on America’s Got Talent…

We were all pretty tired, and everyone but me was under 21, so our plans of hitting the town and drinking kinda fell by the wayside and we enjoyed a comfy sleep in our hotel beds

25^th Feb 2011

Day 18:

Slept in a little then jumped on the bikes with the Aussie posse to Haleiwa for an adventure. Stopped at Lanie’s along the highway for a swim and saw there were soooo many turtles there today! I was that excited!! Wooo! Couldn’t get ready fast enough to jump in the water! GoPro in hand of course, we spent the next few hours swimming after Turtles and fish with the cam in hand. Wow, the turtles were so beautiful and looked so peaceful as they swam. Amazing

Celebrated our awesome swim with a feast at Cholos in Haleiwa! Mmmmmm, did a little more shopping, then enjoyed yet another beautiful sunset.

Leila and Claudia held a BBQ to celebrate Steph Petterson and Brian Wise’s engagement (congrats by the way!!!). It turned out to be heaps of fun, good music and the driveway became a dance floor

24^th Feb 2011

Day 17:

Filmed a promo video with Andrew Kaineder (which will be up on the Turbo website in the coming days) for Milkshakes and about my Hawaii stay, should be a cool clip I think! That took up a few hours in the morning.

I skipped brekky, so headed across the road to Ted’s Bakery for lunch. The grilled chicken and cheeseburger hit the spot, mmm loved the grilled mushrooms and onion on it. Yeah I don’t normally eat this bad, but the contest is over and I’m going to enjoy my holiday now ha.

Rode down to swim at Off The Wall and Backdoor in the arvo –so beautiful!! Heaps of rainbows were out and I headed out with just a pair of fins on and my GoPro in hand. Got the coolest clips of the reef (scary!) and team rider Luz Marie on a couple of waves There were so many fish out there too! Swam around for hours, just loving it.

Rode up to the Turbo house in the evening with the Aussie girls Bree, Julia, Kirby and Loren to drop off my GoPro clips to Andrew to edit and found the Turbo boys all drinking and having some fun at their place. We ended up joining in and having a really funny night, Kingy was being hilarious as usual… Good times.

23^rd Feb 2011

Day 16:

Woke up at 6am cause I knew everyone would be too hungover to surf, and yep I was right! Scored Pipe/Backdoor this morning 3-4ft, pretty clean, and barely anyone in the water J Probably the best surf of my trip! I scored about 5 Backdoor barrels that were really good, long, and spitting. Yeah it wasn’t big but it was well worth a surf, and I had heaps of fun!

Stayed out for a good 2hrs before it got a little too crowded to deal with.

Had a pass out sleep for a few hours before another 2 hour surf at V-Land in the arvo –pretty fun, but a bit crowded. The sunset was amazing though.

22^nd Feb 2011

Day 15:

Had an early surf (6.30am) at Pipe/Backdoor this morning. Didn’t really get anything much. It’s like that at Pipe, especially when it’s crowded, so much luck involved, and persistence. You need to hassle a little to get on the good waves, but not too much cause then you look like an arsehole and don’t get any respect. It’s a fine line… As scary and heavy as Pipe is, it’s the crazy crowd that scares me the most.

The men’s Pipe contest was set to start at 8am today, so I tried staying out right until the guys in the first heat paddled out, hoping to sneak a good one. Unlucky this time :/

Hung out on the beach for a bit and watched the contest.
The boys were shredding!! Pierre, Tamega, Dallas Singer, Jared Housten, Sasha Specker, Mike Stewart, and Tom Rigby were all amazing to watch. The final was crazy, in spite of the onshore that came in, Tom the Aussie grom got a good lead with ARS’s, inverts and rolls. As the Aussie crew gathered on the beach in excitement, there was just 5 mins remaining when Hubb got a smoker –busted a huge ARS then two rolls for a 9.75 then a minute later got a deep Backdoor pit to invert to score a 9.5, so sick, so inspiring to watch

Planned to head into Honolulu with everyone after the event for celebrations but the bus organised for competitors broke down on the way to picking us up, so we ended up headed to my Portuguese friend’s birthday –Neuza Mochacho, pretty fun, had some laughs with a water pistol that Eunate brought along. Party was good until cops came and broke it up just as we got more beer, damn!

21^st Feb 2011

Day 14:

Milkshakes clothing photo shoot! Did a shoot at Makapuu on the South Shore today with the Milkshakes team that’s currently here in Hawaii: Roberta Bitzer, Lachelle Yasutake, Catarina Sousa, Luz Marie Grande Perez and myself. Thanks to Mason Rose for his photography skills, we’ll be using the pics in advertising for the year

Here’s some pics from behind the scenes…

20^th Feb 2011

Day 13:

Rode the bikes down to Waimea for a swim and rock jump with the Aussie girls crew. Sooooo fun jumping, laughing and playing with the GoPro HD cam Loren Collyer, Bree Brown, Kirby Smith, Lauren Knowles and Ashleigh Dennis joined me for the swim…

Afterwards, we all squeezed into the van that 3 of the girls have been staying in and headed to Mililiani for super cheap make-up, cheap Churchill fins and more at Walmart. So good. Ohhh and a movie; No Strings Attached. Was frothing on the combo of Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman together, mmmmm good movie

19^th Feb 2011

Day 12:

Slept in, watched the DK heats a little online, Backdoor looked sooooooo much fun. Damn!

Went into Haleiwa for a wander and a shop. Highlight was the Clark Little photo gallery, ohhh and also the coffee and bagel we had in between clothing shops and once again taking advantage of the thriving Aussie dollar versus the struggling green back Ohhh the coffee and bagel were so good…. Mmmmm contest is over so I’ve started my overindulgence of the many varieties of chocolate and coffeeeeeeeee!

18^th Feb 2011

Day 11: Ladies Pipe contest on!

Well, Pipe and Backdoor looked like soooo much fun early today, 4-5ft, clean, pretty good shape in the NW swell pushing in. I was so psyched when I heard we were on. Rounds 4 and 5 of the men were on first in some super fun conditions.  I watched the guys from the comfort of my room on the live webcast as I got ready for the event. I was first heat of the quarter finals just before lunch time.

As I arrived at the beach I saw a couple of siiiick backdoor pits spitting. And, then the wind came :/

Basically Pipe and Backdoor turned to shit right in time for the women to paddle out.  Knowing that were all out in the same conditions, I didn’t let it bother me and headed out in a good frame of mine, feeling fit and ready to hunt out some good waves. Hmmmm, long story short, I couldn’t find a decent wave to save my life… Closeouts and crap was all that came my way. Yep 4^th in my heat. Sooo devastated. All those months of preparation,; training, saving money, fundraising, working my arse off, surfing hard, eating well, breath training, boxing, blah blah, it was such a huge let down….. I had to force myself to stay at the beach and watch and support the rest of the girls instead of running home and crying all arvo like I felt like doing ha. I know it’s just a contest, but Pipe is such an important event to me, to my sponsors, and I want to win this more than anything. Well, next year huh….

After watching the girls quarters, I picked my winner -Neymara Carvalho for sure, the way she was surfing was just too good. She ripped her way into the final with some perfect spins and rolls and barrel riding skills. The crappy conditions barely hindered her. Yep, she won. It was kinda hard to watch the women’s final in strong onshore 4ft Pipe, knowing how good Pipe can get….

I was stoked to see good friend Eunate Aguirre come in at 2^nd place, and Stephanie Petterson’s awesome comeback with a 3^rd place finish

Full results check out the IBA website: www.ibaworldtour.com

This video basically sums up the day pretty well. Fun in the morning, then not so good for the arvo. Although, I’m sure I saw some pretty good waves of the women that weren’t included on the vid, dunno why… http://vimeo.com/20135540

As much as I at first wanted to run home after my heat I ended up quite enjoying my afternoon on the beach at Pipe; had a few beers, a swim, and watched the contest then the sunset there with my buddies, Loren, Eunate and Catarina.

17^th Feb 2011

Day 10:

Well the contest is on today! Unfortunately it’s at Eukai, the beach. Ha. We’ve been pretty unlucky with a run of N-NE swells destroying Pipe, and not much happening on the forecast. Good news is, I’ve seen Pipe contest run in worse waves, bad news is it’s pretty bad. Ha. The first few rounds of the men are on all day today, if you’re keen to watch, head to: www.ibaworldtour.com/live

There’s a pretty strong possibility of the girls being on tomorrow, so I headed out this morning early to feel out the right at Eukai that the event is being held at… There’s a couple to be found if you’re lucky

Here’s the forecast from Surfline:

So yeah, probably women’s going to be on tomorrow, it’s going to be one of the better days…. Still, I’m feeling pretty happy with my surfing right now, so let’s do this!

16^th Feb 2011

Day 9:

It’s still morning here, so don’t have an update yet for today. No contest today and surf looks small.

Just thought I’d share with you my Hawaii boards. I brought 2 over with me….

The white one is my big Pipe board for when it’s 8ft plus. It’s 37 inches, Lilly curve, PE core, with stringer and mesh, usual 50/50 rails, channels, thin nose and core, twin thumb lock grooves, and in my Aussie colours Woo! I like PE core for big surf as it has a bit of extra flex for scooping in to heavy waves,. Unfortunately by the look of the forecast this one is not going to be making an appearance at Pipe this season

BUT, good news is I LOVE my yellow board right now 37.5, FRC core and same specs as above. I like how the FRC core has a little more “pop” than PE, but still has some flex for scooping in. It really does feel like a combination of the best of both world between PP and PE. I’m happy. And this shape is working really well for me here, can’t wait to get this contest started!

ARVO UPDATE: Did the crazy mission to the Waikele factory outlets this afternoon, and due to a slight mix up with the bus driver forgetting to tell us when to get off, it took us 4 hours! Lol. We arrived and were frothing on how cheap everything is! I’ve never seen the Australian dollar this good before! Was in the Vans store for over an hour, Loren required a froth bucket she was that excited…

Two bags of gear and a promise to return for more, we were about to hit up Converse, when we bumped into the Turbo boys –Damian King and Andrew Lester and co – and they offered us a ride back to the North Shore. Although we were not done shopping, it was an offer we couldn’t refuse. Neither of us were too keen on a 3hour bus trip back. The drive took us just over 30mins, wow, our saviours! Stoked. Check what’s happening at ze Turbo house here: http://www.turbosurfdesigns.com.au/ They have some cool daily video blogs from the team….

Rumour is Pipe contest may get underway tomoz, so heading to bed shortly

15^th Feb 2011

Day 8:

Still wasn’t feeling 100% so had a little sleep in, not keen to wear myself out before the contest.. Feeling much better now!

Surfed at Backyards this morning with Nicole “Tassie” Fleming. 1-2ft good clean fun, and not too crowded. Was looking for lefts (Pipe practice) but all I could find was rights –due to the N-NE swell still coming in. Pretty fun but! Water was so clear and pretty, I’m keen to head back out there with goggles around my neck for next surf to do some “snorkelling” between sets

The groms (Bree Brown and Julia Collins-Haynes) had somehow already managed to trash their bikes within a week (Bree’s bike chain snapped yesterday), so Loren, Bree and Julia and I headed into Mililani on the bus to Walmart to work on getting a refund or repair.

Turns out that although Walmart sells thousands of those bikes, they are still super tight and almost didn’t want to even repair it…. With some convincing they agreed. Bree got a new chain.

Bree and Julia were frothing on all the Walmart specials, so while we waited, Loz and I decided to hit the movies. We watched “Just Go With It” –the new Adam Sandler one. I’d give it 3stars, good humour and cuteness, and an added bonus of half the movie being set in Hawaii

We were surprised to find that the girls had only JUST finished shopping when we came out from a pretty long (full 2hrs) movie. Shopping trolley full, and Julia had even bought herself a sweet looking Compaq laptop for $300. Sick!

Home time…

Bree managed to snake a scary local who looked like he was going to punch her for taking the last bike space on the bus, ha. We got on safe and chatted the time away on the ride back to our place at Sunset. Got back in time for Family Guy on tv, woo!

14^th Feb 2011

Day 7:

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! <3

Well, got my Valentine’s Day present in the shape of a fun Eukai barrel this morning AND my Valentine’s Day present to everyone else is to share it with you all, because luckily I was wearing my GoPro helmet cam to capture it! Woo! Click this link to watch it: Eukai pit

If you cant open it, here’s a fame grab to froth on

The other two women’s Pipeline Wilcard recipients were out in the surf with me this morning too. Stephanie Petterson and Claudia Ferrari. These girls rip

That dreaded north swell is STILL pushing in (terrible for Pipe) but there’s a right-hand bank running along the beach breaks that has been pretty good.

Good news is there looks like a WNW swell hitting thurs/fri for the contest, fingers crossed it will be good!

Went to the IBA media house at lunch time today for the blessing of the competitors, listen to some fine tunes from Loren Collyer, and to do some media stuff for the event. Pretty fun and good to hang with everyone again. Especially with the location of he house -right in front of Pipe!

Had a pretty bad stomach ache today so just chilled in the afternoon, watched Sex And The City ( so funny) and ate some rice…. Feeling a little better, so hopefully all good for an early surf tomorrow!

13^th Feb 2011

Day 6:

Welcome back sunshine! After a couple of days of rain, it was lovely to see the sun shining today and the wind holding up lightly from the East for the early. Headed down to Pupukea for a surf check, and there was a pretty epic looking right there!

Quickly grabbed my gear and headed out there, copping one decent sized wave on the head on the way out for good measure ha. Saw Novy get a sick one, and Lackey was finding a few, but nothing epic came my way, conditions turned ugly pretty quickly as the wind changed so I headed in. Good paddle and fitness and a couple of ok drops but nothing to rave about in that surf.

Spent the rest of the day on the bike once again, I love cruising on my cruiser and checking out all the waves. Had a look at Keiki in the arvo (apparently it was pumping midday!), and ran into a couple of heroes of mine –Michael “Eppo” Eppulsten and  Steve “Bullet” McKenzie… Here for the Masters Pipe final it was nice to catch up with them and hear their stories. Speaking of heroes, also bumped into Guilherme Tamega while checking the Pipe promotional stuff put up in the Beach Park. His riding has always, and still does, blow my mind. Amazing competitor.

Tried riding up Comsat hill to check out the view on sunset but got hugely disappointed to find locked gates and angry signs warning against trespassers, so devo’d! Good memories of that view from years past.

Ohhh just heard that Aoi Koike made it through the trials at Sandy Beach into the Pipe event! Woooo! So stoked for her, Aoi deserves to be in Pipe, congrats girl!

And how cool is this pic I took of a gecko at my place today. Got so excited when I saw where it was sitting. Such cool colours and contrast!

12^th Feb 2011

Day 5:

Decided to get into the habit of waking early again, so woke to Missy Higgins at a fairly reasonable hour of 7am. A quick surf check made me realise the North Swell was still pushing in and not looking too inviting anywhere.

There was one last resort; Freddieland. Yep. Possibly the worst wave on the North Shore… I was sick of checking everywhere so decided to get some exercise and paddle out for one or two. Surprisingly it was heaps fun, only 3 guys out when I arrived and I managed to find a couple of wrapping lefts that I could bust a move (with Young MC?) on… As I left the crowd grew and the rain set in. Spent the remainder of the day drinking coffee, playing with my GoPro HD footage and editing photos… Pretty cruisey

11^th Feb 2011

Day 4:

Slept in a little once again because I heard a North Swell was hitting (not a good direction for Pipe), rode around North Shore checking everywhere in our pyjamas. Couldn’t find anything much, as that is a terrible direction for almost every wave. Swell was around 6ft, but just not real good. Had a swim and a play with my GoPro HD cam

After brekky (warm oats!), spent 2hours at the Pipe contest check-in catching up with old friends, girls and guys I haven’t seen since the Brazil World Tour event in May last year! Good to be back! So pumped for this event! Especially since (may I add ) that I scored one of only three wildcards into the main event! Woooo!

Headed to Foodland for some sushi (yuuuuuummmm) and food shopping. Foodland seems to be the place to meet as I bumped into lots of people, including one of my heroes Leila Alli. We celebrated our meeting with a beer while watching the sunset at Sharks Cove. Good times…

10^th Feb 2011

Day 3:

Happy Birthday mum!! No need to mention how old mum is turning today but my thoughts are with her at home! Especially also since I received news my brother Chris just had a baby girl (well his wife Sandra did) at 3am. Little Chloe was born on my mum’s birthday so it’s a pretty exciting day for the Pollard family right now!

Slept in this morn, and headed back to V-Land for a mid-morning session. Surprisingly fun and not too crowded until the wind turned, so I returned to the beach for a little lay in the sun and a swim. So goood to be on holidays!

Took Miss Collyer on an adventure, touring the North Shore on our bikes and ended up riding to Haleiwa for a shop.  The 20km (or so?) ride was surprisingly easy, and fun. Plus I forgot how many cool little stores there are to check out in that town.

9^th Feb 2011

Day 2:

6am alarm… I always wake up to Missy Higgins singing Warm Whispers on my alarm clock, nicest way to wake up. But as I paddled out Pipe on dark I realised I need to start listening to other music post-alarm and pre-surf because it’s not really an amping song to have stuck in your head surfing Pipe. Ha.

Managed one wave at Pipe before it got too crowded, a Backdoor one that deceivingly looked fun until it pinched on me as I stalled to get into it. Yay, welcome to Hawaii ha. I was a little bummed that the swell of yesterday had dropped really quickly and Pipe wasn’t doing its thing this morn. Paddled down to Pupukea alone and found a right to play on by myself, the water was so clear and beautiful in the sunshine, nice…

Hit V-Land in the arvo with the Aussie girls! Kirby Smith, Lauren Knowles, Nicole Fleming, and pommie friend Clare McGowan. Had a few fun ones in between getting burnt by Californian surfer boy arseholes ha. Still managed to get a couple of nice clips with the GoPro HD cam! Weeeee! Lauren Knowles all smiles

8^th Feb 2011

Day 1:

So weird having the same day twice. Had a fun little warm up surf at home in Werri before jumping on the plane with a bunch of Aussie girls to Hawaii and arriving that same morning. Groundhog Day but in another country….

Everywhere was big and messy when we arrived on the North Shore, so decided to head into Mililani on the bus to get the Walmart bike specials and have our rides sorted for the trip. 100buck cruisers…. Perfect for cruising the North Shore

Enjoyed showing the Hawaii virgin, Loren Collyer, around the marvels of Walmart, so stoked on the Aussie dollar being strong, as for once, everything in Hawaii seems cheap! Yew!

Only sucky thing is the USA food which all seems to have either peanut butter or sugar or chocolate (or all of the above) flavouring pretty much every food. Hectic sugar rushes even from eating their bread! Woh!

Made it back to the North Shore on the bus in time to see late arvo Pipe looked pretty sick. A couple of solid spitting ones, and a big crew of surfers and bodyboaders all over it. Contemplated rushing home to grab my gear and join the circus for a late one, but decided to watch and learn and enjoy the sunset on my first day. A couple of the guys were ripping, pretty sure it was BP that boosted a scary invert at Backdoor and a backflip at Pipe. Sweeeeeet. Clare McGowan and Nicole “Tassie” Fleming headed out but reported it was too hard to get a good one off the crowd. Great to see them give it a nudge anyways.

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