Flu

What a bad timing! Now that the north swell is supposed to hit, I am down with the flu! Severe body ache and chills , along with fever, I usually don't get sick very often. last time I got sick was in Baja last fall when someone gave it to almost al of us except for Rob and he ( I was geting a ride with his schoolbus) kicked me out and made stay in a tent outside so he won't get sick. It just so happened that Santa ana wind started raging that eve up to 40 knots with sand blasting through all the rip I had in my tent, it was horrible!
Anyways, at least I am at home this time.

Andrew said he saw a shark eating a turtle outside kite beach . he thought it was 2 turtles but when he got close enough , he realized that it was a shark eating a poor little thing ( actually it was big turtle, he said) He managed not to bother Mr. shark and made a quick U-turn towards inside .
It is known that Turtles are Shark's favorite, but how often do you get to witness that? That's pretty rare.

Andrew's big adventure

Andrew has always wanted get the taste of wave riding and go out from Lanes where it is hard to launch and get out ( because you have to walk across the dry slippery reef)
Lanes attract only a handful of peopke because of that, but that didn't seem to bother Andrew who loves excitement in any form.

He took long time to get ready, and looked pretty nervous, it didn't help that Yasushi, who was supposed to show him how it's done , struggle on a reef. It probably made him more nervous. he smoked one more cigarette before he decided to put the harness on.
he pumped up his new 9m kite, did everything he was supposed to do and made it out smoothly!

He was cautious and trying to learn how to do toe side riding. He was doing very good for a long time. After an hour or so, we were still around Outside Paia, I wanted to go down faster to get to Kite beach , but it seemed like he was either taking time and enjoying it or not knowing how to go downwind very well.
I noticed that his kite was looking a little soft so I wanted to get down sooner and trying to go further downwind hoping that he would get an idea.
When I looked up to look for his kite, his kite was down and he was having hard time getting it up.
I rushed back upwind and sure enough the kite was losing air and he had a bit of a panic look ( we were pretty far out from the shore)
I told him he has to do self-rescue and make it down the beach close by , meanwhile he was outside Balwin where it's shallow and waves break on the reef. he let both his kite and board go when the little white water came and got him, and I had to figure out quickly what to do, I dragged him to the kite and told him to hold both tip of the kite and then looked for his board.
he was struggling to make the kite to create the right form to swim in , I thought he knew how but he only knew what it looks like but never actually had done it .
he looked at me desparately and asked " Will you pull me in?"
my answer was " Hell NO!" ( Be a man, dumbass! you deal with your problem, was more like what I said)
He gave up on the idea that I may drag him in and started getting serious about holding his kite and make it as sail so wind can push him in.
I was kiting with his board attached behind me like walking the dog on the ocean and going back and force to make sure he can go in safely and also to keep yelling him to get his act together and work harder otherwise he would end up on the rocky shore.

Finally he made it in at Baby beach.
I made sure he was close enough and kited down to the kitebeach.
By then, Yasushi, Kaoru, and Scott were on rescue mission driving around to look for him.

In the end, Everyone was Ok, and Andrew got what he wanted , getting his ass kicked and humbled. And we all got another story that we can laugh about for a while.
Thanks to Yasushi and Kaoru for all the help and Scott for driving around and wait for us all day.

Another beach day

Kiting all day

We went to kite beach early so we can kite in a good wind. Ended up staying there all day and Scott and Andrew both kited for a long time, Scott is getting better every day and today he was gpicking lots of speed and staying the same position for a long time.
I know how hard and tiring it is when you are learning, you are scared and you are gripping, and sun burnt.

Scott has been a real good sport and going at it even though I am sure he is exhausted to the max by the end of the day.
Beach was pretty busy today, tracy was shooting Jason Stone wakeskating, Greg was teaching his girl friend how to kite and their dogs were loving the beach and running around, it had nice friendly feeling at the beach.

Downwind Paddling

Another new watersports for the boys today. We rented a big standup board in the morning and Drove up tp Maliko Bay where many paddlers and racers start the downwinder run.
it is about 9 miles ( maybe 8?) from Maliko to Kitebeach but with a help of wind, you get to cruise with pretty fast speed , unless of course you fall a lot.

At first they were falling a lot but latter half of the run they seemed to get the grip and had time to enjoy the views and turtles around us.They both seemed to enjoy that run and sounded like they would wanted to do it again when it was rougher and windier ( maybe it wasn't scary enough for them)

They managed to kite a bit afterwards and had another full day with Ocean.

I am still a bit hesitant to go full force becaue of my back and cannot wait to go dowinwinder every day and excercise.

Scott's watersports boot camp continues

NO rest for Scott, he is a tough moutain man. I heard he is a very good skier, climber, and was national team for biathlon and spend time in Norway or something, super strong all around athlete.

We took him to Kite beach today and sent him to go body dragg I could see a bit of fear in his eyes and Andrew was loving it. I could tell he wanted scott to have some humbling experience and laugh at him.
He did surprisingly good with body drag and managed to come back upwind of where he started so we handed him a board to try. He was struggling because he never had much experience with boards, ( he usually skis) he got lifted high and got slammed couple times pretty hard I looked at Andrew and he was laughing so hard!
after couple of superman airs. he was separated from the board pretty far but someone got his board and he managed to came back to the beach. he was a bit shaken but I thought he did really well for his first try.
when Andrew first came here, his first day was only about 2 minutes and he was very scared and second day, he barely stood up and body dragged back to the beach all the way from far outside and now he is ripping . I am sure Scott will be cruising in no time.

Andrew took over the gear and kited back upwind and then they both went out couple more times. Scott managed to get slammed bunch more times and almost lost the board. ( he had to swim and walk around to look for it for a while)
By the time they came back home, they were pretty beat up but that what they like to do, I think, beaten up by the mother nature . Otherwise why do you climb some freezing huge mountain where they risk their lives??

Haole Tan

We came back from quiet Lanai and looked for some spot to surf, there weren't much surf but Launipoko looked OK, because there weren't many people out.
As we paddled out , it seemed that even a few guys out disappeared and it was just us for a while, maybe we scared them away.
Anyway, Scott used my standup board and with that volume, it was easier to catch waves and he was catching quite a few. he was having a good time, we caught couple waves together like party waves but by the time. it was super fun and cool to watch these guys.
This is Scott's one of the first wave of his life, not bad.
And this is what happens when a white boy from Wyoming get too excited to play in the ocean. We call it Haole tan. looks like he is still wearing vest.

Lanai trip

Photo shooting with Gangini Sisters

I find it difficukt to keep up with my English diary, especially when I am busy.

I have been busy doing a very fun work lately, Tracy and I were working with these beautiful sisters , they are born and raised on Maui . They grow up with what Maui offers best, ocean and art. They are both very comfortable in the water and at their young age of 14 and 16, they already have swimsuit business and very successful jewelry business. Their jewelry enbraced the cover of this year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and we all know that is HUGE!
it shows they are having lots of fun doing it , too.
It was so fun interviewing and shooting them because they are so natural and full of ideas for shooting as well and really into it.Tracy came up with so many neat ideas, they all worked very hard and y the time we were done, it was way past afternoon ( we started right about sunrise time) and they were super exhausted.

I was so thanksful of their enthusiasm and tracy's hard work ( she was swimminig pretty much the whole time!) and the photos came out amazing.
Some of them will be coming out in Japanese Girl surf magazne called BG but I am pretty sure we can sell these images and do story of these sisters more in the future.
by the way these shots here in my diary are not shot by Tracy, these are takin by me with little snapshot camera.It is very cool to meet and get to know the young generation of talents on Maui and we have so many of them around!
What an inspiring day! Thanks girls!

Tracy Kraft, hottest photographer in Hawaii

Tracy came over this morning to shoot what we were talking about for months. it was me with all my toys , we shot it in my back yard and it turned out very cool.

Tracy and I met at kitebeach years ago. and I do remember not talking to her for about a year. Back then there were so many people on the beach very social and I wasn't so into it and kinda hide in the corner , besides she was soo stunning looking and beautiful that I thought for sure she was a stuck up bitch girl.
I turned out to be very wrong! She is very down to earth , honest, hard working girls with very sincere heart and over the years we hang out and worked many project together and had great experience together.She is by far my very favorite photographer to work with. and I am so grateful of her shooting me whenever and wherever and makes me look much better than in real life.

ANyways working with her makes work not like work, it is inspiring and fun and I love when she gets in the ZONE( when she gets really into what she is shooting) because I know that is when the shots will come out super cool.

I feel blessed to have her as my working partner, we have shot so many female athletes , traveled for stories, interviewed many inspiring people. I have now collections of her great work to compliment my articles and stories and wegot to meet great people in the process .

I sure hope we can continue to get many projects together.
you can check some of her work at www.tracykraft.com
ALso latest Standup Journal has the Tiare's interview that we did and her portraits are amazing!
SBC kiteboarding has our Dominican/ Necker trip article as well.

McGary on Maui

Andrew McGary is a telemark skier who can ski super steep terrains and climb big walls and take photos, fishing in gnarly Alaska ocean , going on crazy adventures and spend days in the blizzard. He got into snowkiting couple years ago and he says that is his main passion nowadays and don't climb or ski too much anymore.
First time I met him was in valdez ( probably in 1992 or so) and he was living in a snowcave behind Tsaina Lodge and trying to ski however he can ( most of the time hiking due to limited budget but any chance he can jump in, he would get some heli time or plane access)
he had huge long dreadlock hair( he claims it wasn't dread but it looked like dreads because it sure wasn't combed or washed) and I remember someone pointed him out to me and said" he is the true soul skier"

Anyways, true skibum became a succesful photographer later on and submit numorous photos to Outside magazines Mens Journal. Patagonia etc. he had ability to be where most photographers cannot go and shoot and also very close to the riders and climbers really helped , I think. Anyways he could capture the real moment of action and travels .
After hard fishing in Alaska for a month or so, he is treating himself in warm weather here on Maui, with mission to master kiting in the water.
It was a bit different from snowkite and I could tell he was nervous. cinsidering how gusty and strong the wind was, he did Ok but it was funny to see Andrew who goes out in some of the most intense weather and terrain in the world is scared in this clear flat blue water. EVeryone needs some humbling experience so it's good for him.I am sure he will get better very quickly....