Capturing the Moment

Relics of the Sugar Era Waimea Falls I have been training and researching to run different tours around the island of Oahu. Yesterday I went for a ride along on the Waimea Falls round the island tour with one of the other guides. It can be great fun playing the tourist for a bit. The planned stops on this trip include the Waialua Sugar Mill, Waimea Falls, Bonzai Pipeline, Fumi's Shrimp Shack for lunch, and the Macadamia Nut Farm outlet. Botanical Gardens inside the lush Waimea Valley   This tour seems like its right up my ally. It has a little taste of everything. Hawaii-made sugar and chocolate, a lush valley walk complete with waterfall, one of the most famous waves in the world, one of the settings for the filming of Jurassic Park, macadamia nut cracking, and of course lunch included! And I can feel good about eating shrimp since I can trace where they come from...about 30ft behind the shrimp shack in aquaculture ponds. I learned some new things along the way and...

  The biggest swell of the winter has been pounding our north facing shores in Hawaii for the past two days. High winds yesterday made the surfing here in Oahu basically unsurfable, although I did get some reports that Jaws (Peahi) on Maui was going off. Seems like Laird Hamilton was back in action being towed into some giant waves at Jaws. The word is that he was being filmed as part of a movie in production...Point Break 2!   Heidi and I tried to drive to the North Shore yesterday afternoon but the the entire island must have had the same idea. The traffic was so slow that we couldn't make it to Waimea before sunset. Not to lose hope I woke up at 5am this morning and drove back to the North Shore to bring in the dawn with massive waves at Waimea Bay. I had my camera, tripod, and a mug of coffee on a nice cliff spot overlooking the surf. Who said four is a crowd? The church overlooking Waimea Dream Waves   The winds had died down a lot since the day b...

See the tiny surfer? Cleanup Set at Waimea   Right now there is a size where if the waves exceed it I feel very comfortable taking pictures from the shore. Being winter time in Oahu the waves on the North shore exceed my limit quite often. When people ask what my limit is I often respond with 'double overhead'. So if the wave is more than twice my height I wouldn't paddle out. We'll see how long that holds. But for now I have been enjoying taking pictures of these crazy big wave chargers at places like Waimea Bay, Pipeline, and Sunset Beach. Party Wave at Waimea Bay Beauty in every wave These pictures are from the swell a few days ago which was dwarfed by the swell we are having now. Unfortunately, high winds have made most breaks unsurfable. I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring. Monarch butterfly caterpillars near Waimea A lone surfer high on the wave at Bonzai Pipeline

  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...