Hammerhead Shark Tagging: Form & Function

Back in the day (of my hammerhead shark research), I did a project with photographer and videographer Jonathan Bird for BBC called Sharks of the Ocean Desert. Jonathan has now re-edited part of the piece into his Blue World program.

Check it out (I start at about 4:19 into the video).



Thanks Jonathan for all the great photos and epic video!

Wailua Mirror, Wailua Storm

Mirror  in the River  

Last night the water in Wailua river was so glassy that the clouds and mountains were reflected on the water's surface. I couldn't resist snapping a couple of shots and taking a little one-arm paddling video. So beautiful!

And just when  you thought it was safe... the downpour...

Okay, I have to confess - this rain video is from a different day.... and, if you listen to my voice you will notice that I do not sound too pleased about paddling in the rain. What you cannot see is that this rain was followed by a whole lot of lightning and thunder!

Building Mana'o

Time to dust off the pink panther and let her get wet!

As we near the end of winter, and I look ahead in my calendar, I see July 31, 2011 in bright lights - our Molokai Channel race date! ... So I took  the panther out of her cover and let my paddling muscles remember what it is they love to do.

Winter on Kauai means lots of rain, lots of wind, and lots of whales...  Last year I started bringing my phone along for safety, and the benefit is that my phone also takes pictures... please enjoy!

Kauai - The East Side!
  

- Sleeping Giant Mountain (famous hike)- 

an aquatic perspective

The Swimming Giants

Whales are just so, well, they are so BIG! When the babies are flopping and the moms are grunting, I usually head for the inside route and try to stay out of their way. Lucky for me, the pair that cruised me on this paddle were very mellow, and so I stopped to take their picture. They did a little show for me that I did not capture, but you can see my mammalian friends in this short video...

Mana'o

After paddling down from Kealia beach, I landed in Wailua and continued my paddle into the dark in the river. Along the way, I met papio fisherman Maurice and got to see his catch. We talked about the ocean for a few minutes, and I took this photo (he also took the one of me at the start of this post). Before he kept fishing and I kept paddling, Maurice asked me if I was from the island. This question is always difficult to answer for me. I said no, and he looked at me for a long time. Then he said, "you have a lot of mana'o". Mana'o, as I understand it, is your belief and intention combined with your life experiences and knowledge. Maurice - thank you for the  compliment.

Window Seat

The benefits to air travel...

 

I used to think I needed a bumper sticker that said "My other car is a paddleboard", but I now realize that my other car is a plane - this year I have become a green-conscious enigma; carpooling to reduce pollution on the one side, but still taking a plane for work, paddling and surfing. I guess the  consolation to my fossil fuel flying is that I always share my plane ride with at least  200 of my closest friends - "planepooling at its finest"!

A Window With a View

The nicest thing about plane travel has to be the view.... and Oh What a Difference a Day Makes! Check out these photos of Oahu's NW corner, Kaena Point with and without swell...

On this day the ocean was calm like glass flying into Honolulu...

And the next day we have waves breaking up to 20'... look closely and you can see the  swell hitting the North and West side of Oahu

Water is great as both waves and clouds... 
This sunset movie is epic (please excuse the window glare) 
shot (as were the above) with my iphone 4G 
(thanks mom!)

Honeymooned in Tahiti!

Thor and I traveled to Tahiti for our honeymoon!

A year of full moons for us- 

• We got married 12-31-09 on a magnificent full moon
• I paddled the Molokai channel July 2010 on a full moon
• Tahiti honeymoon on a full moon

Iorana (Welcome to Tahiti - the land of lefts!) -

We spent a couple of days on Tahiti Nui with our friend, Alexy, who we met through my longtime roommate Kika. Alexy is a wonderful guy with two beautiful daughters and a talent for growing tomatoes (he works with the local growers to establish farming techniques for market production of fruits and vegetables). Alexy participates in couchsurfing.com. In exchange for a stay at his home, he likes the interesting conversations that come from meeting people with different cultural perspectives.

 

Alexy took us kayaking, hiking and showed us around . We had the very best poison cru (raw fish in coconut milk) ever at an outdoor bistro in Tahiti Iti, and we also got to try escargot at a very cute,  French restaurant in Tahiti Nui.

 

His daughters were so cute, and they loved making fun of us trying to speak french. We also got to meet some of Alexy's other guests from around the world.  Alexy surfed with us one day as well! We really enjoyed our time with Alexy.

Armed with a new set of Surftech boards (a Mikala T&C 6'2", a G.Pang 6'1", and a T. Carrol quad) I was ready for waves. I also brought a pair of Milkshake bodyboards (40" Lilly and a 39" Loly).

Our first trek in the water was to Teahupoo - we bodyboarded it alone and with a few other folks while it was small 2-3 feet and near dark. We went back in the morning to catch it about 3-4 feet, windier and a few more folks out, mostly bodyboarders! I could not believe how FRIENDLY everyone is in the lineup - shakas, handshakes, smiles, wow!

 

Kanesa dropping in!

Then we headed to Moorea for some actual honeymoon time at Petero's Haapiti Surf Lodge. Again I was stoked to have the boogie. Waves were 6-8ft and really windy. Haapiti gets pretty currenty at that size so the boats weren't really able to anchor. We'd planned to get a lot of photos on our trip, but as we battled with poor conditions, sinking kayaks, and unchargable batteries for the camera, we gave up and decided to just have fun. Conditions in Moorea continued to be less-than-stellar, but we logged a lot of hours on that reef and after a few days we were in love! It's so nice to surf in a place where everyone is happy and stoked. I've never been smiled at or hooted at so much ever! The tahitians are surf stoked for you!

Thor

After six days on Moorea, riding bikes, checking out the scenery and just relaxing, we headed back to Chopes for some heart pumping action.

We again stayed with Alexy and ran into boogie pros Beta and Jason Bitzer. Chopes was still really West and dominated by boogies in the lineup. The waves were now 4-6 and looking like closeout on every wave. I took one on the head that pretty much sent my heart rate through the roof and made me realize why this wave has such a reputation! Thor caught some good ones, but I'm still waiting to have my day at this size!

With the swell direction changing even more, we surfed with the Tahiti masses and famous folk at Papara. Super fun, easy, glassy black sand/pebble beach break!

Then back to Moorea to finish our honeymoon for a few days! We cruised with our new friend mostly-left-Jeff and Brazilians Marta and Gustav. A couple of really nice days talking with some locals and being invited to eat fresh fish and the not-so-fresh traditional fafara (fermented fish!). Thank you Pieriech and family!

Ooooh I almost forgot... I didn't do email the whole time I was gone (except for writing to Ana Bella). Yippeee!

Can't wait for the return trip. We've made a pledge to honeymoon every year :). Gotta love being married! Mauruuru and Merci!

Duke's Festival: Hawaii Paddleboard Champs 2010

A tough Hawaii Kai to Waikiki Course yesterday!

Standups & traditional paddleboards battled small, short-interval bumps across Maunalua Bay and through Queen's surf break to finish at the Duke statue.

Always a great end to the summer, this year's race was also a lot of fun, even if conditions weren't optimal.

I set up a mini-race with Riggs Napoleon, joking that I would get to keep his new hat if I beat him... guess I should have kept my mouth shut and not talked so much stink when I passed him 1/2 way, cuz he came back to take me and cruised through an inside line around Diamond Head that put him a whopping 2 minutes ahead of me.... it was a defeat but also fun to race him. I am so in awe of the entire Napolean family and happy to see Nappy, Aaron, Sepa, Riggs, Joey all racing. 3 generations kicking butt and having fun!

Here are the full results:

Da Molokai Data

GARMIN GPS 

Check out our crazy North trek off the start! We were headed for the Big Island. The correction comes after my boat found me and said - where the heck are you going?!! After they gave me a direction I was able to pick a point on Oahu/clouds above Oahu and stayed pretty straight.

This was my first year to use a GPS on my board across the channel. I have the GARMIN Forerunner, 310XT. It is wonderful for training - you can see your speed, distance, time and split simultaneously. You can also set intervals for speed work, and it has a great default setting that tracks every mile.

Mile by mile, elapsed time, avg. pace, avg. speed, max speed. Note that I started the watch early & stopped after finishing so the overall time is over 9 minutes slow.

Although the larger, console style GARMINs have a map, mine is a small watch style that does not have a map (that's what your escort board is for!). But, my GPS does give great post-race analysis data.

Visual representation of speed by mile - you can see where I fell off my board knee paddling (early dip) and my water drops (shorter dips) as well as the slow, head-wind finish at the end. See my speed drop at mile 31 abruptly and then come up only after I got way inside Maunalua Bay - racing Kai Hall to the finish. I passed him and then he passed me back right at the end (he took 3rd place overall stock).