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.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Bunjee Jumping
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.
This is "The Bridge to No Where", the 108ft bridge we were doing our "Lele Kawa" from.
Laters Ohana people.
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.
(link to the bungee place)
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Adventures in Time Travel
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Ya-Gotta-Regatta
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
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.
Overloaded rubber raft
First beer stop , a few beers and one change of cloths later
Mayhem at last beer stop
Rockstar Barbie Boat
Unknown girls at unkown beer stop
First beer stop , a few beers and one change of cloths later
Mayhem at last beer stop
Rockstar Barbie Boat
Unknown girls at unkown beer stop
A little blood for you carnivorous ppl
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:
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:Saturday, September 27, 2008
Luxembourg Mountain bike take 2
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.
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
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.
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
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