Unless you've been living under a rock lately or have been on a total bender, you're wise to the fact that Town has been sprayed with two weeks straight of overhead swell. You name it—Bowls, Kewalos, Diamond Head—they've all been on a roll lately.

That said, the crew at FREESURF has been covering what's been the greatest June in Town that any of us can remember. Video, photos, editorial...we've been on it from all angles for the entire month. And yeah, we scored some goods. With any luck, we'll be able to come up for air long enough to put the next issue out. Rest assured, dear reader, that you'll be flooded with the Best of Honolulu in the next issue. Stay tuned.

City Bill 25 proposes a 600 percent increase at meters around Kapi‘olani Park in Waikiki for park and beach parking. The rates will rise from 25 cents for an hour to 25 cents for ten minutes, or $1.50 an hour. The rate increase is scheduled to go into effect on July 1, 2009.

Protests are in place to buck the hike in parking rates. Beginning on June 6, at 3 p.m., volunteers will be rallying with homemade signs and wearing red clothes at the Dillingham Fountain across from the Elk’s Club.

Concerned citizens can also submit written testimony opposing Bill 25 by noon on Tuesday, June 9 to all council members or even better, testify in person on Wednesday, June 10 at the city council meeting at City Hall for one to three minutes of personal testimony. Call 768-5011 to find out the time bill 25 will be heard, and show up en masse.

You’d be hard pressed to find a more amicable lot of people than those that call the wave-rich island of Tahiti home. Bonjours, and merics are the words of the day and a friendly smile and nod of the head are as common as the perfect peaks out to sea. Needless to say, we could all learn a lot from the Tahitian people.

But perhaps most interestingly, from what I humbly gathered in my two weeks at the Billabong Pro, the Tahitians are not picky about their quiver. As long as it floats (most of the time) they’re out there. Bodyboard, shortboard, taking turns with your friends—they do it all, as long as it keeps them in the surf.

My eyes were opened to this one afternoon as I sat out in the lineup at Teahupoo, my fingernails digging into the fiberglass on my board, adrenaline pumping through my every vein. But low and behold, out paddles a young crop of teenage bodyboarders and surfers who proceed to dominate the peak, pulling into waves in mere inches of water. After a while, the bodyboarders and surfers would switch out their respective crafts and continued ripping. It was a sight to see. It was unfiltered happiness and stoke. Bodyboard or shortboard, they were having the time of their lives and putting on quite the show in the process.

“I don’t really care if I have to bodyboard or surf. They’re both fun,” said one of the groms after deftly slotting himself a half-dozen times.

After watching these kids laugh and push the limits out at Teahupoo for more than two hours, you can’t really argue with them. As long as they’re stoked and dominating, does it really matter if they’re doing it standing up or lying down? Not in their eyes. —Jeff Mull

Local Motion’s Surf Into Summer has been around a long time, decades, and has seen

After more laydays than I can recall, the powers that be at the Billabong Pro Teahupoo decided to run the final. It was about time as the collective nerves among the 45 had been fried to the core. Too many laydays, and not enough surf = an irritable World Tour. But once the event got underway, you could almost feel the sigh of relief among the sleepy Tahitian village.

Game on.

In the final, Bobby Martinez—a past event champ—took on the likes of WA’s Taj Burrow. From the outset, it was clear that there was no stopping Martinez as the lad pulled into screaming barrel after screaming barrel to the tune of 8 and 9-point rides. Although Taj would attempt to claw his way back from comboland, his efforts would be futile and Bobby would take his second Tahitian crown. To boot, Bobby accomplished all of this while surfing on a borrowed board. A testament to his uncanny ability if there ever was one.

“I actually borrowed a board from Alain Riou,” he said immediately following his win. “He rides Darren Handley shapes and the board was the same dimensions and pretty much the same board I ride. It was great to find that yesterday, as I was a bit skeptical about today in terms of the conditions and my equipment, but everything worked out perfectly.”

In the end, the event may have been plagued by meager surf, but two weeks on Tahiti aint so bad. With that, here’s to many more years of Tahitian drama. —Jeff Mull

Check out extended coverage of Tahiti’s meanest wave in an upcoming issue of Freesurf Magazine.

With there being a lay day on the books today, I managed to sneak away from the media tent and walk down the point to make the thousand-yard paddle out to Chopes. Who needs a boat, right? Well, 20 minutes into the paddle and I’m reaching the lineup. What looked to be fun, playful 3-foot Teahupoo was in actuality solid, 5-feet South Pacific power detonating on the razor blades they call “reef” over here.

Forget what you think you’ve seen from the webcast and what you say in front of your friends about surfing Teahupoo: that plays is f—king nuts at any size. Yes, at 5 or 6 feet it’s manageable, but one small mistake and you’re standing on the reef in six inches of water while a 6-footer explodes in your face. Thankfully, I shoulder-hopped a few and didn’t take any beatings…I also didn’t get any bombs as I left that to the likes of Andy, Occy, Parko, and Jordy Smith. It was an experience unlike anything I’ve ever seen watching the greats play with the wave. Everyone seemed on fire, but there was no one in the water that could match Andy. As I paddled out to the lineup, a 5-footer swung wide as Andy dropped in, leagues behind the peak. As the wave went square, Andy pulled in using his trademark Lance Burkhart backside stall. (Eat your heart out Rick Kane.) He was shacked all the way from the point to the inside. You can’t mention Chopes without Andy and you can’t mention Andy without Chopes. After watching him tame the beast, I now know why. —Jeff Mull

Heairii Williams has dirty feet, and I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way. They are coarse, calloused, swollen, filthy and wonderful. Like most people in the world, Williams walks most places he goes, sometimes with shoes, sometime without. The result of such shoeless journeys have left him with something more akin to a hoof than an actual human foot. But it’s these feet that have earned him one of the most coveted and sought after seeds in professional surfing. You see, Williams is a local Tahitian surfer who won the Von Zipper trials about a week back and has since just taken out Kekoa Bacalso in the opening of round of the Billabong Pro.

So what makes Williams so surf smooth? Without those goliath peds that seem to give hims such an uncanny sense of balance, Williams probably wouldn’t be here today. Perhaps you’re wondering why I’ve just dedicated 160 words to talking about someone’s feet? Well, for one, I was trying to be original, and two, I don’t know what else could possibly make Wiliiams surf so damn well here at Chopes…cause it aint his boards…the man’s only got a one-board quiver.

“Yeah, this is my only board,” he says to me and points to an aqua-toned 6’0” Tokoro. So to get this straight, Williams surfs the same board whether it be macking Chopes or playful Chopes. Which leaves me with one divine revelation: If it aint the boards making his surf so good, it must be his feet. —Jeff Mull

Tahiti is a place completely unlike anything