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.

News from Oahu

Ms Darlene has been with me over the past 9 days.  While I would be at work, she shopped, walked the beaches and pretty much found her new favorite spot in the world.

 

One Friday evening, we went down to enjoy the weekly fireworks at the Hilton Hawaiian Village under a clear moonlit sky.

 

The place was wrapped up with locals and visitors alike.  Honestly, the fireworks did not go off at the appointed time so we were headed back to the car when the place just lit up with pyrotechnics.  They had delayed setting them off because of the police helicopter nearby that had assisted in the rescue of a capsized yacht.  Fortunately there were no injuries.

Over the two weekends she was here, we pretty much kept the roads hot trying to absorb as much of Oahu as possible.

 

Her spots as well as mine tended to be away from the crowds checking out the beaches and fabulous scenery stopping from time to time to digest it all.

 But each evening we would return back to town and take in Waikiki Beach again and do some serious people watching. 

 

There might have been some shopping involved as well.

Both weekends, we were a little disappointed that the waves were not as large as we had hoped.  Last Saturday, we went up on the north shore to the Pipeline thinking it would be terrific but when we arrived, the place almost looked like a lake.   Only a few surfers were out. 

Still, the drive was great and stopped to snap a few pictures of places we'd always seen but never really stopped long enough to enjoy.  Here's a different view of Chinaman's Hat near the ranch where Jurassic Park was filmed.

 

We stopped in amazement to see a half dozen young men make their way down through the rocks to do some diving from the cliffs.  It was a dangerous thing to do but when you're that age, you think you're bullet proof and the world is all Disneyland.  They probably did not know, but someone was killed doing the same thing a couple miles around the island at a place called Spitting Caves.

 

The Blowhole has been the demise of many as well.

 

I'm really glad she was able to come over for a week and a few days.  I know she enjoyed it and I appreciated her being here with me.

The Northshore Pipeline

We took a little drive up to the north shore of Oahu to see how the waves were.  For the most part, the Bonsai Pipeline was pretty tame but still, it was nice to see surfers out there.  In the late winter and early spring, the waves can be awesome and the dream of serious surfers everywhere.

A few years ago, while working here on the island, it was a favorite place of mine and visited it and the nearby town of Hale`iwa  (pronounced "Ha-lay-ee-vah") often.  You pretty much need to be looking for it to find because there are no glaring signs pointing to it saying "TURN HERE".  In other words, just Google it and click on the map.

Here's a few pictures.

Banzai Pipeline..2008 Backdoor Shootout

Saturday night, I put Ms Darlene on a plane in Honolulu headed for New Orleans. She's been with me from the get-go since flying in here on Christmas day so I'll miss having her around. She's been a jewel at finding deals on hotel rooms and reasonably priced joints to eat in. Were it not for some chain restaurants, the best food here would be the after-taste you had in your mouth from the last meal on the mainland.

She usually spent the day out on the beach and parks watching people and shopping (not much buying) while I fought traffic sometimes for an hour and a half each day to and from work. To us, the attitude, culture and ambiance of Honolulu and Oahu are entirely different from Maui.

Yesterday, we went out on the North Shore to the Banzai Pipeline and watched the 2008 Backdoor Shootout . The sand was very loose so I dug my tripod in and squeezed off a hundred or more shots. Here I was with a pretty decent camera but felt oh so small when the pros came out with those big nasty Canon lens that made mine look like a dime store cheapy.







The waves were thundering, the sun was bright and there was a modest crowd there on the beach to watch as jet skis / wave runners waited to tow the surfers if necessary.

( You can click on the pictures for a larger view )

Although the waves were not the legendary 30 footers, many were at least 20 feet.

Just when we decided to leave, Darlene looked over at the BodyGlove tent and lo and behold, David Hasselhoff was there getting his beauty struck with the local girls and they were all over him like flies a dead fish on the beach. He's the guy who was on Knight Rider and Bay Watch .

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hasselhoff - you remember the red bathing suits).







After some of the commotion eased a bit and the girls stopped accosting the man, and the Hoff sauntered down the beach to where the news and camera people were hanging out.

We left shortly after and was headed out when we ran face to face with him and Darlene thought it would be a wonderful idea to get a picture taken with him, so she hit him up as he came out the gate. He mumbled "yes" and so fired off a couple of shots of him and Ms Darlene.

The whole encounter probably lasted no more than 10 seconds and realizing Mr. Hasselhoff had more pressing things on his mind, we thanked him and dismissed ourselves as he went his way and we went ours.

That's it from this rock in the Pacific.