Kokūa and the first south swell

Another busy weekend has come to a close. Highlights this weekend were the first south swell of the year and the Kokūa Festival. The surf actually started picking up as early as Wednesday and held through Saturday, when the surf started to pickup on the North Shore. So I surfed Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, Joni surfed Thursday, and we both surfed Saturday (thanks to Joel for watching Rylan that morning). No broken boards or other problems, just good head-high south swell 10 minutes from the house. I surfed at Flys and Inbetweens with light crowds at both spots. After work Rylan and I spent an hour or so watching the waves at Point Panic, where I usually body surf. Seems like everywhere you go these days there are guys taking photos of the surf and selling them online. I rarely surf where these guys are set up because I like the less crowded spots. When Rylan and I were watching the waves on Friday this guy was there so you can see what we saw here. Then, the same guy was on the beach when I surfed Hale‘iwa on Sunday morning. Hale‘iwa was the only place looking good on the North Shore that morning, and even that was not great. I was sitting inside of the crowd and just grabbing some nice short rights and he snapped a few of me (photos 354-357 and 366 on this page). On that page you can also see shots of SUPers (stand-up paddlers) who where going after the bigger ones at Avalanche. Most of these photographers seem to inhabit the most popular spots and mainly take photos of the biggest waves. Seems to me if they really wanted to make some money they would go to the less popular spots and snap shot of any and all. The way it is now the best surfers get photographed all the time but probably only buy one photo a year while all the rest that would buy any decent photo of themselves surfing never get photographed. I guess they are doing Ok or they would change their methods without my input. To encourage his efforts of photographing me kooking out I might buy one of his photos.

The Kokūa Festival was a fun time. We got there late so only really heard Dave Mathews and Jack Johnson. All the booths in the back were interesting to visit too. Jack is good but has never really done it for me. A friend had bought the tickets but then decided not to go so we went in their place. The seats were great because (a) we actually had seats, not lawn space, and (b) the seats were on the side near a patch of grass where people were not sitting. Rylan enjoyed walking around the seat area and grass and got in some funky dancing. As always he was a big hit with others nearby.

Joni also took Rylan to a party on Sunday and when she got home I took Rylan over to Ray’s place for dinner. Thanks to Nancy, Morgan and company for cooking up a good dinner and we hope Ray has a good summer back in Iowa.

This shot was taken during the week when Joni went to a local sandwich place for lunch. Rylan sat on the window sill during lunch and then stood on it after lunch. Val was nervous about it but mom kept backing up to get a good shot.

Rylan made himself comfortable at the concert and fell in love with his sustainable non-lead-based paint wood car toy purchased at the Organic Keiki booth. You can also see Matt and Yvette sitting next to Joni - they are the ones that went through the hassle of buying the tickets.

The girls sitting in front of us enjoyed Rylan. He ended up standing on their seats and they cheered his moves. You can see Jack Johnson, well a blur of him, in the lights in the background.

In work news, the transit project continues to be on the front page on a regular basis. Over the weekend there was an article about how it would look and how many trees it would effect. Then today the Stop Rail Now people got a front page article about their cause and wanting to let the people vote on the issue. Their ballot question seems to be: “Honolulu mass transit shall not include trains or rail transit.” Their better option: High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes. What a bunch of idiots. I hope none of you guys sign their petition. If you want to know why they are idiots make a comment on this blog and next week I’ll expound on it. Lukily the Honolulu Advertiser editorial staff agree with me - the day after running Stop Rail Now on the front page they had this and previously they said this about selecting steel wheel technology over other technologies.