if you only have a day

Short Attention Span's guide to one day on Oahu... walk waikiki in the morning, before all the tourists from minnesota fill the beach... hike diamond head... drive east 30 minutes, to another world... honolulu is big, loud, crowded, ordinary... Sandy Beach is straight out of South Pacific...perfect hunk of crescent sand, maybe 300 yards across... try to ride 6- 8-foot waves... wipeout... drive to haleiwa, a funky, surfer town on the north shore... buy some leather sandals...drive to Banzai Beach, 10 minutes up route 83... watch surfers do amazing things you've seen only on wide world of sports... 12-foot waves, wetsuited people disappearing under the curl, reappearing unscathed, sliding as if the water is ice, hypnotic, physical poetry like you've never seen... stay for sunset, watch as puffy clouds change colors as the sun slides down the horizon like an over-easy egg from a skillet... take pictures.. impress your friends... be thankful that there are waves and surfers and sunsets (and cameras) in this world, and you are a part of it...aloha