Sunrise and the “Dawn Patrol”

I’ve been doing “dawn patrol” – hitting the surf at sunrise or just prior – for as long as I’ve been surfing. I started back on Longboat Key, waking up as the eastern glow came over Sarasota Bay and looking west to see if the second sandbar was breaking outside of the Holiday Inn. On the Gulf Coast, a swell can show up and disappear in an hour or two, so I had to be on it whenever I could. I soon learned that the early morning meant that the winds were usually lighter, and everything just has a certain look to it. Once the sun gets more than a few fingers above the horizon, that contrast and horizontal lighting goes away, and things look “normal”.

As I grew up and went to college I continued on, getting sessions in before the morning classes. In Hawaii, I’ve done the dawn patrol on all shores – sometimes the sun comes up over the shore, sometimes over the water – it all depends on where you surf – but the effect is the same. On rare occasions on the windward side, as the sun peeks over the horizon and the red-shifted light bounces off a bank of offshore clods, the Koolau mountains will glow red for 10 minutes or so. It’s one of the most beautiful sights nature has to offer.

I always enjoyed it, but I never really reveled in it until after I recovered from cancer. I saw each new sunrise as an allegory for my life, as well as an actual “gift of a new day”. It makes everything so much sweeter, but that first dawn patrol post-treatment was the richest sunrise I’ve ever seen. Every one since then is a tie.

So, rather than the usual “I went surfing again” video, I took some of my 2011 dawn patrol sessions and made a little movie. Enjoy.

Sunrises from rotorhead guy on Vimeo.

Win This Board

I made/donated this to OLGC school for their spring fund raiser. If anyone wants tickets, e-mail me at rotorheadcancer@hotmail.com prior to 27 April and I’ll get you the info.  Full details on the board are here.

Always Listen to the Horse’s Mouth

Joe over at The Horse’s Mouth likes to end the week with “get out there on the water this weekend”. It’s a mantra I try and live by – even if it’s just getting your feet wet, find some salt water during the weekend and enjoy mother nature at it’s finest.

Granted, for my family it’s actually more  of a given…it’s not whether we’re going or not, but what we’re doing. I’ve got ocean activities for all conditions, and I’ve passed it on to my kids – surfing, windsurfing, swimming, freediving, kayaking, fishing, sailing…why limit yourself? The lift ticket is free and it’s good year round.

Spring break at Kalaeoa. How blessed are we; a last-minute cabin on the beach, surf, and tireless kids:

Sping Break '12 from rotorhead guy on Vimeo.

End of March, first south swell of the season and a nice windy day to follow:

Get Out There! from rotorhead guy on Vimeo.

 

We had some serious storms at the beginning of March, including record hail. The brunt of it fell on the Windward side; we were spared. When the high pressure moved back in it did so with a vengeance, making for ideal windsurfing conditions. I went dual-Gopro (boom mount and helmet mount) and got some fun footage:

Post-Storm Tradewind Payoff from rotorhead guy on Vimeo.

Spring

The harsh Hawaiian winter, with it’s temps down in the mid 60’s and occasional heavy rain, is here. The brown water warnings have kept me out of the ocean, for the most part. The weather looks to be clearing…for now. Spring is approaching, and soon the trades will be kicking back up. The north shore is still going off and the southern ocean should start showing signs of life in the next month or two. In the meanwhile, here’s what’s been going on.

Kayak fishing with my young one:

Promotin’ my LT out at the UTAH memorial:

Some spearfishing, cleanin’ out the roi population:

Havin’ fun on the finless wonder:

Longboardin’:

Shortboarding on the new “Kala” wood bonzer:

A little quality time with my oldest:

How To Start the New Year

1. A clean bill of health: My CT scan, which is now an annual event, was all clear. My labs were great with a CEA <0.3 (essentially below the detection limit). The wise old sage of oncology at Tripler wrapped up my visit by saying simply “you’re in great shape!”.
2. The New Year’s surf tradition improbably hit it’s 3rd anniversary at my windward spot, which is unusual as it takes calm/Kona winds for it to be any good. This year we had 3 solid days of light/variables, and my buddy and I hit it on 31 Dec and 2 Jan. Life is good.

3. We decided to paddle out on the south shore with the big boards, just to get some exercise. Surf report said “flat to 1 foot” so it was more of a fitness session. We never would have guessed it would be breaking out at the green can, chest high and clean, with no one out.

4. Got in a spearfishing trip as well. No luck on any big fish, but scored some nice pics of turtles (with my new GoPro HD 2).

Since I didn’t have a chance to post this earlier, ‘11 ended up nicely with strong trades, and I worked out the shortboard on one day inside the lagoon, and the longboard out at the break the following session.

Finally, my crew at work have been getting serious about the RIMPAC races, and we’ve been working out the 6-man canoes every tuesday before work.

So to recap…healthy, surf, sail, fish, paddle. Life is good.

Fresh Fish

Some new Gyotaku. The Kala is going under glass on one of my surfboards, thus it’s a little light in color – it will darken once in the board. The moano is a bit cartoonish, but it’s just practice. Pictures of the real fish below the prints.
Roi chasing a menpachi. The roi print came out really nice; looks almost 3-dimensional up close:



Moano:

Kala (unicornfish):

Where’s the Konas?

With the winter surf comes the crowds – particularly from mid-November through mid-January, for the Triple Crown and the other big contests. I generally avoid the North Shore during this time, with the payoff that when the Kona winds fire up I can enjoy some of my “off-the-map” spots relatively uncrowded (if not all alone). So, when the surf season finally kicked up, I waited…and am still waiting. The trades have been blowing consistently with nary a Kona storm on the horizon. I’ve kept busy by windsurfing, paddling canoe and running. I kept my camera with me at all times for a week and decided to snap all the rainbows I could. Here’s the tally.