From David Love, March 2004.

Kelly and I are fine in every sense of the word.

To bring u up to speed, we had a ball in Hawaii the waves the first
day I went for a surf was 15-20ft Hawaiian (the wave height is
measured from the back of the wave not the beach side, and is
invariably smaller than the face or breaking part of the wave). It was
as full on as I think life gets when I first swam out in to the most
monstrous surf that ive ever been in and thinking that straight down
was naught but lava rock, split and fissured when these things broke
they jack up (gain height suddenly) and then the crest is thrown
forward and the bottom sucks out to form a tube u could drive a car
into, then it moves fast "tubing" with a speed and power that makes
hyperbole superfluous it was like looking into the face of god (as
beautiful as it is awesome) and to ride one is like gamboling with the
devil. The guys that surf it well make it look like the condensed
beauty of all the poets in all time bellosed in human form falling
slowly, controlled, solid, the living personification of
concentration. Suffice to say that after my first wave I was caught
inside (there is a small rip of sorts that runs in a diagonal about
100m away from the edge of the break, the break itself is comes about
because the lava rock below is triangular, with tip seaward,) getting
caught inside involves finding ones self in the impact zone rather
than the rip when one has finished the wave. This comes about as the
direction of the swell is slightly different wave to wave and
consequently the end is not always in the channel or rip.

The other thing is that Pipe is in the middle of all these other
breaks either side of it. I always imagined it standing alone,
immaculate. There is a rip, running left to right across the break
that is unbelievably strong and looks delectably easy. One enters the
water basically in front of the break there are a few boulders to
maneuver around and (yes I smashed my hand into one or two of them)
here u get your first sense of how strong the rip is as your feet are
taken from underneath u. Pipe breaks about 150 to 200m off shore, but
before u have taken more than a dozen strokes u think, hang on im
about to swim into the take off zone, what seems like 10 seconds later
u look up to realize that if u don't get a into g then your
going to miss the rip and be pounded by the break on the other side (a
very messy nasty bouldery type break!).

Oh, that's right I got caught inside after I caught my first wave she
just came to me, about 10ft face, breaking inside on a different angle
than her big sisters, no one else near her, she was meant for me, I
didn't, couldn't think, just reacted and there I was
riding decent sized pipe. And the sound, ill never forget the sound,
as your slipping deeper in to the barrel, the sound of tearing
blasting in your ear, fabric or paper just very loud, the sound of the
lip as it meets the face with me the literal sausage in the roll.
Unfortunately she left me along way from the channel and in the middle
of the deconstruction zone (where ones body is). Looking up the sets
coming like marching mountains, I swam for all I was worth toward the
channel but to no avail. When this thing broke around 50-75m in front
of me it formed a rolling, exploding mass of white water at least 3-4m
tall. Usually in these situations I thank the great whatever that I
don't have a board and head for the bottom in the protection
of deep water and basically wait for the thing to pass over me. Here
heading for the bottom was exactly like heading for the bottom of a
large bathtub I could have stood up and not have been waist deep. As
well as a string of profanities death loomed large on my mind. As it
turns out the hard rock actually helps as it forces most of the energy
back up to the top of the water leaving a small but important window
where the tumult does not completely reach, later I felt full force
fury, but that's another story.

And of course I competed. My heat was full of people that had made it
into the semis in preceding years one of whom eventually managed 4th
place this year. To make a long story shorter I froze instead of being
relaxed and composed. I was a deer in the headlights of this
competition. The surf was relatively small and the adage that at least
u get to surf pipe with 6 people instead of the usual 60 is cold
comfort. There is 6 in a heat they took the first three, I didn't get
going until fear of looking like a complete prat caused me to start
catching every thing in the last five minutes so I was 4th. Aids they
surf so well man these guys is good (but so am I, I found out, I spent
a lot of time in the water with locals and the thing is sort of rigged
or squewd towards the locals and maybe I showed my hand free surfn and
paid the price, I was goin off, after the comp I went off even more, I
had to go out to prove to my self that I wasn't as crap as my results
may have shown, I'm not!) a lot of rolls, triples, and mike Stewart
does the one where u follow the lip over as u roll. The guy that came
second [Mark Cunningham] doesn't do tricks, he is just the best, silky
smooth makes it look easy flawless positioning and silky styln, and
not afraid of the bigins he is a lifeguard at pipe so we have to get a
video! It was an experience that I am sure to repeat (Aids, u comin or
wat). Another good bit is the discovery of the body surfing movement;
I have plans to start a central coast association and such. Kell and I
formed a friend ship with a Frenchman and a guy from Boston (yes he
bodysurfs there) (I met another guy that surfs in New York in winter!)
we were interviewed by a guy [K.C. Earnshaw] making a documentary, and
hung out. Twas good fun. We were seeing these guys every where and
then they turned up at the sign in, and that cemented the friend ship.

Kell is wearing a new ring now that we had made in Jodhpur (a bit more
on that later), two baguettes (0.32 each) and a brilliant cut (0.58)
totaling over a carat, set in white gold. We chose the diamonds and
the setting ourselves and had it hand made for Kell overnight!

The initial proposal was in the North Shore surf museum and was
basically done by the guy that sold us the ring got some good pics
though the original ring now given a new life by our friend in Jodhpur
was found in Waiamiea bay by a cousin of one of the three stooges.
Cool huh! Kell had to propose in a proper way to give me an idea of
what should have happened. In my defense it was a hard situation to
get out of, and when the guy selling us the ring says, so am I seeing
a proposal and stupid me goes, well yea, you can see the romance
sucking out quicker than 20ft Pipe! Ive proposed a few times since
then and I think im nearly ready to take off the training wheels and
go for real.