Capturing the Moment

  After just returning home to Oahu after a wonderful surf adventure abroad I was amped to see some big waves in my backyard. Luck so happens the swell has been lighting up the North Shore here in Hawaii so after a relaxing morning on the south side Heidi and I jumped in the car and headed North.   We could tell the waves were big well before we got to Haleiwa. But when we got to the shore there were no surfers anywhere. Haleiwa, Pauena Point, Lanis, Pipe....nobody. We had seen a few big wave charges as we drove past Waimea Bay so we stopped back by after Pipe. Surfers had their big guns out for some huge sets that rolled through, and it only seemed to be getting bigger. I was impressed as a couple of women paddled out as well. Always good to see. As I snapped a couple of pictures I noticed a couple of guys paddling much shorter boards over towards the shorebreak. It turns out this was Kalani Chapman and Jamie O'Brien. From here on Jamie O'Brien stole the show. His b...

Great Oceana Trip in Review  Australia: Adventure Down Under Day 1 of the adventure    Four countries in a month and a half with Myles and Jack as my surfing, diving, and adventures buddies through it all. A lot of planning went into where we would go and what we would do but ultimately it would come down to weather, waves, and a little of that famous Gillespie luck to pull off what I had planned. Now that I am back home in Oahu, looking back at all the pictures and remembering all the experiences, I would saw that we accomplished 99% of everything we set out to do, plus a bunch that we stumbled upon on the way. Exploring inland Oz   It started for me back on Nov 15th with a long flight from Honolulu to Australia. Ending up in Brisbane, late at night, I was thrown into driving a right side steering wheeled car thru unfamiliar territory to a hostel with no way in. I fought the urge to rubber neck as I drove through downtown Brisbane and managed to unhi...

Christmas in Fiji   What an amazing place. A week of surfing and diving on the coral coast with Myles and Jack, a private surf trip to the fabled cloudbreak, and a true Fijian island experience on Wayalailai in the Yasawas is how I've come to know this country. Eco Haven, the resort here on Waylailai, is run by the local villagers. Everyone stops to say, 'Bula', or hello in Fijian, and are just downright nice. I hung out with some local kids on top of the big rock, went for hours of snorkeling on the fringing reef, and hiked to the top of the massive granite outcroppings that make this island resemble a mini Yosemite. The guys have shared their local drink Kava, which is supposed to mellow you out kind of like marijuana, and have also taken us all out for a not so intense 'shark feeding' with one curious white tip. You could tell the guide was enjoying things when we saw dolphins on the way back.  View from the top View looking the other way ...

  The judges podium Sets rolling in              Cloudbreak A boat from nearby Tavarua Island watches on as surfers in the distance catch massive waves at Fiji's Cloudbreak   When I first saw the movie "Endless Summer II" I wanted to be good enough to travel the world to surf. Luckily after a few seasons in Hawaii I am just getting to that level where I can handle most anything that is thrown my way. However I never thought that I would surf a wave like Cloudbreak. In the movie the two stars head to the outer reef, about an hour boat ride, only to see a low lying cloud hovering over the ocean. It turns out this is just the sea spray and white wash from massive waves crashing against the outer reef near Tavarua Island. This was is known as cloudbreak to the international community and that movie really put it on the map. It is still a 45 minute boat ride to get there from the main island, and it is stil...

Following the food bin No one know he is there but me: Bull Shark  When I was first getting in to advanced underwater photography I got a lot of advice from a pro photographer named David Fleetham. One thing I remember him mentioning was his desire to go back to a famous shark dive in Fiji, where sharks emerge a few feet in front of you from the midst of a tornado of fish. I later had a couple friends travel to Fiji with a dive trip run by Maui Dreams and they came back with similar stories of this shark dive I just had to do. So this incredible sounding dive has been on my radar for some time but when was I going to get the chance to be in Fiji....insert the great Oceana Trip of '13. And what better way to introduce Myles and Jack to Fijian diving than to go straight to the Beqa shark dive I've heard so much about! A bull cruises close in front I've been talking about this ever since our first dive together in Australia. It is only fitting that this was to...