Thursday, December 3, 2009
Rescue Helicopter and GR8 Kona Wind
After the workout Puhi offers his barn to let me check on a tenacious Mercedes alternator regulator that has the volatility and mind of Kilauea's beautiful Madam Pele. While wrestling gently with Ms. Pele I receive a call to lift weights and hit mitts with my friend Chandler.
In his early twenties, Chandler is a talented athlete and works as a Captain on the Hula Kai. When the sun sets, Chan takes people off the shores of Hawaii, for an underwater experience unlike anything else ~ a dive adventure with magical and beautiful Kona Kite like creatures, with a wingspans of over 5m, who perform their underwater night ballet in the plankton . . . absolutely breath taking . . .
Chandler's trip is off this evening though due to uncharacteristic windy conditions for the Kona Coast . . . music to my Kiting ears!! Telling Chan I'll catch up with him later . . . My Madame Pele Mercedes is off to the 2 mile marker on Alii Drive . . . behind the exit point of my last Kailua Bay Kiting session. The wind at my back is clean and brisk . . .
My Kite fills and launches and I am off . . . enjoying the cool blue water . . . past the little known public salt water swimming pool and out into the ocean . . . with a nagging feeling that in my haste to get out on the Pacific Blue, I hadn't stopped in at the fire station this time.
. . . As a safety measure and as a courtesy to the Emergency response professionals it is normally good to check in with them . . . especially here in Kailua Kona, the leeward side of the Island where interested and concerned watchers are not exposed much to kiting. Observers here are prone to err on the "dial 911" side when mesmerized by a lone light wind surfer being gracefully dragged along the water surface behind a kite.
Sure enough, while passing Magics . . . or Disappearing White Sands Beach at the 4mile marker, I have to give the international fist on the head - "I'm OK " - divers' signal to professional rescuer Sean, who has graciously paddled out for me. Sean asks where I plan to exit and informs me that they had been called by a concerned lady who was motoring along Allii Drive.
The fun wasn't over yet! After greeting a few Pirate friends on the three returning Captain Zodiac boats while passing Ku'emanu Heiau . . . the old Hawaii Surfing Temple next to the Little Blue Church . . . a Coastguard Helicopter circled 3 times with the doors open ready to jump out and rescue! They received the I'm OK divers' signal too with a fist to the head each time they pass.
The visitors at Snorkel Beach , where I volunteer with Aunty Cindi Punihaole in the ReefTeach Program, are as inquisitive as the local Monk seals with the Life Rescue Helicopter excitement.
In the big scheme of things though . . . as the water covered petroglyphs on the flat rocks beside the restored temples remind us of the King of Maui Kamalalawalu who was impaled alive on this spot and then towed to sea and fed to sharks. . . this is just another beautiful day in Kahalu‘u Bay . . . with a long history of people, families and excitement.
Ahead I can see the Fairwind boat coming in to dock in Keauhou Bay with . . . it looks like Elvis aboard as the 1st mate . . . This is also the home port of Chandler's Hula Kai . . . It is interesting that calm Keauhou bay recently experienced a mini Tsunami.
A little higher up on the hill of Keauhou, I enjoy a glimpse of the old mile long Holua Slide . . . those old Hawaiians knew how to have a little fun!
Next I pass the Sheraton Hotel and the spot where Chandler wasn't going out tonight for the Manta rays and on . . .
With the wind holding steady I planed past the cliffs of End of the World . . . my fav place to do flips into the ocean. ; )
FYI . . . Be careful at the End of the World point . . . some time back while launching my kite here, I had a rogue wave wash right over the point and me . . . I was holding on the rocks like a crab to stop going into the drink! . . . I didn't want to join the many hundreds of warriors entombed in the terraces cut in the lava around Kuamo'o point . . . this is spot where the last Hawaiian battle occurred to end the traditional Kapu system and destroy the temples around the Island. . . a Ruggard and beautiful place.
Kiting passed the Green house and sea caves to "Steve's Bay" . . . so named by Steve who was kind enough to pick me up with his boat. We enjoyed pleasant conversation all the way back to Kona where his beautiful Captain, after first encouraging me to bring a satellite radio beacon for my next kiting adventure, . . . dropped me off her boat with my traditional back-flip into the water, right near my starting point and the spot where the Mercedes was parked on Alii drive.
I swam in and watched the sun slip below the horizon for a glorious Kona sunset. . . then back to the car and returning cellphone messages from Chris and Jason about a kite spotted in Kona and if that was me. I picked up some "after workout Chicken quesadillas" at Habaneros . . . and was off to lift weights and box with Chan, relate the Kiting adventure and show him my new Kona lightwind Kite, while munching down on some good food! . . . It has been a Gr8 day Mercedes, wind, helicopter, boatride, Kiting and all . . . to be continued . . . : ) Aloha Air
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Kite surfing 265miles around the Big Island Hawaii ~ Building own Kites
Goal: Kite surfing 265 miles all the way around the Big Island of Hawaii ~ Building my own kites
My typical Kitesurfing day in Paradise begins early. . . starting up the Island Mercedes and powering up and over over the summit of Beautiful Kilauea . . . the most active volcano on earth . . . along the slopes of the long Mountain of Mauna Loa . . . the largest mountain on the planet . . . past the wind farm at South Point . . . the southernmost point of the 50 united states and one of the windiest too . . . and up the Kona coast to my first stop at Puhi's coffee farm.
Puhi has Mylar coffee bags to be used for building my light wind Kona kite . . . which is going to pull me along most of the leeward coastline I've travelled and checked out all morning.
Puhi and I meet to work out together first. After a warm welcome from his dog Addicas, we loosen up with some football tosses and boxing. Next comes weight train and a timed workout of pull ups, push ups, clean and press and kettle swings. We stretch and cool down in the pool and Puhi presents me with a half case of Kona Coffee Mylar bags and asks how the Kite building is going.
Next stop is to wake our local Gentle Giant and Heavy weight Cage fighter Josh . . . known to us affectionately as the Wrecking Ball! Josh and I drive down to train at the Kailua Peer . . . the annual World Triathlon Championship Start/finish spot of the Kona Ironman and also the final chosen home of King Kamehameha the Great.
This morning we swim the refreshing ocean water to the first buoy and back . . . passing beautiful corral and reef fish and pound out some mitt combinations and repeat the again for the 2nd and 3rd buoy. We finish with a run along the Ironman route along Kailua Bay's Alii drive . . . the wind is picking up a little . . . what a beautiful place to train and Kite around the Island . . . to be continued . . .
My typical Kitesurfing day in Paradise begins early. . . starting up the Island Mercedes and powering up and over over the summit of Beautiful Kilauea . . . the most active volcano on earth . . . along the slopes of the long Mountain of Mauna Loa . . . the largest mountain on the planet . . . past the wind farm at South Point . . . the southernmost point of the 50 united states and one of the windiest too . . . and up the Kona coast to my first stop at Puhi's coffee farm.
Puhi has Mylar coffee bags to be used for building my light wind Kona kite . . . which is going to pull me along most of the leeward coastline I've travelled and checked out all morning.
Puhi and I meet to work out together first. After a warm welcome from his dog Addicas, we loosen up with some football tosses and boxing. Next comes weight train and a timed workout of pull ups, push ups, clean and press and kettle swings. We stretch and cool down in the pool and Puhi presents me with a half case of Kona Coffee Mylar bags and asks how the Kite building is going.
Next stop is to wake our local Gentle Giant and Heavy weight Cage fighter Josh . . . known to us affectionately as the Wrecking Ball! Josh and I drive down to train at the Kailua Peer . . . the annual World Triathlon Championship Start/finish spot of the Kona Ironman and also the final chosen home of King Kamehameha the Great.
This morning we swim the refreshing ocean water to the first buoy and back . . . passing beautiful corral and reef fish and pound out some mitt combinations and repeat the again for the 2nd and 3rd buoy. We finish with a run along the Ironman route along Kailua Bay's Alii drive . . . the wind is picking up a little . . . what a beautiful place to train and Kite around the Island . . . to be continued . . .
Labels: Kona Cofee Mylar Kites . . . Ironman training for Kona coast kiting
Saturday, November 28, 2009
I am building my own Kites and Kitesurfing around the Big Island of Hawaii!
Labels: Building own Kites
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