Starting the Labor Day Weekend Off Right

I got home from work and debated about starting work on the hydrofoil or pack up the van and go surfing.  From these pictures you can see what I ended up doing.

Marlon had the other GoPro, but we haven't down loaded his pictures yet.  More surfing tomorrow as Hurricane Miriam swell starts to filter in!!!

Getting Back on the Horse...

I had to tear down the glassing work station before Hurricane Lane made its approach to the islands.  And I just got it back up last night.

And since I was out in the garage, I also got a few other related projects started - 

These are the shaping racks

And these are the mast track reinforcement blocks.  Lots more work still required to get a foil board up and running... but hey - this is a long weekend!!!

Random Pictures from a Random Surfer's Journal

I took a break after lunch - we went back to Patagonia and I sat on their couch and browsed through a Surfer's Journal.  Cool pictures abound -

I love the surf culture and how prevalent it is everywhere you look up here.  Oh, and the shop had these cool patches.

La got the Whale Shark one for me!

Lunch Up North

This is another activity that will never get old - eating at Kua Aina -

I love this food!!!  Mission accomplished!

North Shore Chicken Hunting

We packed up the truck and went out to grab a couple of pieces of lumber - then made a trip out to Haleiwa to grab a Kua Aina Burger (drooling)!  To pass a few minutes in hope of letting any lunch hour lines die down, we checked out the Patagonia shop.  Without fail, there were chicken families in several stages of development.  My kids went into "hunt" mode..

Ever since our trip to Kauai, my kids love to catch recently hatched chicks, study them, and release them to continue hunting bugs.  I love to hear the hen scream bloody murder - I realize the hen may not think the same of the situation as I do, but this never gets old for me or the kids.  I'm sure it gets old for the birds.

No animals were physically harmed in the making of this blog post.  In fact, the chicks we picked up got belly rubs and hugs.

Post Lane Dawn Patrol

With most of our post Hurricane Lane clean up done, I took Marlon on a dawn patrol this morning.  We ended up seeing a rare sight.

The gate was locked and the parking lot empty.

But that didn't stop several people from parking along the roadside and walking in their boards.  We parked and checked out the surf.  Small, a little textured but if most people stayed in their cars waiting for the gate to be opened, at least there would be less people paddling for the small waves - we decided to give it a go for at least while it stayed mostly empty.

We ended up staying for an hour - longer than I thought we would.  Surf (however small) is always better than no surf!

Post Lane Date Night

We spent most of the day getting our home back in order - plants back on the racks, tools and equipment back on the shelves, vacuuming, sweeping, and identifying stuff that we can purge (since we were going through it all anyways).  A friend of ours asked if we could come over to their house to fix a few things that broke in the heavy winds - and that turned out to be a great excuse to go on a date night!

We hit Nathan's and after checking out his plants and fixing a few broken pots, we headed down to the Olive Tree - a greek restaurant that is never open when we are in Kahala.  Awesome food!!!

Next we stopped at the top of Diamond Head.  The surf was waist to shoulder high and a little textured from the gusty wind.  A guy surfing had his leash break and he swam in from the middle break at Cliffs.  The wind kept pushing his board towards Lighthouse and he swam past it.  When he got to the beach, he kept looking around for his board and he finally looked up at us - we pointed and he took off running after the board.

Fun date night!  And....

I love my wife!

Waiting Out the Storm

The kids were studying all day today (they are homeschooled after all), and decided they needed a break.  They brought out various objects to try and harness the Hurricane Lane winds -

Hurricane Lane Preparations

We spent the last few days preparing the house for Hurricane Lane's arrival.  Moving plants, securing objects in the yard and ensuring pieces and parts of the house stay put are among some of the things we've been doing.  But in order to get the larger plants sheltered (in the bed of the Ridgeline, with the Ridgeline in the garage), I had to clear the workstation I set up to get the hydrofoil built.  In order to get the rest of the space cleared, I actually had to cut the blank in half.

I laid out the templates to confirm a good fit on both.  Pray that Hurricane Lane has minimal impact to the visitors and kamaaina of Hawaii... we'll see you on the other side of this storm.

New Templates for Some Prone Foil Boards

Here they are - templates for the prone foil boards I'm going to shape and glass.  Marlon will shape the middle sized one for a composites class I'm teaching him (Hafa Adai Academy!!!  We love homeschooling!!!).

The small one will be cut from wood (it's a kite foil board, doesn't need a lot of buoyancy).

The longer one is for me - I can use the extra volume.  The two with the cutouts are not going to be used this time.  I made a couple extra just to see how they looked cut out and ready to template on a blank - the straighter railed versions ended up looking better for the purpose these boards will fill - paddling power to get the foil lifting.

More Surfing over the Weekend

I took Marlon Dawn Patrolling on Friday and Saturday.  We skipped Sunday because I'm getting old (sore muscles) and it was way too humid and hot.

The waves got smaller by the day, but they were still fun sized.

On Saturday, one of the locals was using a folding lawn chair while SUP surfing.  

Marlon countered with his sitdown approach.  

Hurricane Lane is headed our way - hopefully it'll push some surf our way, but stay far enough so the period isn't too close and the winds don't get strong.  Stay tuned...

Pau Hana Surf on Aloha Thursday

La and the kids were at sailing when I got back from work.  With no one to hang out with, and with tomorrow being a day off from work (Admissions Day in Hawaii), I thought I'd start the long weekend off right by catching some waves from the small swell that is supposed to be pushing through.

Well - needless to say I'm happy!!!