Mondo Friday

Surfed the SUP at Mondos yesterday. The forerunners of the Cook Island south swell were pushing through. Head high + on the sets and chest high on the intermittent waves.

And I found my MIA GoPro - it was hiding out in the storage bin of my truck. Obviously it still works.

Mondos is a slow breaking wave - that reminds me a lot of Waikiki (Canoes). I likey!

Pau

Jellyfish, Jellyfish, Jellyfish

This photo is completely unedited - and yes it is almost solid moon jellyfish.

And yes - my troops and I had to make dives through this (these jellyfish don't possess nematocysts strong enough to penetrate human skin, so it doesn't hurt - unless you have sensitive or unusually thin skin).

The Velasco's Favorite Indian Restaurant

I wish La and the kids could have been there with me this last trip -

The name of this restaurant is Appu Ghar.

When we lived in Japan, the restaurant was located south of Hayama.

While visiting for business, some friends took me out (thanks again Dorian and Rhonda) and I was surprised they were heading North on the 134. Turns out Appu Ghar is now on the strip at Kamakura.

Awesome location - much cleaner presentation (although I'd be the first to say their old place had tons of character) - with a very modern, yet warm and distinctly indian charm.

This is still our favorite restaurant for Indian food -

Pirate Rooster

This guy was up near the Ha'ena State Park (Ke'e Beach) facilities.

He looked normal until I got into his comfort zone to take this picture - he started to do the freaky dance and was hopping around with his stubby right foot.

I felt sorry for him until I remembered where I was and that he was living an awesome life (as evidenced by the hens he had running around him). He is obviously a stud and can impress with or without a foot.

Peg legs to chickens must be the equivalent to tattoos and cool scars in humans.

Niihau

The "Forbidden" Island

More Seafood

This time surf and turf at Mana, Kauai (Barking Sands).

Japan Again

I haven't been posting much because of travels and our pack out. I will try to post on the happenings over the past couple of weeks.

Here I am eating sashimi with a good friend Hideyuki Naito at a restaurant in Miura Kaigan (southern part of the Miura Peninsula).

Mmmm, mmmm good!

Naish Boards Unveiled

Check out http://www.naishsurfing.com/en/index.html

Harold Iggy and the riders (Dave Kalama) have developed some narrow boards -

It'll be interesting to see these boards in action as they get out into the market.

Which one for me??? I'm a big fan of the Glide 14' and the Mana 9'5"

New Naish SUP boards in bound

Looky looky -

More stuff to drool over... This was a posting from an Aussie who got a sneak peek at the 2010 Naish line.

I have no patience when it comes to stuff like this (I can't wait to touch/see/smell/ride new boards).

I need help....

Sardines

Lots of fish in school.

My kids dig school!

Sand Crabs

We catch these guys at the beach all the time.

Just wait until a wave pulls back out, run and grab a couple of handfulls of sand, flip it and watch for the little guys trying to dig their way back into the sand.

At the Monterey Bay Aquarium (MBA), they had a tank of these guys and you could see them filter feeding. I always thought they were going after detritus (small bits of organic matter), but here you can clearly see them grabbing plankton.

Cool!

Elephant Seals on the Beach

These guys were on a beach about halfway between Monterey and Oxnard.

Really massive animals.

They move like caterpillars while on land (you can see all the blubber jiggling).

Go with the flow

While we were working our way back down to Oxnard from San Francisco, we stopped in a bunch of places - one of which was the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Lots of cool displays that had lots of happy specimens in them. I'll use this trip and other points on the way down as posting sources for the next few days (yes - the surf is down, but thats not the only reason I'm moving in this direction - it's my blog...).

For now - here are some cool jellyfish!

Enjoy!

New blog

Check out http://hooyah-theboatlog.blogspot.com/

It will chronicle our adventures with the boat!!!