monk seals

From Carter and Bruna's underwater work:
http://www.oluina.com/nihau.htm
http://www.oluina.com/WHALETALE.htm
http://www.oluina.com/

Buckelwale

Buckelwal von Wikipedia, Creative Commons Urheberrecht

Wow! Hier http://www.atomicgarden.de/WhaleTaleHighlights.wmv oder auf dem Link unten ist ein Video, was etwas 3 km von Joe's Haus mit einem Filmteam gedreht wurde. Gestern durfte ich endlich endlich mit, nach langem und vorsichtigem Fragen. 6 Stunden auf dem Wasser, leichte Seekrankheit, weil ich alles vorher falsch dafuer gemacht habe - Caipis am Vorabend, zuwenig Schlaf, dickes Fruehstueck - aber das war gar nichts im Vergleich zu dem, was ich erleben durfte. Drei ganz nahe Unterwasserbegegnungen mit Buckelwalen!! Die sind vorsichtig aber neugierig wenn sie Vertrauen fassen.
- "Twins", zuerst 2 m unter der Oberflaeche schwimmend, dann verharrten sie in Tauchstellung fuer eine Weile, senkrecht "haengend" (10)
- "Dozing", ein ganz grosser liegt schlafend, mit einer Gehirnhaelfte ausgeschaltet, so schlafen die, 45 Grad abwaerts geneigt, und schwimmt nach ner Minute nach unten. Die gestreiften Fische tauchen hier vorher auf (9)
- "Curious Maybe With Escort", Mutter mit Kalb, ca 3-4 m, alles nur 3-5 Meter entfernt, mit einem Begleiterwal, die sind so neugierig, die drehen und kommen zurueck und schauen uns an, man fuehlt die Sonare und spuert den intensiven Blick (25)
- "Dance with Man", einer von uns taucht mit dem Wal ab, legt die Arme zurueck in Aehnlichkeit mit den Flossen, beide drehen sich um die Laengsachse (hier war ich leider nicht dabei, hab auf's Boot aufgepasst)
Es ist eine andere Welt, und ich habe immer gedacht, Astronaut zu sein ist das hoechste der Gefuehle da oben. Mit diesen Walen unter Wasser laesst mich sprachlos und beseelt. Life is good!
Ich bin noch voellig konsterniert von den Walen und den Eindruecken, es ist, also ob das ein Film war, die Emotionen haben noch gar nicht die Moeglichkeit gehabt, das zu verarbeiten. Vielleicht kann man das ein positiv Schock nennen.
Mahalo

no memos this week...

courtesy of my houseguest beena this week's stories of kauai are in her blog, she's so motivated to write about her experiences here. me, after a month on the island, my mindset is moving from "what day is it today" to "what month is it?" :)
her claim to fame is the nice quote

The point of living and of being an optimist is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come.

aloha, marco

Kairoots

Freshly sponsored by Qiksilver, there's a fun Hawaiian surf combo from Kauai and Oahu out there, I'm waiting for them to do a concert here. www.kairoots.com. Check the link below..
More DRM-free and good music at http://www.archive.org/. Support the artists.

Got Cam?

Boohooooooo, I've managed to break the nice little digital waterproof camera. Pentax Optio WP takes pictures with 20 horizontal fuzzy stripes accross the image, making the results unuseable. Got Cam?
So there will be no more new pix here any time soon - really sorry about that:(

Talk to Waikiki

CAll this public payphone on Waikiki beach and talk to someone!
+1 808 922 9049
+1 808 922 9033
This week's payphone location: 2365 Kalakaua Avenue, Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Thanks to http://phoneswarm.com/ - check them out

Dieselboy in Waikiki

Met Steve at a bar, he showed me this club on Saturday night. Thanks, Steve!
Date: Jan 14, 2006
Venue: Wave Waikiki Beach, Oahu
Artists: Dieselboy
Photo Credit: Steve Gonzales
http://www.nitevibe.com/photo_gallery/2006-1-14//307/main
http://www.nitevibe.com

Back on Kauai

...and Kauai is nicer than touristtown Waikiki. The chief has moved out to camp in Polihale for two weeks.

Hotel Tikki Boat

MAHALO to Bill Boid, who lent me his Tikki boat to stay on for the weekend, and let me be his guest in the Hawaii Yacht Club (see link). Peaceful, in the water, among the boats. There's a wireless service here which reaches to the harbour, so I was able to work here, too. Breakfast Sunday morning in HWC was nothing less than pleasure, with a good vegetarian mexican egg omelett with avocados and fruit and a view of the ocean. Friday evening everyone gathered for the beer bash after the race I missed because I didn't meet the crew of "Country Boy" a sleek black FAR 37 sailing boat. The race looked, with about 30 boats, amazing from the shoreline, with the trade winds.


Mahalo to HWC for usage of the panoramic images, its a great place. The club is the two story building in the center of both pan. images.
Waikiki shows America at its best, full of immature and mostly overweight Americans buying stuff, and arrogant Japanese with the worst manners I've seen.
Saw an amazing painter, who painted letters on a horizontal piece of large paper, using lots of little one inch triangular sponges, dipped into different colors on each end to create fading colorful effects when drawing. I would have got one, but I'm currently broke.
There was a beach presentation of a Hawaiin culture group with instruments, drums, singing and yellow tshirts complete with leis - one comment was of the Hawaiians' love of the land, and how we honor that today. I had to laugh, considering the real-estate frenzy of the current land owners.

Waikiki

...Taking a weekend trip to Waikiki, Honolulu and staying on my uncle's Tikki boat...
Jan 15 2006 14:31:53 it is mostly clear with a temperature of 80°F (27°C). The relative humidity is 55%. Winds are from the eastsoutheast at 13 mph. Visibility is 10 mile(s). Barometric pressure is 30.05 in. Hg (1017 hPa).
Last night Dieseboy turned his tables at a drum n bass bar. Really nice longboarding on a 10 ft glassed rental board. Expensive here.
Surf Update-
First day surfing on the 10 ft: got tossed around in 2-4
Second day: two 200m sunset rides to the shore, yahoooooo! and a bunch of small rides and also a bunch of wahines in the water. One unusually ill-tempered local got upset about something, came over, saw I was 2 ft taller than him, and just puffed. ;)

Somewhere near Nawiliwili Harbour

something's coming...

Primary Northwest - 'declining'
Secondary South - 'expected'
Third East-northeast - 'holding'
Das sind gute Nachrichten fuer fuer mich, wenn ich aus Honululu wieder zurueck bin, laeft ENDLICH wieder der infinities break! Und dann sind die Gezeiten so, dass der gute high tide auf kurz nach dem Fruehstueck faellt. mahalo

Tabi

There are really strange shoes here, sold for 21$ at Kmart, some kind of local thing. They look like a yellow sponge with a black sock attched. The sponge has two toes. These things are supposed to be good for hiking in the mud. I can only imagine they'd be good for cleaning the house floor. I'll have to get Esta two pairs, then she can roam around and clean at the same time!

Kalalau Trail

Im Kalalau Tal leben circa 200 Hippies, die sich mit Klauen und Drogenanbau ueber Wasser halten. Sagt Cliff. Die Polizei sucht nach denen mit Infrarotkameras, weil das Tal inzwischen mit Muell verseucht ist. Bloss kein Flusswasser trinken, ueber Dir lebt bestimmt einer der Hippies und pinkelt ins Wasser. Gibt fiese Hautkrankheiten.
Dabei soll es eines der schoensten Taeler der Welt sein...

still no waves...

still no waves on the southern and western and eastern sides of the islands, but great offshore trade winds over here on the western side. just need some swell. 8 or 9 days now and counting..

Beachmonsters on Hawaii!!!!

This is really dangerous...pray that I survive the beach monsters...and that the monsters are not linked to Al Qaeda!

Arghhh.....

I can't resist He made it!! the page filled up, selling pixels on a 1000 by 1000 pixel grid as advertisement to finance his college time. Auctioned off the last 1000 pixels of http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/ on ebay, generating more income than on the other 900 000 pixels.
Also checkout www.zoeradio.com, my new podcast infatuation.

Lekkerlekker

Die Pflanze im zweiten Bild im Glas heisst KALAMUNGAI, und waechst im Garten; gehackt und mit Limone (auch Garten) und Olivenoel und Hawaiian Meeressalz, schmeckt gut mit Fisch und Huhn.

Achja, hier ist auch der neue Elektrogrill zu sehen, gab's zusammen mit einer Krups Espressomaschine, einem Toaster und einem Radiowecker fuer 11 USD im Salvation Army Thrift Shop. So n Grill ist super, gute Hitze von oben und unten und teflonbeschichtet: man kann den Ahi Tuna kross von aussen grillen, aber so, dass es innen roh ist. Ahi ist von so guter Qualitaet hier, dass er von vielen ganz roh, z.b. als Ahi Poke mit Seaweed und Chili gegeseen wird. Lekker!

Surboard Material Update 4Sven

Kaleo needed the Minimal back, and Neill gave me a 7-10 yellow board. Still no longboard in sight.
Today I heard Kaleo on the radio doing the surf report for the north, east, south, southwest and west facing beaches. 10+, 4-8, 2-4, 1-2, 4-6 ft. respectively

EEG Expert

Been working a lot on EEG Expert, my medical technology company. Even though it doesn't look like it from reading this Blog, there's a lot of productive time going into this right now. Great!

Humbpackwhales, more

Second trip...

Hiking on the Top

18 mile drive up the hill, near the canyon, to Kokee Park, take the bike for 2 miles, then hike a while to the lookout point and beyond. The red dirt is nicely water soluble, and very fine grained, great mud! It is rainy up here, near the wettest spot on earth.

Taro

Taro, a kind of Hawaiian potato, at the local farmers market on Saturday morning..

Polihale 'Sunset

Kekaha Church

This is the church on the main highway facing the beach, with a nice architecture and a fully open area on the ground floor for the sermons. What I like about the building is that the spine of the roof has solar water heating panels integrated!

Davidson's Beach

This is the break on another slow day, the one where I can walk to. Fisherman with a net. With special tiny minibeaces. On low tide I finally saw the two channels through the reef, know I know how to get out with less scratches :)

Milldog

I met Milldog drinking beer and munchin Ahi Poke with Chris, and he was celebrating the divorce of his wife after 29 years, built a company of importing and exporting Indo furniture. He had some great large paintings from the artist Carol Bennet of people walking on the water, errr, surfing on longboards. Have to find this artist. Milldog drove me home and we're actually neighbors in K. Too bad he left the island the next day for good.

waves nada

please wish me good waves, there have been none for 7 days now :(

Neill

Neill kam aus Wales vor 1980 nach Kauai, ist Handwerker und hat nach mehreren anderen Projekten, ein Grundstueck neben das von Kaleo dem Lifeguard in Waimea gekauft, 300 bezahlt, 75 down, und das Haus baut er seit 7 Monaten selbst, wunderschoen, es war kurz vor der Abnahme durch die Building Inspectors. Ein schoenes kleines Holzhaus, und ich habe mir von ihm erklaeren lassen, wie er es baut. Moechte ich auch bald, so ein Haus selbst bauen, erst recht in so einer traumhaften Lage und bei super Wetter. Am meisten Angst hat Neill in seinem Leben vor einem Terroranschlag oder einem Hurricane, die wuerden ihm finanziell das Genick brechen, sagt er.
...war gerade zum abendessen bei niell, dem mann, der das haus baut in waimea, er hatte zwei deutsche gaeste, urspruenglich aus stuttgart und muenchen und jetzt in cambridge und sidney lebend ewissenschaftler, edith, eine esoterik autorin, auch aus deutschland, mit ihrer voellig rabaukigen tochter trea, raymond, 82 und seine mechthild aus bremen, 75, die aber aussieht wie 50, und chris und seine tocher neia. interessante gespraeche, ueber wissenschaft, neurofeedback, kauai, deutschland bei ganz leckerem huhn und fisch vom grill in einem haus, das neill auch gebaut hat, inmitten von baeumen, es kam einem wie ein baumhaus vor. und vielleicht gehe ich mit chris auf seinem zodiac schlauchboot mit den 500 ps motoren am donnerstag mit seinen spirituellen freunden nur whalewatchen mit viel zeit und geduld, ich wuerde die buckelwale gerne singen hoeren, das soll auch ohne wassermikrophone gehen. bis dahin muss ich viel arbeiten, heute habe ich natuerlich nicht viel geschafft. ist gerade fast vollmond draussen, interessantes licht.




Neill ist vor 30 Jahren nach Kauai gekommen, im Zuge einer Surfreise mit einem um-die-welt fahrenden Surffilmer, fuer das er auch seine Verlobte mit 24 hat stehen lassen, und hat hier als Handwerker gearbeitet. Seine Haeuser sind geraumig mit offenen Kuechen und grosszuegigen Lanais/Balkonen. http://web.archive.org/web/20031231004427/http://kauaitreehouses.com/

Recent Hurricanes

1986 Hurricane Iniki
1992 Hurricane Eva
...devastated the island :(

Waimea Canyon MTB #1

Long ride up Waimea Canyon with the mountain bike, most of it in first gear. Next time I'm taking the truck up with the bike in the bed and hitting the trailheads, they're supposed to be amazing!

Jesus loves you more than you will know...

..Coasting cautiously out of the small boat harbour, owner Chris is telling us repeatedly to hold tight to the ropes, does everyone have their feet in the straps, are you really holding on, don't forget to hold on. The moment the throttle is thrown and twin 250 horsepower outboard engines rev up to full speed, the front of the Zodiac moves up to the sky and the music is going with the American classic 'Jesus loves you more than you will know...' and we're gliding over the ocean at about 40 mph out to visit the steep cliffs of the island. The ride is bumpy and more than once I think I'll be thrown off.



And on the way back we catch numerous dolphins right next to the inflatable craft, I jump into the water, and Chris, the owner comments that I shouldn't swim too far away from the boat, as there are animals in the water that eat whales.
We see a 30 ft humpback whale with lots of white spots on its body, it's only 40 ft away, looks like the boat is right on top of it. We see whale moms with their calfs. This must be good karma we earned when we saved the open-ocean stranded kitesurfer near Haena beach, poor guy. The surfer isn't amused about people ont he boat making baywatch jokes and suggesting he is on payroll to make our trip more exciting.

The humpback breaches with a big splash. Crew and passengers are now eying the horizon for more breathing spouts and breaches, upon which Chris puts the boat in full speed and we're actually jumping over waves.
A fantastic day trip and, as the boat owner and his mate Aaron said, it's a one in a hundred day to see a humpback that close.

Humpback whale is a Buckelwal.

PS A Zodiac boat costs 300k, I had no idea they were more expensive than sailboats.

Happy New Year - Frohes Neues Jahr

Welcome 2006!
Sun over the ocean at Waimea, Kauai

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