Hawaiian Swan Song

 .......or The End Is Near...again.

With only a few weeks before my current assignment ends, Ms Darlene joined me once again for Thanksgiving here in Honolulu.

 Virtually every year, instead of going home, Darlene often joins me at my assignment location.  Last year, it was in New Mexico where we spent the holiday in Taos at a ski lodge.  Other years on we were diving on Maui or enjoying a Subway sandwich sitting on a concrete bench in Solvang, California.

When she visited this time, the first few days were presented with rain

 

even though there were a few afternoons that gave us a few wonderful sunsets.

So as Thanksgiving day approached, we drove up to the Oahu north shore to watch the surfers at the Pipeline in the rain.

We often sat in the rockers in front of the Moana Surfrider hotel watching it drizzle on the never ending parade of tourists.
















One evening, we sat on the back porch and listened to music under the Banyan tree along with a younger military couple who were about to end their tour of duty here.

As the weekend began to dry, we found ourselves taking the island tour again, driving around the island to see landmarks we had always enjoyed seeing, taking little side trips and eventually discovering the Vans Off The Wall 2015 surfing competition.

While the weather was great and the waves were huge, the powerful waves were so far out you really needed binoculars to see them.

We sat in the cool sand watching and I found myself always craning around sightseers trying to get a decent photo.

At that distance, by the time I blow up the picture and crop it, the details are limited but still, I enjoyed myself

That Sunday was Darlene's last day so we took one more scenic tour back to Honolulu so she could catch her flight back to Louisiana.   I miss her still.

So, a week later, this is my last weekend here and quite possibly my last post from Hawaii this year.  With that in mind, I made it back to Sunset Beach again to find the place looking about as smooth as Lake Pontchartrain.  Moving on west, I stopped off at the Pipeline again to see the wave a little bit better than Sunset but not exactly 20 footers.  It seems that when surges come in, it moves the sand bottom around which affects the wave's distance from the beach and their height.

With the waves being a bit tamer, this brought out a different crowd.

There the usual really good amateurs, some old and some young.

As a matter of fact, there were several female surfers that I had not been seeing earlier.

While some of these women took the easier waves, others took to the larger ones.

I believe there were as many women out there this time as men and definitely were not timid.

I sat a lot closer to the water this time and even got wet with a couple of rogue waves.  Fortunately, the Nikon and Samsung phone did not suffer.

As I was about to leave, I was shooting away when this girl in one of the smallest bikinis I 'd seen, walked right in front of me.  So, in keeping with the theme of another post I made a few weeks ago, I submit to you......The End is Near.

October 31 - Northshore

It was storming in Waikiki this morning but had planned on going to the north shore unless the waves were crashing on the road up there.  As I made my way out of town and onto the Interstate H1 and H2 (technically, I think you have to be able to drive OUT of the state for it to be an INTERSTATE) and actually saw lightening. Oh well, what else could I do.

So, I did make it back up to the Banzai Pipeline.  Parking a couple hundred yards away from the beach park I slipped through a lesser known path to the Pipeline where I had watched the Backdoor Shootout surfing competition several years back.  Apparently, it's still ongoing.

There was a lot of misty element to the air and the sun didn't come out regularly so it was pretty hit and miss for the right light.  Red flags lined the beach but that's pretty much an every day occurrence up there.

Anyway, here's a few surfer pictures I took.