Baja with Japanese girls

Girls trip is always fun, especially it is all the girls who loves to windsurf . kite, surf. play all kinds of outdoor activities. I knew most of the girls who came but many of them didn't know each other. I was looking forward to introducing thembecause I knew they would have a great time together, sure enough, we had a blast and pushed and inspired each other the whole time.
Every one of the girls inspired me in various ways and I feel energized by hanging out with them. Thanks girls for all the good times! and all the guys who joined us, thanks for all the support and putting up with our craziness!
I am pretty sure we will do this girls trip again next year.This is when we went for mussels picking, we biled it and everyone loved them! but we probably should have turn around and paid attention to the surf, haha. Surfing was great as well.

Urs's greatest Adventure!

Urs is my old friend that I know over 10 years. he was one of the windsurfer who was always at Hookipa hanging out every day, and so were we so we see each other all the time and eventually start talking to each other.

He noticed that he had seen me in Mt Hood in the summer where I was working in a snowboard camp and he was working as a ski coach for Canadia National team.
As we get to know each other we found more and more mutural friends and interests.
He got job and Weglie's heli as a Heli ski guide and eventually worked for one of my friends heli operation in Alaska.
He also loves traveling so we always talk about where to go.

Anyways, I found some very exotic looking shots of waves in his facebook post. I didn't know he was away this summer but those waves looked perfect and noone was on it. it looked very deserted. i knew he wasn't going to reveal the name of the place to many people but I really wanted to know where. I had a fairly good idea whereabouts but I wanted to hear all about it so I invitred him for dinner .

When hebroke up with his girlfriend, he was trying to figure out where to go, somehow he found place in south pacific, this atool has no flights to get there but he found some contacts and found out he could get there by getting on a freight ship from Honolulu. he showed me the picture of the boat, it is pretty old and shaky looking, not that big but he told me all kinds of characters who were on board and the 8days of traveling with them.
the place he told me is the place this guys who I met in marshall told me to go. this japanese guy was in 70's but very sharp and lively guy who has spent most of his life working in between south pacific and Japan and doing all kinds of work . he knew so many history and cultures of those very exotic places. He said if I wanted to travel beautiful exotic place with nice people, this atoll is the place.

Urs admited that he had never even heard of this place before, but somehow everything was going his way and he managed to get there and stayed for 3 months. very simple, primitive lifestyle, some days food was even hard to come by, but sounded like it was trip of a life time. it is so hard to find a place to surf where noone is around or noone knows about it, it takes such effort to look for those places and often lots of money and time.
So I know how special this trip must have been to him.
I am super envious but very stoked for him.

He sounded like he was sold on finding more places like this place, who know where he will go next but I have to stay in touch with him for sure so I would know those secrets.

Okazaki's on Maui

My whole family came to visit me on Maui for the very first time after all!
my parents had been here onece about 19 years ago but back then I was more of a freak and couldn't spend any time with them because I just couldn't see myself away from the beach during the day, I had to windsurf , and even if it wasn't windy, I had to be there so I know for sure I am not missing it.
So they hang out all day by themselves visiting places I recommended and meet me around eve only to find I was so exhausetd to even communicate and falling asleep while eating. I was a very bad daughter.

But this time I really wanted to entertain them and make sure they had a great time.
Everyone had different interest so it was a bit hard to make everyone happy at the same time but overall, I think we all had a great time being together and I got to show how I live here.
I have been a pain in a butt all my life for the family but they all still give me unconditional love and it sure gives me strength . love and support from your family is such a powerful force.

I feel so lucky to have all my family happy and healthy . We laughed and teased and give a harda time to each other so much , and that what familes do, I think, at least in my family.
Great time together indeed!

The best Sep I can remember

OK, I have been a super slacker not writing anything in english diary. It's been a busy fall with lots of visiters and trips and good waves・
Anyway, starting with first swell ariving on Aug 31, we already got couple good fun swell in Sep, this is the best Sep I can remember in last 20 plus years since I first came to Maui!

I am not sure if El Nino has anything to do with it but I vaguely remember one El Nino year, we had tind of huge waves all winter so maybe this winter will be the same.

So far, I am trying to get my back healed up and getting back in shape so I can be ready for that!

Surf's UP!

Posters from Higai

Today was like early X'mas!

First I went to JImmy lewis's factory to order my new board, and then got 2 big bags full of oranges and avos , some lychees from his garden. he is always generous with his fruits.

Then at the post office , big box was waiting for me , it was from Fuji and Maki who I met couple weeks ago here and went standup paddling together. They sent box full of Japanese food that are hard to get on Maui. wow!
Also posters from my friend Higai , too, He has been my dear friend for a long long time and we went on many snowboard trip together , some of them are so memorable and intense.
he is one of my favorite photographer to travel with, easy going, super funny ( without even trying) shares same kind of values. and his work is always amazing!
I miss traveling with him! Anyways, he is publishing another photobook soon and released 3 amazing posters and sent them to me. I cannot wait to put themon the wall!

At the beach, Brett Lickle, another long time friend , mentor gave me this seird looking footstraps, called hammerhead straps. As name says it, it has a shape like hammerhead shark and it is supposed to make jibing easy, I tried out on my surfboard and it sure made it easy with the extra stuff sticking out on the both sides and you can hold your toe with it while you are jibing. kinda hard to explain . I will try it out on bigger days and see how I like it.
Brett is the guy who is always thinking new inventions and ideas for as long as I know.( I am sure he has been that way since he was a child)
the system you can skate in the house like you are ramp skating, Surfball which builds your balance, lots of little things to inprove kite accesaries, oh yeah lots of early tow-in improvement came from him, too.

Then I bought a car, I had been looking for one for a while after I got my car smashed from behind, it is another Maui cruiser( beater) but seems like this guy took a good care of it and I hope I can have agood relationship with this van for a long time.

Anyways, felt like I got so many things today, felt like X'mas!

Full moon Camping

Waves came down. Looks like it will be a while till next one comes.

Since it is full moon tonight we decided to get out and camp out . we packed some food in the cooler andgot minimum stuff and left home around 4 , and still managed t enjoyed the drive in the sunset light and arrived to the camp spot before dark.
Wind was hauling so we couldn't set up the tent right on the beach but it is really nice and protected in the woods.
As we were cooking dinner, the huge moon came out behind the mountain.We were hoping the wind will be calm in the morning so we could cruise around on our standup or snorkel around the rocks , pick opihis but gust of wind woke us up in thr morning and the ocean was covered with white caps.
We drove around Hana side and checked couple cool falls and beaches and by 1pm we were back home, short get away but refleshing !

Swell going down

This is Honolua Bay couple days ago. this place is known for one of the best right breaks in the world, it is rare that this places gets good waves in Aug either.Waves are down again and forecast is not looking good for a while. it is good time for me to get things done and maybe do something different like hikes or swimming and get my back totally in shape before the real winter season starts.

North Swell in August!?

Northeast swell came up in the afternoon of Friday and Even Honolua Bay was breaking a little on Saturday. it came down a bit the next day but on Monday bigger size Swell hit the Northshore and we all had a great time.

Usually First winter swell comes around the end of sep or early Oct, Aug is unheard of ( I am not even sure if this can be the first swell, it may not be as big enough, but definately powerful enough to call it a swell)
It was a great surprise swell in Aug and great reminder that winter is right around the corner. in fast the air feels a bit cooler last couple days.
I was still under the weather but when I looked at the webcam, it showed the definate swell lines and it instantly injected some adrenalin into my system.I went down to Lanes early so I can get out right at eleven ( we have the rule on Maui that kiters and windsurfers are not supposed to go out till 11 am) It was already windy and waves were up, maybe about 4-5ft, way better than anything we had seen for 3-4 month.
We did have crazy North swell in May this year, which is unusually late, I hope this is the sign of good winter with lots of big swells.

Anyways, the guys on the beach sounded like they were pumping their smallest kites so I decided to go with my 4m , too. I don't like using it in Lanes, especially when it is gusty but sometimes I have no choice.
when I first went out, I was a bit underpowered but I was ok. first hour or so was just 3 of us and it was great. Waves weren't the cleanest but afterdealing with months of flat summer , we were so stoked to see anything !
it was nice to see all the familiar faces who come to Lanes in the winter , too.

Yasushi went out as well , he was doing great , it was probably the biggest waves he had dealt with and I saw him crashing his kite 3 times or so, some of the crash was pretty hard that his kite was totally inverted and folded in the waves, his board floating and drifting.
But luckily he managed to get his kite up every time. When he came back to the beach, he said he was scared but he had this glow in his face like he stepped up a notch. it was nice to be out there with him today.
Andrew went down to kite beach, even there had plenty of waves, he came back super stoked , telling me he had a break through!

This is Hookipa side, windsurfers were stoked as well.
When waves are on the island, everyone is stoked and the whole atomosphere on the beach changes. people move faster , more focused and happier.

Amazing what waves do to us , maybe what we need for the world peace is more waves?

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....