Lele Kawa

Will and Zak's Colorado source to sea

2012-01-19T18:36:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, I was provided the opportunity to play a small part in Will and Zak's journey down the Colorado river that they started in October. They contacted me via Couchsurfing.org. They were scheduled to pass through Yuma on MLK Jr. day, which I had off. I let them know I was happy to help out which what I could.

Floating into Yuma

Wondering who this guy taking pictures is

I saw from their spot that they would reach Yuma around around 10. I headed down to the river at East Wetland park to say hello as they came by. They were pretty easy to spot. I have never seen anyone else paddling the river, especially not in pack rafts. After spotting them, I meet up with them on the beach under the Ocean to Ocean Highway in Gateway park. They hadn't found a good camping spot the night before and so had skipped breakfast. I told them there was a good diner across the street. We stowed some of the gear in my truck and went over for breakfast. We discussed their plan for the day. They wanted to reach Morelos Dam, which was right at the boarder of Mexico 11 miles down stream, before the end of the day. They invited me to join them if I could get a boat. Unfortunately due to the holiday the kayak rental place was closed. I told them I could hold on to their packs and meet them at the dam later in the day.

Picking up two guys on the Colorado river where it boarders Mexico is a little sketchy. I timed their journey well, and arrived at about the same time they did. There were Boarder Patrol in the area, and they became pretty interested when I meet up with two guys coming out of the river. Luckily I had their packs so the BP didn't have much gear of theirs to search, and after checking our shoe tread, we were free to hang out around the dam.

Morelos Dam where the Colorado ends

Little blue boat next to the Dam

This was the end of the easy part of the trip. The logistics of getting into Mexico and down to the Sea of Cortez would be hard, because there is no water in the river bed after Morelos Dam. The Colorado is a dry river bed from the dam for about 75 miles down to the Sea of Cortez. That means it is either hike or try and navigate the maze of dangerous irrigation canals. The canals can't be counted on to have water flowing in them, so at any time you can run out of water. When I wasn't at work I tried to help them figure out some of their logistics, before sending them on their way.

Here is the first video of their trip.

Jan mountain bike near Yuma

2012-01-15T16:51:00.000-08:00

Heading out for the first time this year back to Laguna Mountains for some biking. I headed south for the first time. Based on the map I expected to find a lot more trails closer together on the south side. I didn't find as many as I expected. I think I found enough single track I could link all together without using the jeep trails much. Maybe next time.

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Palm Canyon, AZ

2012-01-14T13:19:00.000-08:00

The Yuma climbing club confined for the first time, and took a trip out to palm canyon. Rockclimbing.com speaks of a 3 pitch water streak in palm canyon. I had never been to palm canyon, so I wasn't sure how easy it would be to find this climbable water streak.

View up the canyon from parking lot

There was a promising looking water streak at the opening of the canyon. The approach was a little rough. Once we reached the water streak we found it to be pretty chossy. The surrounding area was more chossy, than the water streak, but the streak still wasn't good climbing.

The climbing club at the bottom of the water streak

After the first water streak didn't work out too well, we continued up the canyon trail, looking for the 3 pitch route.

The Palms

A little ways up the canyon we stopped at this promising looking spot. The bottom 15 feet or so were not too chossy. We spent a little bit of time bouldering here.

In the end we never did find the climbable water streak. We will have to contact the guy from the forum to find out more information on this climbing spot. Not sure if it is worth while to climb here since it is almost just as far away as Valley of the Moon, which has much better climbing. There is some good hiking and exploring to be done in Palm Canyon, but not so much with the climbing.

Tumco gold mines, CA

2012-01-02T10:54:00.000-08:00

After searching the CA BLM site I found out about Tumco mines and it wasn't too far from Yuma. It is an old gold mining area that still is mined at, but with more modern mining practices. I wandered around for about 3 miles in the 100 degree fall.

Current mine

It was easy to get to. The parking area didn't offer much information, but you could see somewhat of a trial with shaded benches and site marker. So I just headed off in that direction.

There is not much left of what was at one time the town. A few foundations and shacks, and the leaching tanks are all that remains.

This area still has some old mines. They look pretty inviting, but some articles about people dying in them was enough to deter me.

Since i had no guide of any type I didn't know what most of the marked sites were. other than the leaching tanks.

Picacho State recreation area, CA

2012-01-01T17:27:00.000-08:00

Picacho, is a little park along the Colorado river in CA. I discovered by accident on my trip down Indian Pass road. At the end of the road I hit the park, and the fee area which was one of the things that caused me to turn around.

I did some research and found there was an easier route into the park, Picacho road, which is mostly unpaved. It is a well kept dirt road, passable by passenger cars, rvs and trailers, but the going will be slower. In my truck I can make it from Yuma to the park in about 45 minutes.

A web site recommended the stamp mill trail and ice cream canyon. I decided to make that my first hike, because it was a nice long loop. I did it back in October when the daytime temps were still hitting 3 digits. It was my first time using my iPhone with the GPS app. I was really impressed with the views of the Colorado river on this hike, It is around this area that the Colorado goes from canyons to the flat open desert. The stamp mill from the days of gold mining are also pretty well preserved.

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Today I made my second trip to Picacho. I decided to hike the Red Rock falls. It is a pretty short hike if you just walk up the wash to the falls. By a happy accident I missed the falls because I took a side canyon and looped up and around above the falls without seeing them until my return trip. After about a mile of following the wash I started following the wild burro trails. Then I headed back down to the wash and took a side canyon, before deciding to go to the top of one of the low peaks for some photos. I became slightly disoriented after I was done taking the photos and almost set off in the wrong direction. I managed to regain my bearings and head back to the main wash that has the falls. When I reached the falls I was surprised. It is just a cliff with a little spout. I am sure it looks pretty impressive when there is water flowing through it, even if just a trickle.

Desert Pool

Red Rock Falls from the bottom

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When I finished Red Rock, I wasn't quite ready to leave yet so I decided to hike the Stewart Lake trail. This trail can be done as a loop, but I did it as an out and back. Near the campgrounds the trail was pretty overgrown, and in a few other areas there were some sharp desert plants across the trail. This was a pretty easy hike offering some good views of the Colorado river.

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Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas, NV

2011-12-31T15:08:00.000-08:00

While I was in Vegas, I made a trip out of the city to visit Red Rock canyon. It happened to be Veteran's Day weekend, which was one of the national parks free weekend, an added bonus.

I didn't have my climbing gear, so I couldn't take advantage of the climbing. But I did explore the red canyon a bit.

View from visitors center

The first stop we made was at Calico II

At the High Point Overlook of the drive, Las Vegas in the background

Also took a walk along Lost Creek trail to one of the waterfalls, but it was barely dripping. The hike details can be seen at the bottom of this post.

No falling water today

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La Jolla Cove

2011-12-31T14:46:00.000-08:00

The day after Christmas I made my way over to La Jolla Cove outside of San Diego, CA. It was pretty crowded and parking was a premium. I was lucky and found a spot right next to this little beach that was covered in seals.

Looking down from where I parked

View down on the beach with the sea cliffs in the distance

As we walked down towards the cove there was this single seal on this rock. It was still for a while and almost looked like a statue.

There were plenty of pelicans, seals and some crazy people in and around the water. Some people had full wet suits, while others were in just bikinis. I did not get in the water on this trip. 58 degrees is a little cold for me, and I did not come prepared.

We turned around at "Sunny Jim" cave. It looks like an inviting cliff jump, enough so that they have a sign forbidding it. No Lele Kawa on this trip.

Biking near Yuma Dec 4th

2011-12-04T18:00:00.000-08:00

Went out biking again. For the first time there were other people over there. As I pulled up there was a guy finishing up his day of riding. I guess I'm still the only idiot that rides in Yuma at one in the afternoon.

Since it was a nice cool day I rode a lot further than my last few rides. I did over 30 miles. I took the trail I road down last week up all the way to the top of the range, and just kept following the trails north. Then I headed down on a trail back to the canal. The canal road was the worst part of the ride, I should have just road the single track I rode up back the where I started. The canal road wasn't strait and just very boring and I was already getting tired. I should have stayed on the far side of the canal. It would have been a strait shot back to the parking area. Maybe next time.

The map below show most of the route. The app was having glitches in the beginning of the ride so the track doesn't show up right, from the parking lot to the first photo. I think some of the pictures from this ride are pretty good. No video this time.

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Exploring the Valley of the Moon

2011-12-04T11:19:00.000-08:00

No rock climbing here in Yuma, but looking online there were some suggestions to go to Valley of the Moon in CA. Of the three places around Yuma to climb all about 90 minutes drive away, this is the one that had the most info about it.

I picked up a rock climber I barely knew and loaded with my iPad with maps and info from Rockclimbing.com we headed out. Missed the dirt road heading up there at first but after reviewing the map managed to find it. The first two miles aren't too bad if you have a high clearance SUV or truck. At the two mile point you hit a fork in the road. The road heading down to the valley is pretty bad. Two bad for my stock truck to handle.

After parking the truck we hiked in the cold about a mile to the first rock climbing area, tombstone. There were some other climbers there working the sport routes there. So we looked around for some other routes. There was a lot of choss, so it was hard to find any other routes to climb.

We tried a little bouldering, then found a nice little trad crack route. By the time we were done on that crack the sun was heading behind the mountains, so we called it a day, even though we hadn't got much climbing in. The trails and sights were pretty awesome, even if the climbing wasn't.

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Yuma area Mountain Biking over thanksgiving

2011-11-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

Back out to sugerloaf for some biking over the Thanksgiving weekend. Even for late November it was pretty warm in the afternoon. This time I worked my way up the way I came down last time, When I got to a crossroads I tried going a new more north. This didn't prove to be the best decision. It was a lot of steep and loose up hills, and the trails didn't link very well. After some pretty steep hiking my bike up I spotted a promising trail. The video of the top part of it is below. I hunk new time I will try and make my way up that trail and head north more, because I feel like there is still a lot in that direction.
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Indian Pass road

2011-10-16T15:43:00.000-07:00

I am a reckless asshole, was going to be the name of this post. I know this could be the title of a few of my post, but this one I felt it during my recklessness.

I failed to do the proper research on this one. This was another find on the CA BLM site. I looked on google maps and it was there. A "road" that runs from near the imperial dunes to the Colorado river. I assumed it would be a nice drive with some good view. The road started off fine, graded well marked.

Then you hit the Indian Pass. From there you head down into Gavilan Wash. Just heading from the top of the pass to the wash is a pretty bad road. From here on there are no marking until you reach Picacho rec area, a little ways from the Colorado River. There are also deer running down and cross the wash, as if just making your way down this "road" wasn't enough to worry about.

Deer running away in the wash

To enter the rec area you need to pay $5. This is where a picked up the brochure for Picacho, and realized the closest paved road was back the way I came. This was also the first time I saw any indication the "Indian Pass Road" wasn't a so much a road. The brochure says "2WD not recommended." I feel like that is pretty irresponsible. This is how you get reckless assholes like me driving down these "roads." I turned around and headed back. I made it with no problems and got some good photos, but I wasn't well prepared. Other than a few gallons of water I had nothing that I would consider as prepared. No map, extra fuel, food, cell service and nobody knew where I was going.

Telegraph Pass, Yuma, AZ

2011-10-16T15:34:00.000-07:00

When I was diving to Antelope Hill, I saw a bunch of people hiking Telegraph Pass. I did a little online research and found it to be a pretty popular Yuma hike. What I didn't realize is how steep the road was.

I headed to the trailhead shortly after work on Friday. From what I read online, it should take a fit person about 2 hours round trip. So I thought I could make it before sundown, unfortunately this meant it was a bit over 100 degrees.

When I arrived there were only two cars at the parking area. I saw a few trails so I headed up the one that lead up the wash to the left. I failed to follow the turn to the right at first and lost the trail off to the left. I back tracked and found the main trail. After I got back on the established trail it was pretty easy to follow, to the gate for the road to the top. At the gate I passed two guys on there way down, and saw a guy not too far ahead of me.

It took a while to realize how steep this paved road got after the gate, it doesn't happen right away. The road starts off following a wash that isn't very steep, then it hits an S curve. From there on it is steeper than I expected. Even with a few stops for photos, I caught the guy ahead of me by the time I reached the top.

The view from the top was pretty good. I couldn't get a good photo of Yuma, because the sun was directly behind it. I put my name in the summit logbook, got a few pictures and then headed back.

West -Yuma

South

East -Antelope hill and Wellington

Once I got back to the bottom and off the road and onto the trail, I started to see a lot more people hiking. It seems I was about an hour or so ahead of the crowds.

MTB at sugarloaf near Yuma, AZ

2011-10-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

When I found out I was coming to Yuma a few months ago, I started looking for things to do right away. On the web site MTBR I found Sugarloaf peak.

As always there was a delay between my arrival and when my stuff arrived. So I headed over there a few weeks ago to explore the area by 4WD truck. It looked pretty promising, lots of elevation change and some established single track as well as "Jeep trails."

My stuff arrived this last week, and one of the first things I did was put my bike together. It just so happened to be an unseasonalby cool week for the desert, staying under 90 most of the week. I took the bike out on a bike trail along the Colorado River for a shake down. I'm glad I did, because I had a slow leak in my front tire.

The weekend arrived and my planned early morning start turned into an after lunch start, but I made it out there. Maybe it was because it was mid afternoon in the desert, but I was the only one out there. I headed north along the canal until the first wash. There I turned up hill along the Jeep trail. About a mile and a half, heading up hill, on loose rock and I intersected one of the single track trails. I followed this up a little further, but when it seemed to start going down, away from the parking area, I turned around. The video below is from that turn around back the my car. Just over a mile of down hill single track.

I think this was a pretty good first trip out. Next time I will go earlier, and press on further. Being alone and since it was my first time I think 3 miles was about right.

Here is the downhill video from my second trip and the map below.

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Az to Salton Sea, CA

2011-09-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

Like many people I was tipped off to the Salton Sea by the youtube video "The Accidental Sea".

So my first week down here in Western Arizona I decided I had to check it out.

I'm a little disappointed that my experience wasn't as post apocalyptic as Accidental Sea portrays.

I circled the whole sea and didn't see much that was real crazy. I managed to get a few good photos, but because I was alone I got bored pretty quickly. I ventured off the main road a few times, towards the sea, but I didn't head the other way. I missed out on Salvation Mountain and a few of the other cooler things in that area. Maybe in a few months when it isn't crazy hot out I will head back over there and really explore.

I did stop off at Ocotillo Wells on the way and Imperial dunes. I cruised down Oil Well Wash at Ocotillo wells a little bit.

Oil Well Wash, Ocotillo Wells

Imperial Dunes

Antelope Hill petroglyphs

2011-09-13T19:05:00.000-07:00

Since I ventured west last weekend I decided to go east this weekend. I found a place online called Antelope Hill, about 30 minutes drive down the highway to the East. Since I had no other plans Sunday afternoon, despite the heat, I decided I should go check it out.

I have seen petroglyphs before. In fact you can read about it in my post "Graffiti Rock". That site was a lot more impressive. At Antelope Hill there are a bunch of smaller scattered petroglyphs on some of the little rocks. I only saw a handful.

Antelope Hill clearly marked with the big "A"

While looking for more petroglyphs, I spotted a trail that looked fairly well used heading up and to the left of where the parking lot was.

I followed it for a while, but there were no more petroglyphs in that direction just rocks and a few small cacti.

I saw very little animal life, which is good since there are poisonous insects and snakes around. But maybe not seeing them means I just wasn't aware of them. All I did see were two little lizards, but they quickly ran away from me before I could get there photo.

Since I didn't bring water or any equipment other than a camera with me, I gave myself a 20 time limit for the out portion of the trip, before I would make myself turn back. Then as I often do, I ran the return trip, back to my car where I had a little water and AC waiting on me.

River rafting and water park Apuzunga, El Salvador

2011-07-26T22:31:00.000-07:00

It took almost a year to organize, but I finally made it out to Apuzunga. It was great. The main purpose of our trip was rafting down Rio El Desague, but we also were able to enjoy the resturant and the water park.

After our arrival we spent some time filling out all the liablitly paperwork. Then we were issued our helmets and PFDs. Since it is August and the rainy season, the water level is pretty high. There wasn't much white water, maybe only one Class 2 rapid, but to make it more interesting they take you through many of the Class 1 rapids backwards or spinning in circles.

Apuzunga runs a very profesional trip. They teach some techniques and within the first few minutes, they run a float test. Everyone gets used to being in the water in small rapids.

At one of our stops we attempted river crossing. This is deceptivly hard to do. Only two of our group of 11 made it. I came just short. The technique is start pulling yourself across, when the pressure of the water starts to pull you under, you take a breath and then continue the rest of the way under water. The hard part is the breath hold and not knowing how ar you have made it. I felt like the current was lettign up and I must be near the end so I tryed to get a second breath. When I did this my one hand slipped and I couldn't get it back on the rope. I only had about ten feet left to go.

River crossing

Then there were a few more rapids before reaching a sketchy bridge to hang and drop from. The bridge was just some sticks, not logs or board, on 3 cables with 2 cables a rails. because of the nature or the hang and drop it was hard to do much more than just fall. It took two attempts but one of the guys was able to do a back flip. Here is the video of failed first attempt.

Back in the boat for a bit then there was a 20 minute PDF float down the boring flat water.

Once back in the boat we quickly reached the take out where Rio Lempa. Then rode in the back of the truck local style back to Apuzunga. We took advantage of the water parks slide and diving board before grabbing some food. We ran out of time so we didn't have a chance to do their zip line course. Over all it was a great day, to bad it is so far from the city.

Pulling the rafts out of the water

Riding back Salvadorian style

Dawn Partol

2011-07-21T17:59:00.000-07:00

I am not much of a morning person, especialy since I have been working shift work for the last three years.

However my new board demanded that I go out on dawn partol at least once before I head out of El Salvador. I joined the regular dawn patrol group, which on this day only included one other guy.

At 430 I jumped on my Sector 9 long board and headed off the meet Jake who I had meet durring the surf suffari. About 15 minutes later we had his car loaded up and headed off to the beach.

By 520 we were down at Kayu and ready to hit the water. It was a pretty big day, overhead, and really low tide. I got my ass kicked again. Every time I was almost out to the lineup, I would get smashed by the outside sets that would break all the way across the beach. My big 7-0 turned out to be a little to big to duck dive under all the white wash.

After getting pounded for an hour and not catching anything, I swapped boards with Jake. Now on his longboard I caught a little inside set and rode it into the shore. Unfortunatly I got caught up in the cross shore current and was carried a ways don the beach and had to walk the rocks much further than I would have planed.

On the way back we grabbed some breakfast and a frozen coco for our ride back.

Not a great day a surfing for me, but it was still nice to start the day out on the water.

Eating Adventures, Gourmet Burger Company, San Salvador, El Salvador

2011-07-21T15:55:00.000-07:00

When I first arrived in El Salvador, I was tipped off to this great burger place, Gourmet Burger Company. They allow you to build your own burger. You get choice of meat, cheese, toppings and sauce. This makes for almost limitless choice. Even with so many option I have stuck to the perfect burger I ordered my first time there. One pound of ground beef, Colby-jack, avocado, bacon and hot sauce.

After I while I cut the one pound down to a half pound. Then a little later I discovered the lettuce wrap, replace your bun with a whole head of romaine lettuce. This was my got to food twice a week for almost 11 months.

Today I decided to step it up again for a little eating adventure. I wanted to challenge myself so I went for 1.5 pounds. Sadly they were out of avocado, so they doubled up on bacon. I knocked out the first half with no problem. Then I did something I have never done it Gourmet Burger before, I set my burger down. I did manage to pick it back up, but that only lasted a few bites. I had hit the wall. I split it down into a more mouth friendly two halves, then attacked it with a fork. Around the time I everyone else was finishing their 1/2 pounders I ate my last bite pf this delicious beast. I even finished my fries and salad for good measure.

If you find yourself in San Salvador I highly recommend stopping by Gourmet Burger Company.

Scout Camp in El Salvador

2011-07-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

The best weekend program I have ever experienced at a Scout Camp. The Scout Camp near the Honduras boarder in El Salvador has a great facility and run an amazing program. They organized it so we would share the camp with a similar sized local Scout troop. This provided both troops the opportunity for a cultural and scouting exchange.

The camp had a climbing wall, a C.O.P.E. course, zip lines and the human pendulum. Our scouts and leaders got to take advantage of all these activities. As a bonus the Leaders were invited to do the extreme portion of the zip lines, which the scouts were not. These turned out to be more extreme than I was ready for. On the top zip line which was very steep I failed to slow down enough and there were no safeties. I put out my feet and hit the tree still going fast. I was lucky to have only bruised the bottom of one of my feet, and managed to limp through the rest of the camp.

Getting ready to ice my foot.

When we finished the rest of the zip lines that ended back at the camp all the scouts were working on climbing on their climbing wall. This took them up to dinner. After dinner the camp had a large fire where the scouts preformed skits and sang songs.

The next morning after breakfast it was time for the C.O.P.E. course and the pendulum. The scouts and leaders split up and went through both of these activities. These were both very fun, and I was able to do both of them with my injured foot.The weekend closed with a nice ceremony.

Giant pendulum

Hiking around Boquerón

2011-07-16T10:09:00.000-07:00

I thought I had already written about this, but it seems not. Back in October was my first time up to the top of the San Salvador volcano. The main point of this trip was to get some photos. One of the guys I work with had just recieved a new SLR, so I was able to convince him to hike around on our day off.

The day was pretty much perfect, a nice clear morning, despite it still being the rainy season. We started taking pictures of the city from the parking lot.

Then we toured around the park. The park is pretty small and we got some good crater pictures, but this wasn't enough.

We talked to one of the guards and he arranged for a local to give us a tour of the whole crater rim. About a 5 mile hike. The trail wasn't too hard to follow, but it was nice having the local with us to show us the way.

Apaneca Canopy Tour

2011-06-21T14:22:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I went with a group of people to the Canopy (Zip line) tour in Apaneca, El Salvador.

Diagram showing all the lines, height and length

We arrived too early so we started our day wandering around the little town. After doing that for about an hour we loaded up into their trucks to head up the mountain.

We were all outfitted with helmets, harnesses and gloves.

A short walk up the hill brought us to the first of the zip lines. The first six lines were all pretty short. These are the ones to get everyone used to doing it. You are not very high off the ground and don't go very fast one these ones.

Then you get to number seven, which is over the valley. It is the highest and the longest one. This one has the best views, and because our group was large enough you could see the others going across the valley on the lines eight and nine below you.

While in the tree platform between lines ten and eleven it started to rain. The tree stopped most of the rain, as we waited out the heaviest of it. We had to change gloves because the wet cables required different leather pads to slow down. These gloves did not work as well as the earlier gloves did on the dry cable, but they were still enough to manage your speed.

Eddie would go

2011-06-02T09:53:00.000-07:00

In 2007 I went to the Quicksilver Eddie Aikau surf contest opening ceremonies. I think being at the ceremony is even cooler than seeing the contest.

There is no place else on Earth that you can be around so many pro surfers. The contest is held at Waimea Bay Beach Park and is open to everyone. Before the ceremonies start you can mingle and talk with the pros. Then when the ceremony starts all the invited surfers and their alternates grab their boards and get in a big half circle.

The ohana of Eddie is there to talk and thank everyone for coming. When the ceremony ends, there is the traditional paddle out. The paddle out is also open to anyone who dares to brave the surf of Waimea.

Paris in a day

2011-06-02T09:51:00.001-07:00

In February I spent one day in Paris. It doesn’t sound like a long time, but because of how Paris is set up it was enough time for us to see almost everything we wanted in one day. Unfortunately the temperature was in the low 20s and most of the day we were walking.

Tower in the morning fog

We started the day at the Eiffel tower, because it was nearest our hotel.

View from the middle (top was closed for repairs)

After that we headed across the Seine river and towards the Arc De Triumph.

After thwarting a pick pocket we crossed into the circle to see the arc up close.

Then we headed down Avenue des Champs-Élysées and grabbed lunch before heading into the Louvre. In the Louvre we took the obligatory trip to see the Mona Lisa.

Louvre

Beautiful girl in front of a beautiful painting

After seeing some of the other art in the Louvre, we were off the Centre Pompidou modern art museum. This museum was pretty disappointing. The best part of this museum was the view of the city from the top floor. Maybe I just don’t get modern art.

The front of Pompidou

View from the top of Pompidou

It was now time to cross back over the river for Notre Dame de Paris. We didn’t have time to tour the bell towers, but we did get to walk around the inside.

We jumped on the train to head out to the Palace at Versailles. Unfortunately we arrived after the inside had closed. We were able to wander the gardens, which even in winter were beautiful.

Palace at Versailles

Versailles gardens

All in all I would say it was a pretty good one day spent.

Ringing in 2008, New Years time square

2011-06-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

Everyone should do it once, but most people will do it only once.

The tiny little ball

I had talked about it with friends a few times, but for 2008, I finally got a group of friends to commit to New Years in Time Square. Five of us headed out from Buffalo for a weekend in NYC. In New York we meet up with two other friends.

New Year ’s Eve we headed into Manhattan to spend the afternoon before heading to time square. This was our first mistake. After a late lunch we headed for the closed off streets around 4pm. You are not permitted to bring anything in with you. So 8 hours of no food no drinks, all bags are searched. There are also no bathrooms. Once you make it through the police search the put you in what I can best describe as a corral that is about 100 by 100 feet square. Then there is a 20 foot gap and another corral.

We felt lucky to be one of the first few people in our Corral about 7 blocks from time square. As it turned out this was not good luck. Everyone in the back is pushing forward constantly to get those few inches closer to Time Square, like in the pit at a concert. You are allowed to leave at any time, but you can’t come back. As the afternoon rolls on every few hours they push everyone up by one or two corral.

Enough space to lay down in the back

After our first move we decided it was best to hang near the back of our corral because it was empty and you could take up some space and even sit or lay down, and there was still about 6 hours to midnight. This is also when we noticed the pizza and Krispy Kreme guys running down the streets selling food while trying not to get grabbed by the cops. If you hung out in the back corner on the corral you could hold out $10 and they would take it and toss you a box without stopping as they jogged by. Not only was it nice to get some food, but the box was great to sit on and keep you off the cool NY street.

We made it to about 5 blocks from Time Square by the time midnight hit. This was followed by confetti dropping from all the buildings and fireworks behind us from Central Park. Lots of kissing and yelling for about 10 minutes and then they let everyone out. As flooded at the streets were the subways were empty and we were able to make it back to Queens and join a New Year’s party at the bar below my friend’s apartment.

Real Madrid game

2011-06-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

While in Spain this past winter I had the opportunity to go watch Real Madrid play in Santiago Bernabeu stadium. Being able to watch one of the best teams in the world win at home was a great experience.

View from the top

Because it was February I expected it to be cold and full of only the hardcore fans, which I was used to seeing at Buffalo Bills games when there was 2 feet of snow on the ground. Little did I know! The stadium was completely packed and we were lucky to get nose bleed tickets. They have the enormous space heaters that blast all the fans to keep out the cold.

Final Score

The game was pretty good. Madrid won 4-1. Leaving the stadium was an experience in itself. Seeing the streets flooded with fans. It took about 20 minutes on the ramp just to make it back to the streets. Then we headed for the edge of the crowds to find somewhere with room to eat at.

Streets flooded with fans

Surf Safari, El Salvador

2011-05-22T17:04:00.000-07:00

Although it only lasted two days I think this weekend qualifies as my first surf safari.

Eight of us set of on a weekend of being water men. Saturday morning we set off to Barillas for boating, surfing, kayaking and otherwise enjoying life. I came well prepared with my new surf board, kite, kite-board and wake boarding rope.

Boat loaded up with the boards

After unloading at our houses it was time to set off for the boat to head to our first surf break, Punta Mango. What we didn't know getting in the boat is that we had a rough two hour boat ride in order to get there. There was plenty of surf and wind to battle on our way to this world class surf break. Our boat captain expertly navigated the rough seas and get us there with only slightly sore butts.

On Our way out

Once we arrived at Punta Mango, the captain dropped us off a good distance out from the break, before heading to the deeper calm waters to anchor and wait for us. It was the first time any of us approached a wave from the ocean side, rather than the beach side. If you have never done it before, it is awkward. The wave was a little blown out from the onshore winds, but still breaking overhead. Finally we found where the waves were breaking and one by one took waves.

Punta Mango as we ride by in the boat

My first wave I buried the nose of my board when I tried to pop up. I accepted my fate and let the wave toss me. As I washing machined, I felt the leash pop off my board because I didn't connect it right. When I finally picked what way up was and broke the surface, I had to chase my board. My new board was heading to the rocky shore. Just as the next wave was coming I caught the nose and was able to hold on through the beating with only a cut to the knee. I finally made it out to the channel, and began my long swim against the wind out to the boat to. By the time I made it out to the boat my arms were pretty dead. Despite that once I got my leash back on, I headed right back to the break, but did not take any more waves. After a while I headed back to the boat just in time for the captain to start the motor and head in to pick everyone up. A nice 500 meter paddle against the wind for nothing.

Almost back to the boat from the shore

Once everyone was loaded up we headed to break two of the day El Espino. We didn't stay there long because the wave wore everyone out. It was a shore break and had no channel. So you had to fight the wave out every time. After a few waves we headed back to the marina against the rough seas again. Again our captain expertly got us back with only a little more beating than the trip out there. I was hoping for a short stop off at the sandbar so I could get my kite up, but a storm rolled in right behind us as we approached the marina.

We got back to our houses just before the main storm hit. We hoped it would blow over and we could head to the pool to cook up dinner, but the storm never let up. Instead it stole our electricity. We moved a grill up to our patio and started to prepare and cook dinner by candle light. After dinner and a few rum drinks we turned in.

One of the rum drinks

After breakfast we explored the mangroves in kayaks. They were full of fish, crabs and water fowl. Being there in channels that are just wide enough to fix the kayak through with alligators and other life all around was a little intimidating.

The pile of kayaks

What I do when I'm bored

2011-05-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

I have a playground across the street from my house, so this is what I do when I'm bored.

Smoking Mountian, El Salvador

2011-04-27T09:51:00.002-07:00

My friend was in from out of town, last week and we headed to Eco Park Espino. I have been there a few times, but this was the first time i really explored the park.

Up near the "Mirador", where I had been a few times. There was something new, a large amount of steam coming out of the ground. I assume the reason for this, and it not being there before, is because it has been raining lately. At first it looked like smoke until we got closer and saw that it was steam. The holes it was coming out of were surrounded by moss, so I assume this isn't a new phenomena. After the lookout we wandered down a road, where I discovered some new bike singletrack. Hopefully before the rain picks up I will be able to get over there and do some riding.

Here are some pictures from our trip.

Signs

Awesome Bridge

Steam from one of the smaller vents

More steam

Adventures in luxury at Decameron, El Salvador

2011-04-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend in El Salvador's only all inclusive resort, Decameron. Finally a chance to do nothing but relax. The resort has three giant pool, a small pool and a salt water pool that gets washed over every time the tide rolls in. The beach there is protected by a rock wall that stops most of the waves.

One of the giant pools

Salt water pool being refreshed at high tide

The whole week was spent relaxing in the pools and laying on the beach. They had nice Hobie kayaks that we paddled around their protected beach area.

Attack of the alligators

Sunset down the beach

Wake boarding Lago De Coatepeque, El Salvador

2011-04-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

Before I even arrived in El Salvador, I heard that there was wake boarding to be had here. Once I arrived, I found that it was much harder to do than it should be. A few weeks ago I meet a girl with a lake house and a boat at Lago De Coatepeque.

Friend and boat captian

I finally had a day off and went down to the lake. First we took a tour of the lake, and sadly only found one spot to jump. A private dock, so I didn't get to do any lele kawa.

After the lake tour, it was wake board time. Her wake board was clearly from the 90's and was not set up like I am used to. This didn't stop me from hopping on and getting up the second time. The lake was a little choppy and I was still recovering form a foot injury, so I didn't get crazy. It was still fun to be up on a board and cruising around the lake.

Not quite Lele Kawa, but some dock diving

Monkeys, Alligators and spinning sharks at Barillas, El Salvador

2011-04-01T19:05:00.001-07:00

A great day at work, started with a two hour car ride crammed into a Suburban that wasn’t made to fit 8 six foot tall adults. Luckily this and the similar ride home were the worst part of the day. We arrived at Marina Club Barillas around 10am. After a quick lunch, and a few breakfast beers, it was time for the monkey tour.

You can see the arm of a baby on the mothers back

We hopped into a van and drove over to the little forest where the Monkeys were. There were about 20 Salvadorian red tailed spider monkeys. One that was rejected by the group was in a cage to protect him. Before the others arrived we were able to shake his hand. The local care taker called for the rest of the monkeys, and slowly they started to appear all around us. The first few were pretty slow, but once the bananas came out there was a swarm. Once we ran out of bananas we went back to the Marina Club.

They look funny on two legs

Back at the club, we boarded a boat and some jet skis. We took off through the mangroves out to a sand bar in the mouth of the bay. Along the way we spotted an alligator in the mangroves, a good reason to not fall off the Jet Ski.

Salvadorian Alligator

Trying to soak each-other

Once we got to the sand bar the wind was pretty strong. I was disappointed, that I hadn’t brought my Kite board. We messed around in the shallows, dodging jelly fish, before working our way out to the surf breaks. As soon as we entered the water, I saw spinning shark (or dolphin, there is still some debate) between us and the waves. Any six foot fish that can launch itself 10 feet out of the water, is a good reason not to body surf. Before heading back to the club, we had a Jet Ski relay race. My team won.

Sand Bar acrobatics

Los Cobanos, El Salvador

2011-04-01T19:04:00.001-07:00

Just before my schedule got too crazy, I managed to spend the weekend out at Los Cobanos Village lodge, the only white sand beach in the El Salvador. As soon as we checked into our hotel, we decided to take out the complimentary kayaks. The kayaks were not great, but they did allow us to get out in the bath warm water and play in the surf. The tide was just starting to come back in. This made the perfect waves for riding in the kayaks. It reminded me of the many times I went kayak surfing back in Hawaii.

Picture of the fishing village

Carrying the days lunch

By the time we were done, the sun was going down, so we enjoyed some beer and good food at the hotel in-between games of UNO.

Hardcore Uno Match

In the morning, two of us decided to take a little hike. We started by scrambling over some rocks in order to get to the next beach. This beach was much nicer than the little beach near the hotel. Crossing the next set of rocks we got to an even nicer beach, it was smaller but completely empty. On the way back to the hotel, we found the first rock scramble to be completely unneeded, as the road was right there.

Rocks we had to scramble over

Private beach just over the rocks

Paintball San Salvador, El Salvador

2011-03-03T11:15:00.001-08:00

After two years and living in two countries that do not allow paintball, I was pretty excited to learn that El Salvador had a field. The field leaves a lot to be desired, but thats ok. It is a place to get out and shoot at my friends. It also gives me the opertunity to put the many dollars woth of gear I have collected to use. Paintball Navarro is just outside the city. I have spent a good number of Sundays out there shooting at people. Sadly the field is pretty unorganized. Unless you bring your own group, it is pretty hard to hook up with any local groups. There are some refs, but they mostly only go out to the field if there are little kids around. Dispite all these short comming it is still a blast. It is the perfect way to end the week. Below is a little video that I took on the speed ball field using my JOLE Autococker. The field was pretty bad this day. Most of the air bunkers were flat or not full. There was also a good amount of cow droppings on the field, not exactly what you want to slide into. Coordinates are +13° 40' 27.51", -89° 12' 27.95"

Ice and Fire

2011-03-02T21:56:00.001-08:00

Since before I ever got to Hawaii it was a goal of mine to go from snow to beach in the same day. I really wanted to snowboard and surf in the same day, but that didn't quite happen.

In one day I managed to go visit the top of Mauna Kea and play in the snow, and then drive down to Volcanos National Park and see flowing lava in the afternoon, an stopped at the beach inbetween. While both of these things are relitively close, it still took most of the day.Because I started in Kona, Hawaii, the day involved about 10 hours of driving.

I don't have too much to say on this adventure, so I will let the video and pictures speak for themselves.

Lava

Hot lava

Hawaiian Snow

View from the top of the world

Luxembourg Mountain Biking "The End"

2011-03-02T19:08:00.000-08:00

It was almost two years ago now. Near the end of my time in Luxembourg, I was tipped off to some better Mountain bike trails, by a video on youtube. The youtuber was kind enough to give me directions on how to get to this not so hidden national mountain bike park, down in the iron rich, red hills of south east Luxembourg. Unfortunately the wet winter wasn't quite over with when I first started going. This bike park had a few miles of single and double track and some serious dirt jump and ladder dropps. I didn't take advantage of any of the DJ, but I did spend a few days riding around the single and double track. I don't think I ever saw another rider, outside of the DJ area.

DJ still wet in April

Nice and dry in May

Some of the locals put on a show for me.

Coordinates are +49° 29' 21.69", +6° 0' 26.94"

Flaine, France Skiing

2011-03-02T10:34:00.001-08:00

Flaine, France is a tiny little ski town in the shadow of Mont Blanc. I went down there with three friends for some fun in the snow. We got a little ski in ski out condo and spent the week doing nothing but spending time on the mountain or drinking. That is the beauty of small towns like Flaine.

Mont Blanc

Our timing couldn't have been much better. There was already a good amount of snow in the mountain when we got there. Our first day was spent warming up and learning the mountain on the groomers, which was nice since all of us had not rode for at least a year.

Shopping for supplies with the smallest shopping cart ever

Just as we were heading in for the night, the snow started coming down. It continued almost all night. In the morning we got up early to find about 9 inches of fresh powder. We spent the whole day on the side-country floating over all the fresh powder.

Day three I took the day off from snowboarding to ski and get my board tuned. There was still a little powder to play on, but most of the day was spent on the back side of the mountain, which wasn't very steep.

Day four it was back to the board and sticking to the steeps. I tried to seek out some cliff jumps, and found a few small ones.

July Snowboarding in Oregon

2011-03-02T10:32:00.000-08:00

I am sitting here is the tropics for another winter, again missing the snows. It is making me think back to my summer snowboarding adventure.

Last year after spending 14 months in the summer of Saudi Arabia, I was really needing some snow. I was already out in Portland, OR for some beer festival. The white top of Mount Hood was calling me. On the last day of my trip I decided to head up to the Palmer Glacier at Timberline on Mount Hood.

The price was pretty steap for only being able to use half of the very top lift, but how often will I get to snowboard in July. Also the guy in the rental shop hooked me up with a millitary discount of 100%, which was awesome. The weather was nice and warm, so I was able to board in just hiking pants and a hoodie.

I spent about two hours just doing laps of the one run and just enjoying myself, and I took this video.

Mountain Bike San Salvador

2011-01-26T16:50:00.000-08:00

First post of the new year. I finally got my bike out on the trails. It only took being in San Salvador for six months. To be fair to myself, my gear took four and a half months of that six to arrive. I found out about a ecopark, Ecoparque El Espino, that is on the edge of the city. I found this park on google after seeing it talked about in a local Bike association's video. I have tried to get somebody to head over there with me to check it out. After two months I was still not able to convince one of the guys to go with me. Once I got somebody to try and find it with me, but we had limited time and my information was a little off. Sunday finally I talked a local to try to find it with me. She had never been there either. We were successful. The place seemed safer than I expected, despite its location. We took a short walk and the park seemed pretty nice. Monday, as soon as I got off work I decided to take my bike over there. As could be expected, I couldn't get anyone to head over there with me. Since I had already done the recon, I felt I would be ok with doing it alone. I got dropped off at the top of the hill and just went for it. The trails seemed a little sketchy but I managed to only fall once(5:16 on the video). This one run got my adrenalin going. Also I got some good GPS reading on one of the trails and the shaky video below. Too bad I found these trials right before heading out of the country for two weeks. When I get back I will step it up with the mountain biking and hopefully climbing also.

Coordinates are +13.700946,-89.277391

Suchitoto, El Salvador Lele Kawa

2010-09-25T21:02:00.000-07:00

While diving last week I overheard the Emer, the dive master, mention she was planing to do a waterfall jumping tour on Friday. I immediately said I'm going.

Friday morning I meet up with Emer and two other people, whom I had not meet before then. The person that knew where we were going had to cancel, so we were left to find the restaurant where the tour operated from on our own. This proved to be pretty easy, as it was in a town center, and the street signs were effective.

La Lupila del portal, where the tour is operated from in Suchitoto town center

We meet up with our guide and then jumped into his truck to drive to the trail head. A short walk down the road took us to the first and largest waterfall of the tour. This waterfall was about 25 meters tall. After a quick stop at the top for photos, we made our way to the pool at the bottom. The cool water of the pool was refreshing. With a little work you were able to wedge your body under the falls for a hydro-massage.

The first falls. Hydro-massage is on the left

After our quick dip, we made our way down stream along the river to the next falls. This falls was about 12 meters. The guide pointed out where to jump from and the rocks you need to clear at the bottom. Then wasting no time, I took the plunge, and repeated it three times. Rather than take the trail the long way back up, I climbed up the rocks to the side of the falls. The first time I was climbing up, near the top I slipped and almost fell. Luckily I escaped with only a few scratches on my side. Emer chickened out.

View from the bottom of the second falls

A short way down the river lead us to the third and smallest of the falls on the tour. It is about 7 meters tall, and it had a rope swing at the top. Again I was the first to jump, or rather swing. It took me longer to do this than the first jump. Rope swings are harder to judge than just jumping. The guide insisted it was safe, so I trusted him. All went well. Emer tried to follow me, but didn't let go of the rope. They pulled her onto the ledge on her back swing. After that she decided it was easier to just jump and Andrew followed her. While they were jumping, I explored the little pool at the top of the falls. It was about 10 feet across and five feet deep where there weren't rocks. I decided to jump off the six-foot ledge into this little pool. Emily joined me.

Rope swing at the third falls

Before we headed back to the truck, I wanted to jump from a different ledge at the third falls. The guide said the spot was ok. I made the jump, only to check the landing afterwards and find that there as a shallow shelf about three feet deep that extended out about ten feet out from the wall. Luckily I cleared this shelf but I told Emer not to follow me.

Thank you Rene from http://suchitotooutfitters.com/

Coordinates +13.893286,-89.045327

La Puerta del Diablo 2

2010-08-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

This weekend I returned to the Gate of the Devil's. Being the weekend, it was much more crowded. There were many locals walking around and all the little restaurants surrounding the parking lot were full. The weather was still very foggy, but still at least twice as clear as the first time.

We again climbed the tourist rock. Which was very crowded? At the top we even managed to get a peak at the surrounding cliffs during a short break in the clouds. After more pictures than were necessary, we descended and ate some pupusas.

After the lunch of pupusas, we looked for the other trails. The first one we found led to a large cave on the back side (side opposite the road) of one of the rocks. This is also when I started to discover some of the climbing routes. To my surprise, despite being in a constant fog, the routes were mostly dry and the rock grippy. This was in stark contrast to the routes I found last time that were covered in a wet slime.

Standing in the cave

Pro on one of the slimy the routes

After finding the end of that trail, we headed back to the parking lot, where I found another trail. This one led to more of the rock climbing routes, and the top of the larger rock. There weren't any other people on this trail, which was kind of nice. When the lack of people was combined with the fog, you really got a sense that you were alone. The climbing routes on this rock were all dry and looked very good, but difficult. Now I just need to find somebody to climb with.

Most of the climbing routes

SCUBA Diving Lago de Ilopango, El Salvador

2010-08-23T18:55:00.000-07:00

One more thing I quickly knocked off my list of stuff to do in El Salvador, SCUBA diving. I have been missing the water for the last few year. Going from a landlocked country to the desert. When I heard there was diving to be had in El Salvador, I was excited. One more good way to spend my weekends.

My first Sunday here I joined one of my coworkers on a dive trip to Lago de Ilopango. Before going, all I knew is it was near the city and a fresh water volcanic lake. I was warned the visibility would be low. Having done most my diving in the ocean, low to me is 20 feet. Here between the dark water and a foggy mask, my visibility was limited to about 4 feet for most of the dives. At times, like when we tried to go deep, it was much less.

It was still a fun day of diving once I worked the kinks out of my gear and new dive buddies. The first site we went to had tons of small fish and crabs. There were also some soft sponges. When my gear gets here I will try to take my camera and get some pictures.

I was told that the coolest site is the volcanic vents, called the Devils Cauldron. We did not do that site, but it just gives me a reason to go back.

La Puerta del Diablo

2010-08-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

The Gate of the Devil.

The group of us found out about this place through different avenues. Some by word of mouth and others with the Internet.

The Gate was of interest to me, because it the the main rock climbing sight in El Salvador. The day we ended up going, the fog was so thick that it was almost impossible to see more than 20 feet. While this made the scouting rock climbing routes a lost cause, it did create an interesting view.

At the top of the Gate, you were completely enveloped in a cloud. In one direction there was a tree, nothing else was visible through the cloud/fog.

I did spot some climbing bolts near the parking lot, and one bolt at the top of the climb. I will have to return to see what the rocks hold. Rockclimbing.com has most of the route rated as pretty hard. I hope that I can get at least one of the other guys to come out and climb with me. When the the dry season hits, it should be possible to climb here almost every day. Rockclimbing.com list 62 different routes.

I almost forgot. The coolest part of this trip was the flock of parrots. When we were standing at the top you could here some birds below us. Due to the fog we couldn't see where they were just here them as they flew around the peak below us. Then suddenly they flew strait up the side of the hill right towards us. There were about 20 parrots. They made a quick circle around us, close enough to see them through the fog before disappearing again.

Here is the video I took from the top.

Zip Line or Canopy tours

2010-08-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

My first weekend here in San Salvador, we set up a last minute zip line trip. We headed to the nearby El Boqueron Canopy Tour, located on the San Salvador volcano.

I brought my camera, but was afraid to bring it on the zip line because I was not sure what to expect. As it turned out, I most likely would have been fine. The zip lines were pretty tame. It was still a good time.

This was my first time on a commercial zip line. My only other experiances involved rope in my backyard or in the yard of the Jarnots.

The last 4 of the 9 lines were worth the money. They travel high over a valley, maybe 200 feet.

I will likely go back while I am here, likely when some other new people arrive. It is a good easy trip to put together, because it is so close.

These are the only pictures I have.

The Truck that drive you to the top

A map showing the nine zip lines

Graffiti Rock

2010-06-26T15:16:00.000-07:00

The most significant historical place I have visited in Riyadh is Graffiti Rock. It is little more than a large piece of stone in the middle of the desert with what are more or less cave drawing on it. These drawings are a few thousand years old.

The rock was easily climbed. One member of our group spotted a desert fox on the top, but it ran away before anyone else could see it. Next to the rock, there is a ancient tomb, however we were unable to locate it. While searching for it I saw a desert Owl, but failed to get any pictures. Just before we left I was climbing down a hill and dropped a large stone onto my ankle. Luckily my ankle won that contest and broke the stone into a few pieces, without breaking. It did get pretty swollen and some cuts, but other than that it was fine.

Graffiti on the rocks

The pile of rocks with Graffiti

The coordinates are +24° 18' 58.23", +45° 38' 25.84"

Camel Riding

2010-06-26T01:03:00.001-07:00

Today I decided I have been in Saudi Arabia long enough without having ridden a camel. So after work I grabbed a few of the guys and headed down to the camel souk. It isn't much of a tourist place, and there really isn't a place to go and just get on a camel, it is more a place for the sale of camels. Some costing over 1million USD. (The ones in the background of this picture)

There was a guy riding his camel somewhere. So we stopped him and asked if we could ride it and get some pictures. It was a good quick trip.

Mission accomplished.

Cat Wall Revisited

2010-06-24T07:56:00.000-07:00

Went climbing with AJ again today. For a change we had a third with us, a Ausie named Jason. This was nice because it gave us the chance to get some pictures, as you can see below. We also did some bolting of our new route. The new drill didn't work as well as the one we used last time but we managed to get two new bolts in.

We also did the Trad route today. It is a pretty easy climb but it is fun to mix it up.

This was the first time I made it clean up the route. The first picture below is me finally making the move that has given me so much trouble.

Sticking the move

Belay for Jason (new Fisheye lens)

Setting new bolts

You can find "Cat wall" at these corrdinates +24° 40' 5.52", +46° 36' 38.88". There is also good info here http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/Asia/Saudi_Arabia/Riyadh/Cat_Wall/Cat_Wall/

Sand Boarding

2010-06-14T15:30:00.000-07:00

There is little opportunity to snowboard in the desert, so lately I have had to turn to the next best thing, Sand board. Unfortunately I didn't pick up this past time until March, when the temperatures were already starting to climb. I brought the board out one while ATVing but I had no wax and it was the wrong type of sand. The next time I went out, I couldn't find anybody else to go out with me. Also I was lacking in a off road vehicle. This resulted in a lot of walking, and being close to the road. A Saudi man did arrive in a four wheel drive truck, and he offered to drive me around, but he seemed sketchy. Also this was an exploratory journey, the main purpose was testing equipment.

The first time out

The next few times out I managed to pull one of my coworkers along. The one time we tried renting ATVs. Unfortunately the only ones available were 100cc. These were very slow and could only make it up the least steep hills. Also the hills we were trying to board down too steep for the sand to be packed right. After a few feet the boards would bury in the sand and stop.

Another time we went out first thing in the morning after a night rain storm. The same steep hills from the time with the ATVs were ride-able because the wet sand formed a crust.

Now its June and the sun rises too early to head out at first light. A few days ago we decided to try sunset instead. To our surprise the sand was relatively cool. This was the first time we tried the sand sleds. I managed to convince 5 other people to join me on this trip. They all had a good time despite many falls. I hope to get back at least one more time before I take off from Riyadh next month.

Riding as the sun sets

Sand Sled

The coordinates are 24.366019, 46.287289

Desert Caves

2010-06-10T09:41:00.001-07:00

Today right after getting off work at 6 in the morning, headed out to the desert to do come caving. Gave me a chance to use some of my gear. The open part of the cave goes down about 200 meters, then it closes up and heads down another 100 meters before the water starts.

As soon as we arrived we were lucky enough to spot two desert owls flying near the opening to the cave. The roof of the cave was covered in quartz crystals making it sparkle whenever out lights hit it.

I'm a little disappointed in myself for not getting in the water, which I'm told goes down another 30 meters or so. The top of the water was covered in dust and didn't look very inviting. I still have a few weeks to go back and redeem myself, and get some more pictures.

Just above the water there is a crack that runs horizontally for a few 100 meters. We only traveled past the first small crawl through. This area was surrounded by many sharp rocks and flakes of the quartz.

Overall it was a fun way to spend the morning, even if it meant skipping sleep for the day.

Here are the coordinates for anyone interested in going

N24° 29' 7.50", E46° 59' 48.78"

More info available http://www.saudicaves.com/cavedive/index.html

View of the open part to the cave from near the top.

Update went back to the cave yesterday morning to do some swimming and more exploring. The water is cool and about 40 meters deep as far as I could tell. Also there was graffiti about 20 feet under the water, suggesting it was a lot lower at one point in the recent past. Also the horizontal cave continued about twice as far as we traveled the first time before becoming very hard to pass.

Swimming underground

Group Shot

Rock Climbing "Cat Wall" in Riyadh

2010-04-30T02:23:00.001-07:00

There are three adventures that I'll include about "Cat Wall".

It all started at the Sweet Heart Ball, at the American Embassy. The table I was at was only half full, so once the place started to fill up, two American guys asked if they could join us. Travis and AJ were about my age worked for the Red Crescent (the Red Cross of the Middle East). They told me they had only been in Saudi Arabia for about two weeks. After a short time I learned that these guys, like me, were all about getting out there and seeing what there was to do around here. One of the things that came up was rock climbing.

After a quick search of the internet, I discovered there was a climbable rock wall quite near the embassy, but that after the attacks in 2001-2004 the police would chase you away, as it is on the wall to the diplomatic quarter. A few weeks later AJ and I went out to find this wall. There was a police officer parked in the parking lot, after a few waves and smiles as we unloaded our climbing gear, it seemed like he wouldn't chase us away. From the parking lot to the wall was about a 700 meter walk. The wall proved better than expected, with two established sport routes and a few trad routes. A few hours of climbing showed me how out of shape I had become, as my arms were dead.

Part 2:

The next few times we went were much like the first. Wave and smile to the cop, who always seemed to be parked in the corner of the parking lot nearest the climbing wall. One day however, there was no cop when we showed up. While we were setting up our gear, one arrived. They got out of their vehicle and started walking around ours. We assumes this was a bad sign, but kept setting up our gear. A short time later three more police cars showed up, and two police started the 700 meter walk towards us. As they got closer it became obvious they were carrying MP5 sub Machine guns. We took this as a clue to slowly make our way to meet them with our hands in plain sight. Being that I speak no Arabic and the police spoke almost as much English, AJ did the talking in his limited Arabic. The conversation basically went as follows; "What are you doing", "We're climbing, we have no weapons", "Our Capitan wants to talk to you, stay here". So we wait a little while, making small talk with the guards until the Captain and one other officer arrive. The Captain speaks pretty good English and we make small talk with him for a while. After about 15 minutes of talking he tells us to have a good day and leaves. Then we start climbing.

Part 3:

With some borrowed equipment and a YouTube education, it is time to start bolting our own route. It is an exciting moment when you first load a bolt that you have put in yourself. It makes you realize the faith you are putting in those who have put in the other bolts you are using. It makes you hope they didn't just learn how to do it one day based on some YouTube videos. Our first bolts held strong. Phase two will start soon, cleaning the wall. There is no shortage of flake that will need to be removed.

You can find "Cat wall" at these corrdinates +24° 40' 5.52", +46° 36' 38.88".

There is also good info here http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/Asia/Saudi_Arabia/Riyadh/Cat_Wall/Cat_Wall/

Desert ATV

2010-03-13T05:25:00.000-08:00

Yet another thing I have been wanting to do since I arrived out here, but up until recently didn't have the opportunity, 4 wheeling. A large group of of all decided to go one Thursday morning, but as is expected here when the time to leave rolled around, about half the group dropped out.

The 8 of us headed out at about 10am out to the sand dunes, where there were a line of tents with guys renting ATVs. After a bit of haggling (their set price is 300 SAR/hour), we jumped on some 400 cc ATVs, got a quick lesson and heading out into the desert. Only 3 of the 8 of us had ever ridden ATVs before, so we started out slow as the rest of the group was regularly stalling and getting stuck in the sand. By the second hour everyone was pretty comfortable and we were able to cover some real ground.

We all tried to stay together, which was hard. If you traveled two dunes away from the group you got the sense that you were alone. If you went further than this it would often take a few minutes to find anyone else. Most of us had some small wrecks, but luckily nobody was injured.

The coordinates are +25° 4' 42.26", +46° 42' 31.90"

Edge of the World

2009-11-30T05:16:00.000-08:00

It only took six months but I finally made my way out to the desert. We left right after work at 1pm, and made it to the Edge in only about an hour and a half. The Edge of the World is a crazy site. There are huge cliffs and below it the ground is flat, as far as you can see. Words are hard to describe it you have to see the pictures. I got to climb around a bit and really use my 50D. We took off in time to get out of there with some sun to light our way out, but still get some sunlight shots before we were back to civilization. It is a shame we couldn't spend longer out there, it would be a great place to camp out or even just grill out. Maybe I'll get the chance before I leave here, I still have to much time left.

On the way out we saw a bunch of camels chewing on the trees. We got out to get a closer look, and that's when one attacked.

The required Bro photo

Some climbing

The Edge

Felt like this picture would look better

Sunset

Attack Camel

The coordinates are +24° 56' 41.34", +45° 59' 31.86"

Jeddah, KSA SCUBA Diving

2009-11-30T05:00:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to get out of Riyadh for a long weekend a few weeks ago. While there I manged to get some time underwater. It was my first chance since I left Hawaii. It was also my first chance to use my Underwater Camera I bought right after leaving Hawaii. The pictures are all quite blue, and I lost my USB cable for my Dive Computer, but other than that it was a great time.

This was my first dive outside the U.S. and my first dive not using my own equipment. Both of these things started to worry me a little as I arrived at the dive shop. When I showed up the only questions they asked are; SCUBA or Snorkel and what equipment do you need? Not once did they ask to see a dive liscence or a log book. Back in the equipment room everything looked rather beat up. I thought I would be able to use my own regs, but this ended up not being the case since I have an AIR2, so my hose wasn't compatible with their BC. I didn't realize this until I was on the boat setting up my gear. Luckly one of the guys working for the company had time to run back and grab me some regs. I was able to use my computer.

We did three dives the Cable Wreck, Crazy 8 and one other reef. All we good dives, even if the visibility wasn't great. Bottomed out at about 75 feet. Saw plenty of small fish, got a few good pictures. By the third dive I gave up playing with the camera, because I realized I was spending most the dive following the camera, watchign the screen. I had a great time and made some new friends, who with luck I'll get to dive with again before I'm out of here.

My new Saudi friend

Spotted Ray

Fish that aren't camera shy

Easter in Mullerthal

2009-04-18T07:49:00.000-07:00

Spent my Easter up in Mullerthal. Which is known as the Little Switzerland of Luxembourg. It is just my kind of place. Big rocks, little streams with waterfalls and lots of hiking trails. On Easter I dragged two of my roommates up there to take advantage of the great spring weather, and enjoy all the thing I just mentioned about it.
We started off at a little waterfall that is famous with tourist because of the cute bridge over it and because it is on the side of the road. The parking lot for the falls, despite being next to the road is about a quarter mile away. So we took the nice little trail following the creek to the falls, rather than walk along the road like many of the tourist. Upon reaching the falls we looked to see if it was deep enough to swim, or at least get wet from head to toe. It was, about 3 to 4 feet in the deeper holes. This was perfect depth for jumping off the 8 foot tall rock below the falls. The water was very cold but we still managed a few jumps and some splashing around, much to the surprise of everyone else who was there to see the waterfall.
After that we headed to this other really cool place. There are a bunch of rocks between 10 and 60 feet tall with slots between them. The place reminds me of one of my favorite places back home called "rock city"..The rocks are like sky scrappers surrounding the slots that are like streets. We climbed a few rocks and did some jumping along the "rooftops."
After we got a good feel for rock city we headed off looking for a place I'd seen pictures of on a map, but didn't really know where it was. It turns out that my natural ability to snoop out cool places was in over drive that day because I found it. Heading in the direction I thought it would be, I pulled over in a parking lot and headed for the trail. The trail had 4 branches leaving the parking lot. We took the right one and after a nice walk along a really small stream we reached these caverns and natural amphitheater.

Check out the pictures below.

Sorry I've been sucking

2009-01-05T05:07:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't put anything on here in a while. I hate excuses but here are mine. Bad internet connection and the cold weather has caused most of the little free time I have to be spent in the bar. I have a new camera coming in soon, so that should push me outside a little more.

I haven't been a total shut in. I have been heading over to Bambesch to hike and bike, despite the 0 Celsius temps. I found a few long but not real steep down hills for biking. Next time I go I'll have to bring the POV. I'm trying to get into video editing, to improve the quality of my videos.

Hope everyone had some killer holidays, and are ready to get out and enjoy the new year with some new adventures. I know I plan on hitting up some spots around the alps to get in some snow boarding and some other winter activities.

Keep on keepn' on.

Bunjee Jumping

2008-10-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

Bungee Jumping in Southern Cali:
Bryce my brother-in-law and I took this trip that had us hike 5 miles up the Los Angeles Mountains to “the bridge to no where”. This Co. we went with has 5 world records and never has had an incident in 19yrs of business, a legit group. Also, they are the ones who do like 90% of Hollywood stunts with this sort of thing, all of Mtv's stuff and Fear Factor's stunts. Cool people, and one dude was OG...Oahu Grown, anyways. We each got to jump 2 times off this hundred foot beast, arched bridged where you actually bounced back up underneath the other side of the bridge. Pretty scary, but awesome. Got to hike around some pretty cool terrain, really clear water up there like Hawaii but super freezing! We actually had to cross the stream like 6 times on the way up. Our group had about 13 people, we took two breaks, and people were still falling behind. Bryce and I were like holy geez these people are weak.

Bryce, my bro crossing a treacherous stream along the hike.

This is "The Bridge to No Where", the 108ft bridge we were doing our "Lele Kawa" from.

Couple more photos here...on the river and one later that evening. We went to this tight Japanese Res. and ate some killer grinds. Then went and walked the “Hollywood walk of fame”, or whatever it is, with all the stars you know? (This book I have, a 101 things to do before you die, has in there: write your name over a star's name of whom you don’t think deserves one.) Well, I could not find Ellen DeGeneres, Dennis Miller, or Ray Romano, so Britney Spears was the next best thing. Only her star was right in front of that place where they give out the Grammy’s, I want to say the Kodak Center. Thousands of people were around us, but we did it real quick like. Good times, then we stopped by High Voltage tattoo parlor, but tats were seriously over priced, not worth it, the same with clothing there. So we bounced....

Great weekend!

Laters Ohana people.

http://www.bungeeamerica.com/

(link to the bungee place)

Adventures in Time Travel

2008-10-04T20:55:00.000-07:00

In no way am I suggesting we hoped in any DeLorean and flashed back to the past. This was real time travel. Two places that were removed from the time line the rest of the world travels on. These two places are the Island of Molokai and the Diamond Head Crater Festival, both of which I traveled through time to reach back in 2006.

The Island of Molokai. There will be another story on Molokai later, now I just want to cover the time travel aspects of the trip. The tourism web site for Molokai describes it as the island lost in time, and describes traveling there to stepping back in time 50 years. I say this is a bit of an exaggeration, but being only 23 I don't know what things were like 50 years ago, let alone in Hawaii. But I will say its like stepping back about 20 to 30 years at least for being part of the United States.

We arrived at the airport on a prop plane, the runway is to small for jets. We walked from the plane about 100 feet over to the baggage claim. The baggage claim consisted of a roof, one wall and 4 large wooden benches opposite the wall. Not sure how we got our bags, being that there was no baggage carousel, we looked out at the plane 100 feet away to see a n old john deer with a trailer pulling up to the plane. After all the bags were in the trailer the tractor drove into the baggage claim behind the benches and unloaded the bags neatly onto the benches.

The island of Molokai has one main town and one main road running for west to east. The main super market looks more like a country store.

The best part time travel wise for me was at the airport on the way out of Molokai. As we waited at our gate what I believe to be a DC 3 cargo plane pulled up. It is one of those WW2 era planes that when parked is at about a 30 degree angle nose up. Well the pilot has a side window which he opened up and gave a shocka to the air traffic control tower to let them know he was parked.

The Crater Festival was an entirely different situation. The Festival dates back to the 70s when it was a free music festival. It was the Woodstock of the Pacific. April 2006 was to be the first Crater Festival in about 30 years. The Diamond Head Crater is a place normally crawling with tourist. As a result of high ticket prices $130 for the lawn and classic rock lineup the festival mostly drew the people who where there 30 years prior that wanted to relive the glory days. This combination of factors made it feel like once we were though the tunnel into the crater we were back in the late 70s. This made for the perfect atmosphere to listen to Steve Miller rock.

Ya-Gotta-Regatta

2008-09-30T12:50:00.001-07:00

A few words to describe The Great Valley Fireman's Regatta of May 08; beer, wet, cold, beer, girls (in surprisingly high numbers), costumes, beer, canoing, chicken dinner, rain, and did I mention Beer.

My parents have been going to this little annual "boat race" since before they were my parents. This was the first year I was lucky enough to be old enough to consume previously mentioned beer legally and on the right continent. The premise of the regatta is to race down a creek approximately 12 miles stopping at each of the 6 mandatory beer stops, where you must consume no less than one mug of beer.

Well as usually my partner bailed on me (seems to be a reoccurring theme). No problem I would race solo if need be, however it was unnecessary because I rescued two girls from their much overburdened rubber raft. We got a late start (a reoccurring theme whenever my parents are involved) and as a result of combined zero canoing experience of my new passengers and some poor advice to them being shouted by my father, we managed to flip the canoe for the first time before we even reached the start line. Let me assure you snow melt is cold.

We arrive at the first beer stop at about the time it is scheduled to close. We are in luck they are keeping it open until they finish off the keg they just tapped. My group of 7 make up a large portion of the people at this beer stop. The girls change out of their wet sweats into their only change of cloths. I am relatively dry already in my under armor and board shorts.

The next few beer stops are not particularly memorable. Perhaps because by that point my ability for memory had been reduced by the copious amounts of beer and the cold. I do remember the second time the canoe flipped, or more specifically stopped being buoyant. A combination of 3 passengers, wet gear, spilled beer and contain rain caused the boat the gently tip enough to fill up the little freeboard that remained. I consider that this one was an act of God, and couldn't have been avoided.

The last time we swamped also was unavoidable. We followed another canoe through a swift narrow deep section of the creek. The gentleman steering the craft tried to turn too sharply and swamped in front of us. He felt that since he ended up in the water everyone else deserved to be in there with him, and grabbed our canoe as we passed him.

The last beer stop marking the end of the race was insane. There were boats of all type scattered everywhere, all waiting to load into a truck to be carted back to the start. While I waited for my shuttle back up to the top I stood in the knee deep near freezing water for about an hour dragging boats to the few open spots on the shore.

We ended the race dragging the canoes up a mud hill to load onto the truck, where I got my hand closed in a car door, before going to get our chicken dinners.

My description of this event may sound negative, and it is, but it was still a great time and I look forward to the next time in in Western NY the first weekend in May. I recommend this type of event to everyone.

As usually here are some pictures, many of them taken with the Fuji camera with waterproof housing I bought just before the race why I didn't buy it in Hawaii and could have dove with it is beyond me.

Pre Race everybody dry and happy

Overloaded rubber raft
First beer stop , a few beers and one change of cloths laterMayhem at last beer stop

Rockstar Barbie Boat
Unknown girls at unkown beer stop

A little blood for you carnivorous ppl

2008-09-30T11:54:00.000-07:00

Well, here is another story yet of our crazy escapades around the world and you all (our readers) being able to see some of our redonkulous and unconventional acts or undertakings. Once again I was at the Clairmont Dr. skate park in San Diego...the Krause Family Skatepark they call it, one of the designers being Andy McDonald, so this place is nice! Well I was getting some video footage for this joint and of course, as I do this often when I skate for a video shot, I go faster, higher, and bigger. This tends to leave me planted into the pavement afterwards, as you all will be able to see in my video and photographs from my good friend JP. Here I hit this ramp fakie (backwards) to do a little 180 and I end up over shooting the transition and hitting the flat so I was not really prepared to take the shock of flat ground, therefore proceeded to eat concrete. The video doenst really give it the full effect, but I was there, it felt pretty good. Not the worst, but it def. removed a portion of my back and elbow. BUT, thank goodeness, the wound inflicted, went around my tattoos. Enjoy my friends, enjoy:

Luxembourg Mountain bike take 2

2008-09-27T11:13:00.001-07:00

Well I've been heading over to the Bambech trails a few times a week the last few week. Despite the rain we have been having. Unfortunately I haven't been able to convince anyone else to join me, but it has been all good. Found some trails that are narrow and steep, which is what I have been looking for. The mud from all the rain has also made it fun. Also, I just got a V.I.O. POV camera, which is why I waited until after a few trips to post this.

Going to these trails have given me a good chance to play with all my new toys. Been taking my new Garmin GPS to track my speed, distance, and altitude. And took the new camera out to get the videos below.

These trails are a blast, there is plenty of variety. Long leg burning uphills and some nice down hills. I've tried to kept my speed sub 30mph so far because I don't trust these $100 Mongoose bikes. I have only been riding a small corner so far, trying to learn it inside out and find any secrets it may be hiding. Also since I have been riding alone I don't want to wander off to far and run into trouble.

Enjoy the videos, more to come.

NaPali Kauai

2008-09-27T11:12:00.001-07:00

It took right up until the end of my time in Hawaii, but i finally made it to Kauai in Feb 08. It wasn't a perfect trip, but it was an excellent trip. Many times it almost was called off.

There was a three day weekend coming up, my last in Hawaii. My plan to hike the 22 miles over Thanksgiving fell through. My crew fell through. I grabbed 3 guys from work (with no backpacking experience), outfitted them with camping gear, bought the food, all the plane tickets, and convinced the boss that the 3 day weekend would have to be a 3 and a half (we would have to cut out of work at 10am Friday to catch out noon flight).

The day of the trip I had a 5k to run at 6:30 that morning before work, not how I would have choose the spend the morning before the 22 miles of hiking. A short stay at work and then we were off to the airport. We landed in Kauai, already behind schedule. After wasting more time in town getting fuel for the stove and water we headed to the trail head through Friday afternoon traffic. We unload and tell the cab driver we need to be picked up Monday at 3pm.

About 4pm we reached the trail, leaving a little over 2 hours of light to hike in. The first camp site was about 2 miles in, but we were aiming for the one about 7 miles in. We made it just as the darkness set in. My crews lack of experience really showed setting up camp and cooking in the dark.

Day 2 the plan was to head to the end beach 4 miles away and then take it easy all day. We woke up early and grabbed breakfast and headed out. We arrived at the beach at about a little before lunch time, despite a slight detour about 2 miles out. We took some time to explore, play on the beach, climb the waterfall and watch the hippies doing yoga on the beach. Over lunch we discussed turning back, and spending the night at the same camp site form the night before. As soon as lunch was finished we started heading back. We arrived back in time to set up camp with a few hours of light to spare.

Day 3 we decided to head to Hanakapia beach 2 miles from the trail head and decided if we would spend the night there or head out. We got there and killed some time jumping on the rocks and playing in some little pools in the river. During lunch we discussed our options. Stay here for the night, or hike out and hitch hike to town and see what happens. The availability of beer in town made that the winning choice. At the trail head we didn't see many hitch hiking options. Then in a stroke of luck we spotted a construction worker with a pickup truck working on the bathrooms at the beach. He was just wrapping up his days work and said it wouldn't be a problem to give us a ride to town.

In town we bough way too much beer (4 cases) and junk food for the night. We hitched our way to the first public beach we could find with cell phone reception on Hanalai Bay. This is where we spent the night drinking. The next morning as soon as we got our stuff together we called the cab company so we could head to the airport and weight our options there(rent a car or try to change our airline tickets). Being under 25 and having to pay the extra insurance, a rental for half a day didn't seem worth the cost. Their was a plane leaving in 30 min that we could change our seats to for free.

As a final adventure of the weekend we got to talk with the airport security and management, because some of the airport personnel got concerned when they smelled the stove fuel fumes from our bags.

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

Hanakapia beach this many swimmers have died here sign

Camp Dinner

Group shot without me

187 on a rollerblader in So CaL

2008-09-19T20:47:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so coming off the island (Oahu) to Southern California for school I had to bring my sk8s...hence it is a mecca of skating, Tony Hawk living only like an hour away in Carlsbad. So I was stoked when I heard there was a sk8 park within walking distance of where I was staying. So I went exploring on foot and found this nice little cement park under a bridge (Washington St Skate park) So I was stoked and went back to my room to get my ROLLERBLADES, key word. So I get my buddy who skates as well, but did not have his yet...pretty big dude (JP) to have my back. Sometimes skateboarders are jerks at first but once they see that I am pretty legit when it comes to skating they usually calm down and give me some props when i start doing things like 720's and flips. Well, we get back there after walking about 4 miles...there and back there again. So I get strapped in and I am standing at the top of like a 15ft quarter waiting my turn and this dude yells out all the way from across the park, "no rollerbladers". I'm thinking whatever man, so then again this dude right next to me says yeah dude you need to leave, or those guys over there are going to shoot you! I say no way, and then a third dude says to me I am lucky I already haven't gotten jumped or shot. So I know when to pick my battles and I had to hang my head in shame, take them off, walk out with everyone talking smack as you can imagine and walk all the way without getting a session in. Major kick in the junk. BUT...I ended up finding this dope, dope park over in Mission Valley, the YMCA Park, the next weekend. The place over there is out of control:

(an overall of the park with this globe sponsored Brazilian dude I met that was pretty rad.)

But the park has everything. Including the X-games made vert ramp and I was one of three dudes to even drop in from the top. But overall...I still don't understand this whole hatred between rollerbladers and skateboarders. I know boarders don't like us because of little kids on rec skates jacking around and getting in their way and all but seriously, get over it. Everyone has to start somewhere. Then I don't blame them for not liking the sell out gangster wanna be in-liners, but who cares? We all fought the same battles over getting kicked off the local hand rail, the 8 stair set at the High School, etc. Get OVER IT, we all like to roll, get over yourself. Live to skate.

Jeffreyness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1SxGRB3WNk

http://www.youtube.com/user/sk8ersurferdude a lot more of the park here and of Delux and I's videos here.

Ioa Valley Lele Kawa

2008-09-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving 06 some of the boys and I headed over to Maui, for a long weekend of cliff jumping and drinking. About an hour after we landed at the airport it was on. We pulled up to Ioa Valley. Right there next to the parking lot is a bridge that I would guess to be between 25 and 30 feet high over a tiny stream. We talk about how it would be cool to jump off if the stream were bigger. We wander around the park for a while before heading down to a larger stream. Where we get a few started jumps in. 8 foot ledge into about 1 foot of water.

Me Leading The Way On An Early Trip Splash

Then we decide to leave the park to find some bigger jumps. When we cross back over the bridge, there are some kids jumping from a ledge we didn't notice under the bridge about 15 feet above the water. We decide to join them for a little while. This builds our confidence and we decide maybe the bridge can be done.

The Maui Boy Front Flipping

We talk to some locals and they convince us that you can indeed jump off the bridge. However the landing zone is between the 2 brown rocks in the picture above. It is about 4 feet wide 6 feet long and 6 feet deep. In actuality you can't jump the landing zone is to small. What you have to do is stand at the notch in the hand rail, take a small steep and just fall the 30 or so feet. hoping the whole way that you missed those two rocks. The local guy in our group goes first, then the other two of us go for it.

The Maui Boy Goes First And Shows Us How Its Done

What not to do can be found here http://www.adventure-journal.com/2010/09/epic-fail-how-not-to-jump-off-a-bridge/

Makapuu Lighthouse Lele Kawa

2008-09-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

Back in July 06 Sk8ersurferdude convinced me to explore the tide pools you see when you look down from Makapuu Lighthouse on Oahu. We were seeking a Blow-hole that was known to suck and blow. Amazing right?
So we spot the mist from the blow-hole as we hike the path to the lighthouse, and turn strait down the hill towards it. Scrambling down the loose lava rock in Reef Mick Fanning's of course, what else would you wear hiking into the unknown in Hawaii.

The Hike Down

We reach the blow-hole, and while it sounds like a jet engine (due to the suck/blow action) the spray is rather unimpressive, mush have been the wrong tide, we always seem to forget to check these details. After snapping a few shots we head left to see what else there is to see. We don't get very far when we reach a 20 foot drop off that is undercut on the bottom 6 feet, and what luck there is a sketchy piece of rope hanging down it.

At The Bottom

Taking our chances we (I) grab on and shimmy down. Sk8ersurferdude seeing that its safe (relatively) tosses down the camera and follows. At this point we note that it is unlikely we could climb back up this way. Next to this drop off is a large tide pool, to our dismay there is nowhere to jump into it, it is completely filled with rocks and is no deeper than a few inches at the deepest spots.

Bummer Tide Pool

We keep making our way around (because we couldn't turn around and head back). Next we find a nice tide pool that looks big enough to splash in about 10 feet by 5 feet and 2.5 feet deep with a little 4 foot high ledge to jump from. We do various flips and dives into said pool, then continue on.
Bakflip Into First Tide Pool

Tide Pool Dive

The next location was the "impossible jump" that I spotted. The pool is about 2 feet deep at its deepest and only 3 feet across and about 7 feet long, not so bad. The jumping ledge is a bit over 20 feet tall and 15 feet from the pool. Also the ledge is made up of some of the sharpest lava rocks around, so bare foot is out of the question and so is a run up. After about 10 min of debating if it was even possible to do without getting hurt. I decide there is only one way to find out, I will try it, at least Sk8ersurferdude will get some pictures of my last moments should things go badly. I place my sandals on the sharp rocks, track start style, take a deep breath and go for it. Much to my joy I made it. Now would never have to repeat said jump, or so I thought. The pictures didn't turn out. Time to risk it all again. These pictures were good. Not to be outdone Sk8ersurferdude tried it.

Impossible Jump Take Two

We couldn't go much further around due to sheer cliffs and an angry ocean so we headed up a ravine in the cliffs.

View From The Top After The Climb

SaC Addict

2008-09-17T07:29:00.002-07:00

If you do not understand the meaning of the title, you should stop reading this post now. Your wallet will thank you.

If your still reading it is because you also have this addiction or you have much stronger willpower than me. You already know about www.gearattack.com

I've know about my addiction for a while. I didn't need my friends to point out this one (but it didn't stop them). They first realized how bad I was when I got a great deal on some Solomon CR Lab skis. Why did this tip them off? Because I was a snowboarder who hadn't touched skis in 13 years, and I was living in Hawaii. Yes I was that bad. The pile of sunglasses and reef sandals were also a clue.

Now I only buy stuff that I really need when it pops up. You know like the mountain bike seat last week $200 seat marked down 65%. Did I mention that I don't own a bike? But since I don't own a bike I don't own a bike seat. Therefor I must have needed one, right? Makes sense to me, and that there is the problem. How am I able to rationalize this stuff to myself? I refused to save my credit card # because this would force me to think about the purchase as i found my wallet and pulled it out. This has stopped a few buys ice axes, snowshoes, stuff not in my size that i might be able to squeeze into, and things with only ridiculous colors left.

Now I'll give you the numbers to put this addiction into perspective. I have been addicted since my first taste June 27 2006, after reading about the site in a Men's Journal Magazine.

To date, in a bit over two year I have spent a little over $3,900.

I have made 70 individual purchases, or one every 11 days on average.

This makes my average impulse buy $56.03. Because impulse buys are the only kid that exist with SaC, your not shopping, just grabbing stuff when it pops up.

It averages out to a $4.91/day habit. For that money I could smoke a pack a day (in some states, if it wasn't the most disgusting thing ever), or drink a cheap 6 pack (also disgusting), and I would end up with change.

Not to mention the countless time I spend checking the site a day(4 while typing this post).

So knowing that I had an addiction, and that addictions are bad, I have tried to stop. Cold turkey 3 times, for about a month each. The longest I managed to stop was 53 days but it really doesn't count, because I was without a mailing address and internet for most of that time.

I'm interested to hear other peoples SaC addition stories, and if you managed to quit what was the secret.

Here's a picture of last weeks SaC
(2 Hoodies, 1 Fleece Jacket, 1 Giro Audio Helmet, 1 Oakley A Frame, 1 Oakley sunglasses, 1 SOG knife)

Street Kayaking

2008-09-17T07:29:00.001-07:00

During March of 2006 in Hawaii there was a little rain, 42 strait days of a little rain in fact. At times it was raining 10+ inches in an hour. Perfect opportunity to get in a little street kayak.

Street kayaking

Lost the original file, so this will have to do for now.

First Luxembourg Venture

2008-09-17T07:29:00.000-07:00

This is my first experimental post so don't expect to much.

I was browsing the internet the other day and stumbled upon a youtube of a POV mountain bike video from Luxembourg. After a bit more research into the matter, I learned that the video was taken at some trails right outside the city. Which just so happened to be about a 10 minute ride away from my house.
The next morning a grabbed my roommate and headed out. As a bonus the ride there included a long steep street which we were able to hit speeds in the upper 30 mph rolling down. A short ride up the hill towards Bridel and we arrived at the Bambesch trails. We entered the trails and with no destination just started riding, picking turn offs as they came. There was a huge variety of trails, and we were lost in no time. After about two hours, when we finally hit the road we decided to call it quits for the day and follow the road back, knowing that we had to ride back up that hill that brought us down.
Not bad for the second time on a bike in a few years.

My roommate heading down one of the main trails

A little narrower trail surrounded by what looks like poison ivy

Map we used to get un-lost and head home