Capturing the Moment

North shore is rocking and rolling here in the midst of Oahu's winter surf season. The winds have been kinda shifty on my days off and that was the forecast for today as well but I thought I would make the drive and see if I could catch it early before the onshore winds arrived. I was in luck! The first place I stopped was Chun's beach. I saw a crowd out at Jocko's so I figured it must be good. I snapped on the GoPro and paddled out through a pretty hectic channel. There was a lot of water moving around but I snuck out to the lineup.   Before I could even catch my breath an overhead wave came right to me so I spun, turned, and burned right into the sweet spot. The face of the wave was super fast and smooth as glass. I ended up getting some of my best waves of the winter with a pretty good beat down in between. A little nasal dripage later was a small price to pay for the stoke of a great session.

A day off and light offshore winds means its surf time here in Oahu. A little swell coming into the nearby south shore was enough to motivate me not to make the drive to the north side to fight the rip currents and crowds. Instead I managed to grab a bunch of fun, long, left handers with a few screaming right thrown in for good measure. Heidi was on the shore taking some pictures in between phone calls and managed to get some good one. I figured with a bright yellow hat and board I would be easy to spot...turns out for the most part I was the only surfer out. Can't beat that.  

  Exploring new beaches for shells and sea glass led Heidi and me to some beautiful sights. The long stretch of sandy beach on the north shore where you will find the Bonzai Pipeline and Sunset surf breaks starts just after the ancient lava flow of Pupukea. In this corner of the beach where sand meets rock I have seen lots of shells and sea glass in the past. But the size of the waves aren't the only thing that changes along our north shore during the winter. An extra foot of sand now covered the shells and sea glass. I knew the sandbars off shore shift during the seasons but I was amazed to see the amount of change along this beach. While it didn't turn out to be good for sea shells, the new angle of the beach cause waves to rise up steeply before crashing onto the shore. I took a few pictures to try and capture the moment right before the waves toppled over. Whenever I caught it just right it was like an aquamarine window to the ocean beneath the wave. Heidi still ended...

   One of the most popular boat dives along Oahu's south shore is the shipwreck of the Sea Tiger. Sitting upright on the sand at 127', the wreck of the Sea Tiger makes for a challenging, but still recreational deep dive. It was purposefully sunk just outside of Kewalo Harbor to become an artificial wreck. The wreck itself is 165' long and about 40' wide. You can penetrate into the wreck thru some open refrigeration hatches on the deck.   Heidi and I were playing tourist today as we headed out on the boat, listening to the safety briefing. Last time we did a boat dive here in Oahu the boat was filled with Japanese tourists. We were shocked this time when it turned out to be just four of us divers on board. The conditions were great, no wind or waves, although the water looked more inky blue than light aquamarine in the early light of day. The light got better as the dive progressed but at first glance from the surface we couldn't see the wreck.   I was the ...

Tidepools and Offshore islands lit up by the full moon Makapu'u Beach A couple of days ago some friends and I met up at the eastern most point on the island to view the first full moon of the year 2015. The colors of the setting sun were a nice foreshadowing of the beauty to come with the moon rise.  At first we were in the wrong spot, as the one cliff in between us and the ocean was blocking the initial rise. But after some quick moves down to the shoreline we were greeted with an amazing view. From Makapu'u beach we could see the full moon rising from the ocean towards some low lying clouds. It was so bright that everything, including colors were still visible along the shoreline. A couple of offshore islands and nearby tidepools aided in capturing some memorable long exposure images. Welcome 2015. Full moon rising over the Pacific

   Well, our small Jackson's chameleon, Nola, is still pretty small. However after three weeks away Heidi was able to notice that Nola is indeed growing. She has a voracious appetite and it seems like no amount of pinhead crickets is enough, but we'll take that as a good sign. She didn't know quite what to make of her outside photo shoot. Distressed is the word I might use to describe it. And I've never seen her move so fast as when it was time to go back in the cage. Nola almost leaped from my finger back to her favorite perching spot.

  New Years started off with a bang for me here in Oahu. After some traditional new years food with friends Heidi and I grabbed our snorkel gear and headed to the east side of the island for some ocean time. There is always something so satisfying about being in the ocean. The day before I had led a tour along the southeast side of the island and the winds were being blocked by the island, opposite of what usually happens. This weather condition made flat calm conditions on the ocean's surface all along the east coast, opening up tons of snorkel and underwater photography locations that are usually too blown out by the trade winds. We trekked down to one of our favorite east coast dive spots at the Halona blowhole. Just beside the blowhole overlook there is a path down to a secret beach called Eternity Beach. Locals call it cockroach cove but I've never seen a cockroach there. Luckily the weather conditions were the same as the day before. The water felt a bit cooler...

2014 Year in Review: Life in Oahu   Having only spent a couple of months in Oahu before the year 2014 rang into existence I wanted to spend some time to explore the underwater depths around my new island. I came to realize that I shouldn't expect the variety and color of Maui scuba diving, or the coral covered drop offs of the Big Island. It may be the big waves or the development associate with nearly a million people, but the underwater world here is a bit more on the rugged side. Not too much beautiful coral, and tougher to find nudibranchs, but you can easily find sea turtles and spinner dolphins carousing the near shore waters. The waters can be very, very clear, and there is almost always one side of the island that is protected enough to head out for a photo session.   For dolphins I found that Electric beach over the on the west side is the place to go. I see them there in Spanish Dancer Phoebe and her turtle  mornings seventy percent of th...