Each fall and winter, high surf returns to Oahu’s northern shores, and so do surfers from around the world. They are followed by their admirers, also hoping to absorb the energy and magic of surf season.

We tapped Pancho Sullivan, a surfer who’s won multiple contests at his home break of Sunset Beach, to show us how to roll like an insider when visiting the big-wave part of the island. He agreed to let us tag along for a day in the life of a surf competitor — one who is transitioning to life after a pro career — and offered some tips for putting together a great day on the North Shore. Also inside: The World Surf League’s calendar of Hawaii events, including Oahu’s Triple Crown. 

Pancho Sullivan knows the North Shore and its breaks better than most. Once one of the top-ranked pro surfers in the world (No. 7, to be exact, in 2007), he’s lived on the North Shore for most of his life, and he’s been a contender in contests along its famed beaches for the past 23 years.

“I think it should be a national park or listed as one of the wonders of the world,” he said on a recent day in October, looking out at the break behind the Turtle Bay Resort.

He’d been in the water at Sunset Beach early that day, surfing in the HIC Pro, and although he didn’t catch the waves to carry him into another round of competition, a smile still played across his face.

“It’s got so many different looks to challenge you,” he said, speaking warmly of his home break. “It really forces you to dig deep. The power of the wave. The adrenaline you feel. The waves are really, really big. The wave has so much push — you can actually do so much with it.”

As he spoke, the sun set beyond the surf, creating a postcard view of Turtle Bay.

“The surf is one of the most amazing shows on earth,” he said. “And there’s so much more to the North Shore than just surfing.”

The Kauai-born Sullivan first placed in a pro event in 1992, and even when walking on dry land, he maintains an echo of a stance that hints at his instinctive balance. And after all those years of competition, his is a name well recognized among those who follow the sport.

When he walks into Coffee Gallery in Haleiwa shortly after dawn, a young, dreadlocked surfer asks the person behind him, “Is that …?”

At age 42, Sullivan says this season is his last as a competitor, as he waits to see whether he will draw a wild card slot in the Triple Crown competition. The first leg of the premier event is the Hawaiian Pro at Alii Beach in Haleiwa; its holding period starts Thursday.

Sullivan says he’s ready for the transition from ocean competitor to entrepreneur. Whether talking about his performance, his home surf break or the prospects for his business venture, an online watch company, he shows a similar, serious intensity but also frequently flashes a grin.

“I’ve spent the last 23 years of my life competing in pro-am events and Triple Crown events,” he said. “I’ve won events at Haleiwa, Sunset, Pipeline, traveled the world. I feel fortunate to have experienced all aspects of surfing. … Now I really want to focus on my career after surfing. I don’t feel that competition is that important to me anymore.

“Being able to surf and enjoy the lifestyle, that’s the most important thing to me now: to be able to return that hospitality, that aloha spirit that I was shown.”

Despite his admirable pro achievements, the rewards in surfing have been richer in experience than in cash. Sullivan describes his watch company as tailored to the “working man” — and considers himself one of them.

During surfing’s off-seasons Sullivan long supported himself as a construction worker before moving into sales and marketing in the surf industry. He bought property mauka of Sunset Beach with a tear-down shack on it and lived without electricity for a year, planning his house and then working alongside the crews who built it starting in 1999. He says he could have been an architect in another life.

Before and in between the periods he surfed competitively, Sullivan rode waves for pleasure. He says he plans to “free surf” for years to come.

“I feel like it’s time to hang up the jersey,” he said, without hesitation.

Priorities in his professional life are now running his online company, Aulta Watches, and serving as distribution manager in the Pacific Rim for the Island Daze surf apparel line.

The surf season is not only about catching waves, Sullivan says, it’s also a time when plenty of work gets done, from networking to conceptualizing ideas for his business interests.

“It’s another thing that I can pour my intensity into.”

Sullivan is married, with two daughters, ages 6 and 11, and an 8-year-old son. He tools down Kamehameha Highway in a nondescript Honda minivan with a “Keiki on Board” sticker on the back window, more often than not wearing an Island Daze T-shirt, board shorts and slippers.

He’s a graduate of Kahuku High, where he first met his wife, Haunani. She’s now a flight attendant. Sullivan said they became reacquainted in 2001, when she came home to visit family.

When we met up with him, Sullivan’s day started at dawn, dropping in at Coffee Gallery, then scouting out the waves from a rental house directly on Sunset Beach for an early morning surf session.

“Surfing is a mind eraser,” Sullivan said. “You forget about all your worries, what’s going on. You live in the moment. You have to.”

Aulta co-founders and partners Marty Pomphrey and Abe Allouche joined a group of surfers and friends at the rental, cheering Sullivan on and talking business as the HIC Pro loomed near. Indie-rock music blasted from the lanai.

Sneakers and beach towels were piled in the living room, and boards littered the lawn.

Pomphrey and Allouche had flown in from Florida for the contest. Allouche, a longtime surfer, and Sullivan had worked together before launching Aulta. Pomphrey, who said he took up surfing at Allouche’s urging three years ago, came to the company from Fossil.

After smudging on sunscreen, all three hit the water.

Aulta celebrates the surfers’ lifestyle, said Sullivan, and the idea for it was born in the water as the friends were surfing.

“We all have our day jobs, our families,” he said. “When we get out there, it really helps us just breathe, be in the moment, be in touch with that youthful spirit.”

Surfing, he says, taught him how to juggle competing dynamics and “to remain very focused.”

“Our inspiration is attached to surfing waves and enjoying the ocean. From the minute I became a pro surfer, I wanted to inhale every experience. … I’m passionate about surfing and the products that allow me to do what I want to do.”

Down the beach, at the HIC contest site, European tourists and local families with no-fear surf babies darted in and out of the water in front of a “strong current” sign.

After the surf session and an outdoor shower, Sullivan joined Muay Thai instructor Levon Webb at the Sunset Beach Jiu-Jitsu dojo for a sweat-drenched workout that included jumping rope, kicks, punching and pushups. “Breathe into the fire,” Webb urged.

“With so much going on this summer, it was hard to motivate to stay in shape,” Sullivan said. “But when the Triple Crown comes around, I’m motivated.

“I’m 42 years old now, and I want to stay in shape to surf with my partners and take on challenges.”

He also rides a mountain bike and has been known to skydive. He’s a focused competitor, letting out grunts of disappointment when a blow fails to land during the martial arts workout.

“Everything’s about balance and technique — and that’s surfing in a nutshell, really,” Sullivan said. “When you surf competitively, if you fall once or twice on the wave, it’s over. You’re dealing with the power of the wave, the drop, the current; that’s where this pays off.

“You learn not to let the pain consume you — to work through it.”

After the workout Webb and Sullivan sat, cross-legged, cooling down.

“Breathe in, breathe out. To the teacher, to the universe, to our ohana,” Webb said.

Later, a typical day would include picking his kids up from school, but with the competition near, a family member was helping out. Sullivan had lunch to catch, a meeting scheduled with his surfboard shaper, and strategizing to do.

At Waialua Bakery he joined up with friends and Aulta “advocates” — surfers who represent the values Sullivan hopes to communicate. One was photographer Mike Coots, who lost the lower half of his right leg to a shark attack 18 years ago and now promotes shark protection.

Crowding together at an outdoor table, half in the sun, the men jokingly boasted about surf breaks they’d visited. They’d come from Southern California, New Jersey, Miami, Kauai and Sunset Beach, converging to be there for the surf contest and for Sullivan.

At daybreak on Oct. 28, on the verge of the HIC Pro, Sullivan was up at first light to feel his boards out, choosing one for the contest.

He drew the first heat of the HIC Pro at Sunset Beach, and with middling morning waves, did not place in the competition, though he spoke with a glow of the “fun wave” he caught and carved during the warm-up.

“The swell was really big and out of control,” he said, and the heat didn’t work to his advantage. But he spoke confidently of his efforts.

“I tried my best,” he said. “I felt really fit. I felt like I was surfing at a high level. But that’s competition.”

The contest results didn’t dampen his enthusiasm for joining friends later at Turtle Bay, where he met his wife and kids for dinner.

Oceanside at Turtle Bay, he said he felt “really calm” about the competition.

“It felt like any normal day,” he said. “Life goes on.”