This Photo Of the Day is dedicated to Chris and Tammy on their nuptials and pending honeymoon in the Hawaiian Islands. Have fun out there folks!


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Hanalei Bay on the north shore of Kauai


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Umauma Falls just north of Hilo on the eastern shore of the Big Island


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Southpoint on the Big Island. Further south than Key West and far more remote. It is supposed to be the first landfall of the Polynesians when they first came to the Sandwich Islands. Tough landing!


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Monk seal between the Lehau caldera and Niihau west of Kauai. Was dying to free dive with this guy but was already carrying residual N2 time from SCUBA.


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Akaka Falls north of Hilo on the Big Island


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Sunset off Kona on the Big Island. Not sure why the setting sun can look different over the Pacific but it does.


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La Perouse Bay, Maui


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Sunset over Niihau from Waiokapua, Kauai

Thanks Rick. December can't come soon enough.

You're most welcome Chris! Can't think of a better place to launch your lives together. As you may have noticed, I have zip photos from Oahu. We landed there for a few minutes between islands. So, if you think of it while visiting your home island, snap a few for us folks way back down east. Have a great time, you'll be flying west in no time I suspect.

Continuing on with some more images from Hawaii ...


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A look east towards the lighthouse on Kilauea Point on the north shore of Kauai while standing on molten lava! Well, so it's several centuries old, it was molten just a while back. They have these neat lava pools all over the shoreline in places complete with submerged lava tubes in places.


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Mark Twain called this the Grand Canyon of the Pacific way back when. I have trouble imagining what he went through just to get up to see Waimea Canyon on Kauai in those days. Driving up takes time and walking down into and up the valleys through heavy growth is no picnic today. A core traveler and writer!


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Foils off Kauai, true story. The fellow is riding off of Hanakapi ai beach off the north shore of Kauai, I think.


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One of the many river outflows to the ocean along the north shore of Kauai


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Another outflow, this time off the east coast of the Big Island north of Hilo. No end of easy kite launches off the windward or eastern shore of the big island, not. With a few exceptions there is a lot of iron shore to deal with the millenia of tradewind driven seas.


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Not too far to the west of Kauai you'll find Niihau, the Forbidden Island. A Scottish family though they found a great deal with lush forests and good rainfall in the 1830's when they bought this island from the Hawaiian Royal Family. Trouble is, it had been raining quite a lot recently and eventually went back to the normal arid conditions. So the farming paradise sort of dried up and blew away, partially. You are allowed to land on the island only with permission (hence the Forbidden Island) with Hawaiian being the official language there. Some world class diving in the area though.


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Waioli Huiia Church in Hanalei on the north shore of Kauai. Hanalei is an unusual place, a surfer colony in which affluence and higher costs seem to have snuck in through the side door.

"Surf-bathing" just what IS surf bathing anyway? If you have a cellphone, assorted iPods, frequently flier miles or even a Starbucks Gold Card, you may be culturally and temporally handicapped in this regard. Folks about a 125 years ago knew, at least the few that wandered into those areas.

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Surf bathing in the Sandwich Islands through the eyes of surf dude Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) while "Roughing It." Is that a swallow tail board?
From: http://www.surfingsandiego.com/forum...s.asp?TID=1545


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Manly, New South Wales, 1900-1910. Can you imagine folks going off on the bombora in those getups?!
From: http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/pa...ing_the_beach/


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A little more recently, the ama of Japan get into it
From: http://mermaid-williambond.blogspot....ea-people.html


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Surf bathing in the Sandwich Islands in the late 1800's. Sure that isn't surf wiping out?
From: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13222...-h/13222-h.htm


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Hitting it off Diamond Head about a hundred years ago. What are those ... proto-baggies?
From: http://usvsa.com/auction/APViewItem.asp?ID=152


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Ok, a little temporal confusion, "gay queen of the waves?" Well, could be. Looks like I shaped her/his board, not a lot of rocker there and doubles as a mighty fine door! Very practical. OK, now what have the Sandwich Islands to do with NJ police? Mysteries but still surf bathing.
From: http://tinyurl.com/3b22bn

Please check this video clip out, it's short.



then, look below ...





So what is so unusual about the riding clip? Nothing really, just what the guy in riding. I had never seen the like myself, at least not in over a century. Asked a bunch of surfers in the area and they hadn't heard of such a thing.





The last time I saw a board like this was in this photo from Hawaii far in the past

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From: http://www.balsasurfers.com/balsafaq.html

I saw one very similar to it today and being used.

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Check this puppy out, it's a door! I could be made of balsa but it looked like mahogany to me. No skegs, rocker to speak of, still this guy makes it work and well. This is the guy in the three short clips in the video. I wish I could have caught more riding footage of the retro woody surfer.


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An edge view.


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Look how low the guy is sitting in the water, now we know why.

He said it is hard to paddle, no surprise there but says when your in the wave, it's fast! Bet the turning for aerials is tricky too. Amazing stuff. I could have sworn he called it a "Monaleia board". Have found zip under that and other spellings. Does anyone know more about these rideable doors?

I've learned more about this board, an alaia. It is apparently inspired by the surfboards used by Hawaiians back in the old days. A guy named Tom Wegener has researched the old designs and has been shaping them. An interview with Tom including a number of photos appears at: http://tinyurl.com/5lhygn


http://www.tomwegenersurfboards.com/...aia_barrel.gif
From: http://legendarysurfers.com/blog/labels/lala.html



A video about alaia boards from another shaper.

ics from yesterdays Ocean Rodeo trip up to Dillon Beach California.
 

ics from yesterdays Ocean Rodeo trip up to Dillon Beach California.
Very well powered on my 8m and lots of choopy waves. Halfway thru the session a guy had to ditch his kite and board after being hit by several waves on the outside and he said the freezing current was taking him out to sea fast. It took 4 other kiters taking turns towing the guy half mile or more back thru the surf and when Andrew motioned me over to help drag him the last few hundred yards to the beach. Very lucky guy!
Reminds you just how quickly things can go bad out there and even scarier when you think that your right on the dinner table of the great whites.
As Andrew said he felt like he was trolling for sharks with live bait behind him. I am sure the guy was thinking the same thing. Never got to speak with him other than a few seconds in the surf but i hope your okay.

Here are pics from the day
Fully Gallery
http://www.wmd.com/20081109dillonbeach/


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It was a heart-stopping moment fit for the pages of Moby Dick.

As kitesurfer Dave Sheridan skimmed across the choppy waters off Valla Beach, on the NSW north coast, he failed to see a giant shadow gliding centimetres below the surface.

Until, that is, the tale of a southern right whale flicked up from the whitecaps and whipped him on the back of the head.

"I thought I was gone," Mr Sheridan, 42, was quoted by the Daily Telegraph as saying.

"It all happened so fast that all I could do was crouch down as the whale swam under me ... Next thing I felt was its tail come up and hit me."

The amazing encounter took place 100m from shore on October 26 and was recorded by the camera Mr Sheridan keeps mounted on his kite, 25m above the water.

The camera, which shoots frames every 10 seconds, missed the tail-flicking drama but did capture the moment when the mammal turns its huge grey body directly beneath the kiteboard.

The southern right also proved to be less aggressive than Mr Sheridan feared, with its tail flick apparently meant only as a warning.

"It was more of a push than a punch," Mr Sheridan was quoted as saying. "The force eased off and I sailed away with shaking legs."

A whale expert said the mammal’s reaction was typical of southern rights.http://news.ninemsn.com.au/img/2008/...ridan10_sp.jpg

Great shots loscocco and of the kiter being rescued too! It is interesting to see riding conditions in other areas. Looks like it goes off with wind and waves. Question, the current that was carrying the guy offshore, was that from the outflow of Tamales Bay approaching low tide? What sort of amphib. camera do you carry?