Thursday, January 15, 2009

Big Waves and Hot Sand (It's early, that's all I got..)

By Murph

Today the weather isn’t so good, so I thought I’d sneak in a quick post about yesterday. After speaking with somebody about biking up and down the Coconut Coast I decided, after his advice, to walk a few miles of it and call it good. I did this early in the day, it was gorgeous out, and then decided to hit a couple beaches that I hadn’t hit yet (there are 12-15 beaches on the North Shore alone). The first stop I made was at Waikoko Beach. I had to climb down a cliff, rather “slide” down a muddy cliff to enter the hidden beach, but it was well worth it, here are a couple pics from there:



There was a buzz in the air yesterday about the storm that came in last night, and is continuing today. There were warnings on the TV about waves with 25-40 foot faces hitting North facing beaches, which is where I am located. When stopping in Hanalei on my way for coffee it’s what everybody was talking about. With a storm coming people were in a GOOD mood, strange…anyway, people were amped for the big storm surge. As the day went on the waves got bigger and bigger. My next stop was Ha’ena Beach where I spent an hour or so, here are a few pics from there:




I then continued on, checked out a couple ancient caves carved into the lava rock from where the ocean used to hit land (interesting, but hard to see anything without a flashlight, I’ll have to revisit), and took the road to the end, Ke’e Beach, to get any further up the shore you must hike, the road stops here. This is basically the entry way to the Kalalau Trail (which I’ll be hitting on Friday, weather permitting..), and the start of the Na Pali Coast (from the North Shore, the boat I took entered from the South Shore and rode up the West Shore until it hit the Na Pali Coast). This place was sick, definitely the coolest (I’m running out of Adjectives..) beach I’ve ever been to. I spent the rest of the afternoon here, and here are some pics from there, I took a couple “self-timer” shots too, a couple great ones I might add..(again tough for pics to do the Na Pali Coast cliffs in the background justice, they are huge, and just awesome to look at as 20 foot waves crashed against them):






The waves were beginning to get HUGE, and the 2nd’s and 3rd’s had 20+ foot faces, at least that’s what the lifeguard at Ke’e Beach with binoculars told me, and who am I to question it, the surfers looked like peanuts though, it was crazy…there were surfers being towed by jet-ski’s into the waves on the 3rd’s, it was super cool….I left the beach around 3:30pm and headed back to Hanalei for a late lunch. I grabbed some quick crab cakes, and a couple beers, and then had my first brush with a celebrity on this trip (other than the brief sight of Bubba Smith in Hale’wia which remains unconfirmed. That was f-ed up by the way, I still crack up thinking about it, that woman was OLD and obviously had vision issues, I’m pretty sure she crawled out of a Volcano that morning). Anyway, while walking to my car I almost ran into a tall, strikingly beautiful woman. I took a double take, and then she gave me the “oh no” look. I didn’t say anything, but I was thinking it looked like Gabrielle Reece, and I’m pretty sure she wasn’t pumped about me recognizing her. Even so, I followed behind her for a little bit (not a bad sight I must say..) and heard her call her two kids “Brody and Reece”. At this point, with her daughter’s name being “Reece”, I was pretty sure it was her (or a weird coincidence) so I took this stalker-KJ-like shot from a little ways behind her:


I did a quick wikipedia check on my phone and the kids named confirmed it was her, but there was no sign of Laird. But this also confirms that the storm surge is no joke, and all the big names are in town. Laird Hamilton must simply be here to ride the bigguns’. After this I went back, took a quick dip in the pool and showered up. I headed back to Hanalei Bay to see what was up, and there were cars EVERYWHERE. There were TONS of people on the beach checking out the big waves, and watching the surfers with binoculars. They were way out riding the big boys, and some dude with binoculars told me “Mikey’s (or “Matty”, not sure what he said) out there” as if I was supposed to know who that is. I guess I’ll have to research it, but the dude also told me that Thursday (Today) was supposed to be the “biggest day in a long time”. So I guess I’ll have to head down and check it out a little later on….

I also updated the photobucket site with more Kauai photos, and no videos yet, still looking for a little more banwidth if you hear me. Overall just a fantastic vacation-like day. I’m starting to get a little too used to this to be honest- I may email Paul Ottelini and ask for a 3 month extension.

With Aloha,
-Murph

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I have to confess... I am a stalker. In the middle of reading your post, I immediately went to wikipedia to find the name of Gabrielle's kids. I confirmed it and then went back to reading only to hear you say in the next sentence that you did the same thing... I clearly have problems.

Anyway, good stuff. Why don't you grab a boogie board and see what you can do on the 40 footers.

Anonymous said...

What KJ forgot to tell you is that it is currently 10 degrees in Boston and expected to fall below zero in most of the NE tonight. Laird & Gabrielle own a place in Maui and have their own helicopter, so I am sure he is there. Don't be a puss get in that water!....and stop flexing in those photos at the beach..

Anonymous said...

not only is he flexing, there is no question he oils himself up before those "timer" shots...oldest trick in the book.

ararat

Anonymous said...

You should have called her Kerri Walsh to see what she'd say. In volleyball, them's fightin' words.

Anonymous said...

Murph is definately showing you which way to the beach. KJ is a far better stalker and got the money shot. Murph it hasn't been this cold in a while! Sooo jealous. Ty

TomD said...

careful what you say to Paulie O....he might give you a permanent vacation.