KIHEI, Hawaii -- Larry Stephens first surfed when he was 12, inthe cold waters north of Santa Barbara, Calif., and in waters colderstill, farther north, near Santa Cruz.
There were no wet suits then, in the early '60s, to fit kids. SoStephens' answer to cold water was to paddle into the breakers untilhe could feel it no more, not the cold, not anything.
Then he surfed.
When he came to Maui, the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands,in 1975, Stephens wasn't looking only for warmer water. He had a wifeand two young kids and needed work.
'My brother lived in Hawaii and told me there were jobs in thehotels,' Stephens said. So he and his wife, Pat, packed most of whatthey owned into a Volkswagen bus, drove it onto a ship and venturedacross the Pacific.
'The north shore of Oahu has the best surfing in the world,'Stephens said. 'But Maui has some of the best 'breaks' in the world.It's a great place to surf.'
Older now, with less time to ride waves, Stephens helps manage oneof Maui's big hotels. Some say Alice Cooper lives not far down thebeach from Stephens' workplace. Tiger Woods is building a home nearthere. And Britney Spears was said to be thereabouts, walking Maui'streasured sands.
So the island has changed, trending dramatically upscale from therelatively unknown surfer hot spot and hippie holdout it was decadesago.
Still, for Stephens, -- a friend of a friend -- life hasn'tchanged altogether.
Some mornings before daylight, with Maui's surf still obscured inblackness, he'll paddle out from shore, perhaps on a long board,perhaps on a short, duck-diving into the crashing surf as he does,then popping up and paddling as far as he needs to paddle to awaitthe day's first waves.
'It's addicting, surfing,' he said. 'I'm not as strong as I oncewas, and I can't swim as hard as I once did to catch waves. And Idon't surf the big waves I once did. But I still go when I can.'
Lately, all of Hawaii was inundated by rain, so much so that fewon Maui could recall such downpours.
For hotel managers, this meant moving luaus inside and explainingto guests that even in paradise, rain falls sometimes.
Right.
Stephens had earned a day off.
'I'll be by about 8:30,' he said. 'We'll go surfing.'
I was holed up down the beach from Stephens' hotel. I had a flyrod rigged and a rented ocean kayak lying a stone's throw from thebig water. There were fish out front, along the coral reefs. I hadseen them while snorkeling.
But they would prove harder to catch than I suspected they would.At least on flies.
Or perhaps while casting to unseen prey using flies about the samesize of some bikinis I saw nearby, on the beach, I had beendistracted.
But such are the hazards of fishing.
Eight-thirty came. A rented board was procured, also booties and aform-fitting surfing shirt that would help keep skin on my chest,where it belonged.
'There are three main ways you can get hurt surfing,' Stephenssaid. 'Other surfers can hit you and hurt you. Your board can hit youand hurt you. And the bottom can hurt you.'
Of these, I quickly judged the bottom to be my biggest threat,because much of Hawaii's good surf comes ashore not on sand but oncoral. Very hard coral.
'When you fall, flop to the side or back, away from the board,'Stephens said. 'That will get you some distance from your board andalso help protect you from the coral.'
The water was chest deep when Stephens commanded me to prepare fora wave.
Good waves come in sets, he said, often three sequentially, andlearning to judge these accurately is an important part of earningone's stripes as a surfer dude.
That and streaking one's hair in the sun, sporting tenaciously aniPod's offensive tendrils and earning a minimum wage as a capitalisttrainee at a surfboard rental joint.
A good wave came.
I missed it.
There was another wave, and I swam diligently ahead of it, felt itlift my board -- and stood.
Very briefly.
Then I wiped out in a way tourists on the beach might recall foryears.
'We'll try again,' Stephens said.
Waves rolled forever shoreward. Humpback whales have plied thewaters off Maui since time immemorial, and they were there on thisday, too. Also, though not as readily spotted, spinner porpoises andsea turtles
And in the far blue yonder, giant blue marlin.
Another wave came, and again I rose to the occasion.
Barely and briefly.
Mostly I wiped out spectacularly and learned really for the firsttime just how hard coral can be.
Still, the sport's allure was quickly apparent -- its challengesand, ultimately, its freedoms.
'It's addicting,' Stephens would say again. 'Surfing.'
