There are endless ways to ride a board on Hawaii's Oahu; soulful and slow on baby breaks; carving your name across the faces of towering winter monsters; gentle beginnings, career-crowning contests.
The island has a fix for any surf-related craving brought to its beaches, and just as many gurus ready to impart the way of the waves. I've taken lessons here with third-generation Waikiki beach boys, pro surfers and even Honolulu firefighters. But none teach the sport of kings quite as convincingly as Hina.
This plucky veteran is with you on the board the whole way, up front, nose to the shore. Behind is Rocky Canon, pro surfing instructor, doing the hard work of paddling and catching the wave. But it's Hina you watch. She's so at home, her joy so infectious, that beginners forget to be afraid, and nearly everyone manages to stand up first time – even though they have half as many legs as Hina and no tail to help with the balance.
Hina is Canon's labrador-cross dog, and she and his shepherd/hound Kahuna work out of the North Shore's Turtle Bay Resort, Hawaii's only hotel with canine surf instructors. The dog lessons, on a tandem board with Canon, are a delightful drawcard at the property on the northern tip of Oahu, as well as a direct connect to the surrounding North Shore community.
Canon grew up around both surfing and dogs on the North Shore, and he and his first dog, Pulu, starred in various commercials after the pair began surfing together 16 years ago. When Canon started work at the hotel, he and Pulu performed surfing shows, which soon blossomed into the lessons. "Pulu's first official booking was with a four-year-old boy who was afraid of surfing and would only go out if Pulu came along," says Canon. "With nervous surfers, the presence of the dogs and their attention to them takes their mind off of their fear."
Before Pulu passed away in 2013 he trained Hina and Kahuna, and the pair have ridden the waves with more than 200 guests. Thanks to the weight of three on one board, the surf lessons are for kids only – but then stand-up paddle boarding became huge and now adults can "SUP with a pup" in the hotel's calm Kawela Bay, where the resident sea turtles often join the multi-species party.
That's the way things roll at laidback Turtle Bay. The resort is also dog friendly, with canine guests frequently checking in, and I once relaxed on the beach there at a respectful distance from a similarly basking rare Hawaiian monk seal.
It's all very much in the spirit of the North Shore. Just a 55-minute drive up from Waikiki, the swathe of rugged coast and lush farmland Oahu locals call "the country" is an earthy, easy counterpart to the intensity of that famous strip. Here, there's space to relax the rules. Turtle Bay, which has 452 rooms on 340 hectares is almost 80 hectares larger than the entirety of Waikiki (which is capable of packing in more than 28,000 visitors at a time into its 100-plus properties).
Oahu's north-south yin and yang work together to make the island a one-stop for visitors keen to see Hawaii with and without its make-up on. As Rocky Canon says: "North Shore is like going to another island without having to fly or float."
Home of the world's most famous surf beaches, including Sunset and Ehukai (home of the treacherous Banzai Pipeline), and the sport's big-ticket international contests, Canon's neighbourhood has always been a surfing-dominated destination. But now, he says: "People are finding out that the North Shore is much more than just surfing. We have awesome open spaces for farming, all levels of hiking and biking trails, and an amazing SUP and snorkel season during summer. The Hawaiian culture is still very alive here; you can interact with its artisans."
I find my first local artisan just by chatting to one of Canon's colleagues in the resort surf school. Thanks to Turtle Bay's isolated position, it's an extension of the community, and locals from nearby little towns – Haleiwa, Kahuku, Waialua – both work and socialise here. If you stop to "talk story", you're quickly welcomed and included in a way that's almost unheard of in city hotels of this size.
Later that evening I'm sitting in the hotel bar breathing the delicious scents of Kelli Maletta's North Shore Candle Co. The soy candles she's showing me, infused with pure local ingredients such as lilikoi, lime, coconut and plumeria, have come full circle. Their glass holders started life right here, as drinks bottles. Maletta collects them, soaks off the labels then hand cuts and grinds them into a cup shape before hand pouring in the soy wax at her nearby home workshop. Once the candle is burned away, the holder once again becomes a drink vessel – this time for keeps.
The process enables Maletta to source sustainable, affordable materials while simultaneously solving a recycling headache for the resort. "Glass has to be shipped off the island all the way to California to be recycled," she says, "and it's expensive." The candles, sold in stores across Hawaii and online, enable the buyer to help reduce the island's carbon footprint.
Maletta is one of a growing movement of North Shore makers producing mementos that seek to ease the strain on their delicate island environment. Stroll through Haleiwa Farmers Market in Waimea Valley on Thursday afternoons, and you'll find many of them, alongside the bounty of produce that flows from this locality's rich, volcanic soil.
There's second-generation woodworker Jen Homsy, who creates her beautiful Foundwood cutting boards, bowls, frames and furniture from salvaged local hardwoods. Each piece tells a story, and transforms discarded timber into functional art. Mia Russi's Washed Up Jewellery combines sea glass and discarded shells (no creatures are evicted) with silver and gold to make exquisite one-off pieces that sing of their ocean origins.
Many of these soulful souvenirs inhabit the pretty, painted timber stores in Haleiwa, the North Shore's main town. Wandering amid the plantation-era buildings with their galleries, workshops and handmade objects is a soothing respite from Waikiki's bombardment of global brands and glossy malls. The shopping up here is about the people, their stories, the land you're on and, of course, the ocean. You browse, breathe, graze – shrimps from one of the North Shore's famous food trucks, or fresh baked bread from Waialua Bakery – and buy thoughtfully.
Close by is the Hawaiian Shochu Co., a tiny craft distillery where Jen and Yumiko Hirata make two batches a year of the Japanese single-distilled liquor. A visit here provides an insight into a painstaking alchemy involving 100-year-old ceramic vats and a specially built room to create the precise conditions necessary for sweet potatoes to transform into the only Hawaiian-made shochu (and the only one Ken Hirata knows of in the US.) The exacting process is kept on track only by Hirata's taste, touch and smell and a borderline psychic connection with the process learned from his master in Japan.
The location helps, too; the North Shore's temperate weather and abundance of starchy, mellow sweet potatoes make for topnotch shochu, says Hirata. "Since we apply Japan's traditional method, with handcrafted and minimum machinery used, it's largely influenced by nature. I believe all the North Shore elements you cannot see, feel, or hear make our shochu unique and superb. It could be the sea breeze, the sound of waves, dusty red soil, the volcanic air."
You can buy a bottle at the distillery, or sip it at restaurants around the island. I enjoy the light, subtle flavour at Roy's Beach House, Turtle Bay's new farm-to-table, outdoor beachside restaurant, while those ingredients surround me: the taste of delicious greens grown here on the resort's farm and Hawaiian butterfish caught nearby; the trade winds, the churn of the Pacific and that heady, salty-sweet floral scent of these island shores. I've always wanted to bottle it and take it home, and now I can.
THREE MORE PLACES TO SHOP ON THE NORTH SHORE
KI'I NANI
The name means "pretty figures" and Karin "Bo" Bergemann's fine art dolls, made in her Haleiwa shop, draw collectors from around the world keen to own a unique creation sculpted from scratch.
NOELANI
Handmade jewellery crafted from precious gemstones by a yogini, doula, singer, surfer and all-round soulful individual, sold at her store in Haleiwa.
THE GROWING KEIKI
A gorgeous, green-and-white-painted Haleiwa treasure trove of irresistible kids' ("keiki" is Hawaiian for child) clothes and gifts; you'll find handpainted cottons, Hawaiian quilts, wooden toys and charming books by local authors.
TRIP NOTES
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FLY
Hawaiian Airlines flies daily to Honolulu from Sydney. See hawaiianairlines.com
STAY
Turtle Bay Resort is an hour's drive north of Honolulu International Airport. Choose from rooms, suites or beachfront bungalows. See turtlebayresort.com
Amy Cooper was a guest of Turtle Bay Resort
