Thursday, January 15, 2009

Aloha Kahuna






I just got back (sigh) from a week on O'ahu. My wife Lisa and I stayed in Waikiki. I have been to Honolulu a few times jumping to other islands, but never spent much time there. It is really a pretty cool city. A mix between San Diego, Cabo, West Palm and Beirut. Tons of people, tons of shopping tons of sun.

It is always great to be back in the Islands. It's hard to imagine that it is snowing back home when you are swimming in 80 degree water and looking at Diamond Head.

Being winter, I knew I wanted to make my way to the North Shore. Word in town was a swell was coming up and Pipe was supposed to be righteous. When I arrived it was on! Saw some very steep drops, incredible barrels and a few reef cracking wipe outs. It was refreshing to see that the north shore appears to still be locked in the 70's. Tie dyed tee shirts, Elvis sunglasses, hippies, weed smoking everywhere.

There is a great laid back vibe there. Nobody seems to work, nobody seems to care. They just surf, eat off shrimp trucks and blast music on the beach. Who invented work anyway?

I had a great opportunity to put my Canon L Series 70-200mm with a 2x teleconverter to the test. It is a beast no doubt but I shot it hand held, actually braced on my knees and can tell you that lens is worth its weight. Super fast focus, sharp as all get out and looks cool attached to my 5d.

I have posted a couple of images from the north shore above.