Holiday Surfer

Kino

Waimea movie theater - one movie per week, one showing per day. Still, a beatiful building, I must go there!

The Chief

The chief's name is Cliff, and he is quite a character. He takes care of my uncles house, and is the original Hawaiian. Once, he was a fisher, and told stories of how trawlers are wrecking the business, and how he caught fish in the 70s of the coast of Nihau. Everybody refers to him as the chief, he grew up with Kaleo, the lifeguard manager from Waimea, and 15 siblings, his Grandma has 14 sisters, so I guess he has about 700 cousins running around on the island. Cliff loves to cook, taro corned beef cakes, or butterfish with the taro leaf, kind of like spinach, and steamed in fresh big tea leaves. Very political guy, strongly devoted to the Hawaiian Nation, a group wanting to seperate the islands from the USA. On the other hand, Chris, the owner of the Zodiak boat (500 hp) trip company, says they wouldn't even have streets if the Americans hadn't done it for them. Kolea and the chief are very upset about the genetically altered farming happening on the island, describing how other fruits are starting to become rotten earlier because of effects.

Longboarding Hanalei at the Pier

This is a really easy wave near the pier in Hanalei bay on the north coast. I met the surf teacher outside, he was complaining about being married to the piece of concrete, the pier next to us, and never being able to go to the good surf spots on the island, the exciting ones. So, thus a dream job turns into a boring job. This is the spot where I'd take any beginner, too - sand bottom, supereasy standup waves with instant reward, showers and beach parking. What's missing here is the western young crowd, the pretty and fun city-people playing beach volleyball and chilling. The whole island is dominated by fat families and romantic couples, kind of boring. But I'm slowly settling in, here, and meeting people through Cliff.

Drop Dead Beautiful North Coast Hanalei and Haena

The House

For the curious, I'll be posting stuff about where I am hanging out piece by piece.
The house is funky, it is on a 1 acre lot with nice flowers, papaya and lime trees and a couple of coconut trees. We have an outside shower, since the inside one is broken, I installed one of those hot water solar bags, now I can take warm showers outside in the sunshine, wonderful!
The house has a kitchen, without amenities such as dishwasher. Actually, you don't really need a dishwasher, just keep things simple and do the dishes. The stove is a single flame burner powered by a big propan gas bottle, works great.

This is the driveway..
The house is from the 40s, built for people working in the sugar cane industry here on Kauai. Joe bought in 4 years ago, and is slowly bringing it up to a nice condition again. I'd say he's about 75% done so far.
The living room has nice green tiles on the floor. There are three bedrooms, two newly painted, and an unrenovated bathroom which needs work.

Surf Report Last Day of 2005

So there's another hi surf warning, and the radio stations are wishing a 'safe' new year, along with a comment, to stay away from any ocean on the western and northern beaches. 'Stay on the dry sand', meaning not to be surprised by peak sets crashing onto the beach. I guess max wave sizes on the outer reefs will be 20 ft, but that still leaves my favorite beach, Davidsons, right in front of the house, a pleasant/survivable 3-7 on peaks. The minimal I got from Kolea is great.

Kekaha

Fun Davidsons: the waves here the last two mornings have been perfect for me, nice, slow but powerful waves, and even though its over a reef, I can easily avoid being pushed onto the rocks and getting reef rash. normal sets are 4-5 ft with the occasional 8ft inbetween. definitely longboard waves here! rides are 50-200 m long, making the paddle out rather tiring.

Surf at Kekaha

Lifeguards are watching out. Kaleo gave me a yellow lifeguard shirt, I probably look ridiculous in it, white western boy, all the lifeguards here are Hawaiian.

Thanks

Thanks goes to Thomas D., for the remote translation job I worked on here. Working here is pleasant, it is warm outside where I sit in the Lanai, and once in a while the chief drops in...

Wildlife Kingdom

Santa

Today I also saw a Santa on a harley. Hey, I wan't to enjoy the same drugs these guys are :)

Felix Navidad

Merry Christmas to all my friends on this nice little planet!
Mahalo, Marco

Merry Christmas Hawaii Style

Mele Kalikimaka

Its great that YOU aren't in the water

Hammerhead Shark

Haole

Holy Shit - High Surf Warning....

900 am hst fri dec 23 2005

...High surf warning in effect for north and west facing shores...

Surf along north facing shores will increase to heights of 25 to 35 Feet today lowering to 20 to 25 feet saturday.

Surf along west facing shores will increase to heights of 15 to 20 Feet today lowering to 10 to 15 feet saturday.

Surf along east facing shores will have surf heights of 2 to 4 feet Through saturday.

Ich verspreche, ich bleibe da draussen. Letzten Monat ist ein Deutscher beim Surfen in Polihale ertrunken. 39, maennlich. Hat der Lifeguard chief Kahole erzaehlt.

Nachtrag - heute war ich in den Wellen, habe inzwischen zwei Surboards, eine Minimal 7-10 und eine ziemlich dicken Gun/Thruster 8-8. Das sah zunaechst supereinfach aus, aber schon das Paddleout war ernuechternd. Anfangs war es wohl so 4-5 Fuss, doch dann kamen n paar 8 Fuss sets rein. Aua! Am ersten Surftag also nur nass geworden, keine Rides. Da nuetzt auch die Top-Ausruestung nix, mit dickem Pickup, V8 und Allrad und zwei Bretter auf der Ladeflaeche ;) . Mit der Karre kann man auf dem Strand rumfahren, wenn man Lust hat...

Ho Omoe Wai Kahi Ke Kaoo

Let us travel like water in one direction.

Hawaiian Proverb

Two Kinds of Tourists

There are two kinds of tourists on Kaua'i : Newlyweds and nearly-deads.
;)

Baywatch

Kalohe hat alle Lebensretter aka Lifeguards fuer eine Party am Strand eingeladen. Sehr nett. Sehr Lecker - insbesondere gerauechtertes Marlin und gepoekeltes Ahi Tuna. Hawaii ist nicht Kalifornien.

Okole Maluna

...heisst Prost auf Hawaiianisch. Okole Maluna sagt der Haole. ;)

GREENFLASH

Endlich habe ich es gesehen, endlichendlichendlich, nach so vielen Erzaehlungen. Waren am Strand mit n paar Bieren zum Sonnenuntergang, vor uns 5 Surfer im warmen Wasser.
In dem Augenblick, wo die Oberkante der untergehenden Sonne den Horizont trifft, verwandelt sich der orange Streifen fuer eine halbe Sekunde in ein gruenes Licht, 'the green flash'. Helles Gruen.
Uber den gruenen Blitz, the green flash, sind Filme gemacht worden, es ist Gegenstand zahlloser Diskussion am Esstisch unter urbanen Angelenos, und hier findet es tag fuer tag statt, ganz normal. Wunderbar!

Quote from http://www.icstars.com/Mad/Astro/GreenFlash.html
'Green flash is an atmospheric phenomenon observed AFTER the Sun has actually set. The Sun's light enters Earth's atmosphere, refracting towards the observer. Red light has longer wavelengths and refracts less than blue....
Therefore, Red light disappears first from the disk, leaving orange, yellow, green - but blue disperses and is scattered into the atmosphere - leaving GREEN as the last glimpse of light remaining.'

Old Hawaii

Kekaha is a small town on the West coast of the island, I guess less than 1000 people live here. It appears as the Hawaii as it used to be, nothing is cool here, hospitality is everywhere. People are authentic here. It is peaceful, I like that.
The EAST Coast is more like Santa Cruz, coffee shops, young crowd etc. The northern shores have been conquered by tourism, all soul is squeezed out.
Cliff suggested we go hiking in the mountains, but not where everybody goes. Up there, the ancient island spirit is still strong. It has receded from the coasts where many people live up into the mountains. If anywhere, there you'd feel humble.
Of course, we could always take horses and be lazy, but that would take 8 hours and have to be done by night since it would be to hot for them during the day. After that long, your ass hurts like hell.

Jetlag

Jetlag is getting better, I woke up at 6 AM, which is better than the 2 AM and 3 AM of the last few days. Maybe the Melatonin helped, taken in moderation. I conk out at about 8 pm, unusual for the nocturnal guy I think I am.
People rise and sleep with the sun here.

Polihale

Polihale means the beach of the dead and is very impressive. A big rock at one end, dunes, in which in ancient times the dead were buried on the other side and big waves with dangerous riptides.
The Hawaiians believed that the in the night the dead would come out of their graves here, and the ocean would open up in a big funnel giving them the opportunity to move to the next world.
Driving to Polihale you see the Gentech companies trying out new crops, bummer.
Three surfers here are trying to survive 12 ft waves.
I have to get used to Hawaiian measurement of surf height...

First day

This is the last of the chronoligical entries, the future ones will be thematic. And with pics. Got up at 3 AM due to jetlag, did some email, sorted my luggage, checked the beach, drove to Polihale...
At 5 AM Cliff suprised me with breakfast, scrambled eggs and french toast with coconut syrup. Yum.
Cliff is a nice fellow, a hawaiian original. He is the caretaker of the house, does the garden {s} and has a family of about 700 members, including his 14 siblings, he knows practically everyone here. More about this amazing character soon....
PS : It looks like I lucked out! Cliff loves to cook, I just get the groceries! I have a cook, yipiiii...

Flying to Kauai

Kauai is the northernmost island of the Hawaiian island group.
Cliff isn't there to pick me up. Obviously, with a twelve hour time zone difference and many hours of travelling I'm to tired to be annoyed... Get a rental car, surprise surpise, the prices here are impressive. Enjoy a nice drive through the green island to Kekaha, about 40 km.

Hamburg to LA

Left Hamburg in Germany in zero degree snow and rain, traffic jams commented on by an overly anxious taxi driver. This all made leaving not to hard, but I am already missing friends and special people. And my dog Esta. Esta is with the dogsitter, well taken care of.
Flight to Paris with Air France, eventless, pilot de-ices the wings.
Flight to LAX nice with Air France, the seating is a bit wider than the usual cramped economy class and the meals are quite good.
In LAX my dad picks me up, we drive to my uncle Joe and Grandpa's house in Lakewood, have dinner, and I get a bunch of instructions for Joe's house on Kauai. Apparently the caretaker is going to pick me up in Kauai airport.
Next morning leave from John Wayne airport in Irvine, very yuppie : at this airport, the valet parking line is crammed with BMWs and Hummers.