So we have just arrived back to O'ahu after spending 8 days on the Island of Maui. Maui was like a dream and defiantly somewhere I could see myself living. It was so much like home in so many ways, everywhere we drove it was Australian bush. Huge Eucalypt's and wattles, miles of dry long grass. The only difference between Maui and South Australia was the epic mountains that tower over each end of the Island.

90% of Maui's roads are skateable. They range from rough, narrow and scary runs that you have to be constantly sideways on your board for to long winding runs down mountain sides with fast corners that can just be gripped. The biggest mountain on the island which has just been deemed and active volcano (the crater) has a run from the top, all the way to the beach which is just under an hour of non stop downhill.

The thing I love about Hawaii so much is that bombing hills is standard. There are no divisions within skateboarding on the islands. If you ride park or pools you bomb hill, it's natural. If you bomb hills you ride street or transition. Skateboarding is one big entity over here, free of bullshit, scenes, groups or ego. There are some killer parks on maui, most of them filled with transition. We also stumbled upon the house of big wave surfer  David Langer who has an insanely huge and awesome bowl in his backyard. He encourages everyone to come over and skate it and was a rad bloke.

The excuse we had to head to Maui was the second race of the winter series that takes place over different Hawaiian islands. The road that was originally selected for the race hill was in an un developed housing estate. The land was huge, the grass was incredibly green and the road (which was the only thing that had been built) was butter smooth black top with a top speed of around 65KM/h. The other benefit is that the road was a dead end at the bottom meaning that we could be 100% sure that there would be no cars coming up. We got in 2 or 3 practice runs which were awesome before some ladies who were watching told us to look out for the guy who owns the property because he is a bit of an ass. No more than 2 minutes after they warned us, an extremely angry man in a tractor arrived and attempted to fight about 30 bewildered skaters. We politely said goodbye and told him we were happy to leave but he decided it would be more fun to jump into his truck and chase cars up the hill in reverse. Eventually he lost everything from the back of his truck and hit a tree. Amusing, but a little intimidating to say the least.

The race was moved to another road which we had skated the day before. It's a super long, winding road which will turn your legs into jelly at the finish line. Stopping on a skateboard is extremely hard when you can't control your legs so we saw a couple of amusing crashes at the finish line. My first heat was super tight but I squeezed into second place and advanced to the next round. In the second heat I screwed up the push at the start line, lost the pack and without the draft of other riders to pull you along tucking the whole road was just to difficult. It was an awesome day though, we got extra runs in afterwards and then headed to the beach.

Maui waves are stompers! Easily the biggest waves I have ever seen and always with some crazy mofos surfing them. Even standing on the shore line you will get picked up and thrown back onto land with no mercy. As well as awesome beaches there are stunning waterfalls with huge overhangs to jump off of. One of my favourite places was called 7 pools. It was a hell of a drive and turned into a pretty scary mission eventually but it was totally worth it. It is a massive pool of fresh water but it's close enough to the ocean that when there is big swell the salt water will push it's way into the fresh water pool. It is surrounded by rock walls were really fun to climb and if you fell, you just landed in 15 foot of water. Fresh muscles that could be eaten straight off the rocks, caves in the water and a little island that we could swim across to and explore. Writing all this down, I realise I can do it no justice with words. Maui should be on your list of places to go!

I dunno what else to write now, I have posted a short clip in the ''Rad Shit'' section of the eventual race hill.

If I remember more I will write it.

Aloha.

O, if you wanna see more photos. Check em here

So a few days ago Matt K from Sector 9 and Paris, Amanda Mary from Riviera, Dane Webber from Orangatang and Loaded and a photographer named Olly turned up at Ethans door. They are here for the up coming race in Maui and to snap some photos along the way. The last few days have been spent eating and picking scenic areas to try to get photos at. Sessioning downhill spots is strange, it's not like finding a curb to grind in the city and shooting it. It requires a lot of driving around, up and down roads to find that right angle. Ethan only has a 2 seated truck so we have been travelling with 4 people in the back, 6 peoples skate gear plus all the photography equipment. I'm talking about thousands of dollars worth of camera gear, flashes, lenses, tripods, remote flash stands and shades. It is cosy for sure. Yesterday we also ended up with 20 or so coconuts too, just to add to the experience. I quickly called shotgun and jumped in the front! Today Matt, Olly, Amanda and Dane hired scooters to blast around on though so that has freed up some space. I didn't hire one, firstly because I'm cheap and secondly because I don't trust myself riding one. I had a go on a mates scooter once riding up Corkscrew road in Adelaide. I almost hit a cyclist on the first turn due to my in ability to steer. I'm better off in the truck I think. 

The weather has been strange since the others arrived, a lot of rain and some really strong winds has meant it's been hard to find skateable roads. Today is looking good though and hopefully we will get some runs on the mountain tonight. Last week we headed up there for a few runs at about 11 at night. The wind had been blowing hard all day and the roads surface was patchy. The wind left the road covered in sticks, leaves, flowers, moss and some really big branches. Skating in a group, at night with only head lamps made it super sketchy but we had some awesome runs down. It was a good night. 

Nothing much else to report, yesterday we ended up back at the waterfall jump because the weather was so average. The walk is easy enough when it's dry but being in bare feet trying to scramble up and down wet, muddy slopes made it a lot more of a challenge. We all ended up pretty muddy but it was worth it. Good times.

Hopefully more to report next time, praying that the weather holds out!

Shiiiiiit... Today was a day of eating it and nothing was really accomplished from it. When I woke up this morning I went for a roll to the store down the street for a bottle of juice. I was to lazy to put normal shoes on so I threw a pair of slip ons onto my feet and I to lazy to change my park board to soft wheels so I grabbed one of Ethans double kicks and headed out. Having being on a soft wheel street deck for a while I have been spoilt with the smooth roll over cracks and bumps. I came to a part of the road where the foot path ends and you have to go on the road for a few houses. Heading down the road there was a car coming in my lane so I went to throw a little stand up slide and pop back onto thee foot path. I found out almost instantly that my slip ons had no grip on the sole whatsoever... My back foot slid off the tail and I hit the road hip and elbow first taking a rather deep scratch to the elbow and as Landyachtz Phil once said, ''leaving my pride all over the road''. I stood up, grabbed the baord, bowed to the folks who were clapping me from their balcony across the road and went on to get my juice. 

Later that day Ethan and I set out to do 3 things. 1, send a memory card to Gabe in Australia which has some important footage on it. 2, head to Western Union to pick up some money I had leant a mate and he had just transferred back to me. 3, buy some glue to stick a foot brake sole on the bottom of my shoe. Long story short, we went surfing instead...

I haven't set foot on a surf board in about 10 years and even then I rarely got a foot on the board. Ethan took us to a spot that had a long paddle out through a channel, around a big rocky reef with jetty poles jutting out of the water and into the (sorry for lack of surfing lingo knowledge) ''the wavey part''. Now we were out there, facing the shore with the big rocky reef between us and it's safe, dry sand. I paddled around for a bit, wondering how I was supposed to stop before I reached the rocks and then began trying to catch small waves. Eventually, as it does, my confidence grew a little and I tried to catch a bigger wave. I got it OK, didn't try to stand or anything, just happy to ride a wave on a board. I caught it until just before the reef and then somehow stopped (don't remember how I did that bit). Trying to get back out was harder than I thought and before long I was floating above some very shallow and sharp rocks. I floundered about a bit, not really sure what to do and eventually cut my toe on one of the rocks. Not bad, but still shitty. I made it in eventually with sore arms and a sore toe but I survived! It was rad though!

After that, we decided to catch a bus up the top or Sierra mountain and skate down. We hung around at the bus stop for 2 years and then bailed, sick of waiting! it aint Finnish public transport here! On the skate back to where we had parked the car I attempted a manual over a metal drain covering on the foot path. As soon as I got onto 2 wheels and hit the metal grate, I felt the corner of it sink straight into my wheel and stop me dead. I flew off forwards and landed on the same elbow, same hip plus the shoulder this time. There was a kid sitting out the front of a shop and I landed with my head pretty much on his feet. He asked if I was OK, I said yes, gathered what remained of my pride (not much after today) and carried on. Today was not a safe day to leave the house and I am happy to say that it rained tonight so we couldn't ride the mountain in the dark. Maybe it was for the best.

A quick video edit from yesterdays pool session. Far from a good edit or music match but I was stoked on the day and wanted to share any kind of footage. Enjoy it. 

It has been a while. We have been skating every day and all sorts of terrain. Recently it has been dry as a bone which has brought the local out to the local mountain more night missions. In case you weren't aware, it is very dark at night. Especially on a mountain road surrounded by jungle. The local guys know the roads so well, it is really impressive to watch them fly through hairpin corners, avoid gnarly holes, wet patches all just by following the gaps in the tree's above and their knowledge of the road. Myself, I use a head light on my helmet and try my hardest to remember what corner is coming up next, how fast you come into it and what the surface is like. Recently the Hawaiian powers that be have put ''sand bars'' on some of the roads corners to try and deter people drifting through corners in their cars. It is a horrible smelling adhesive they put down, sprinkled with a loose and very sharp gravel. Remembering these corners is crucial, falling on that stuff would suck... Big time! Starting to get the hang of things though and remembering the road better each run. It's an interesting way to learn a road and will certainly make it easier during the day, if not a little boring...

I have also been riding the streets surrounding Ethans house a lot each day. All the roads go down and have the most perfect driveways for slashing and surfing. The momentum carries you for miles with no need to push and it's very easy to forget that eventually you will have to skate back up hill to the house. I love it, the dogs hate it. Dogs in hawaii are not friendly in the slightest. Almost everywhere I have lived in the world I have always found a local dog I could pat over the fence and have a chat with. In Hawaii though, dogs are scary, especially if you ride a skateboard. Even today while riding back home from the shops I was verbally abused by a Golden Retriever which I have always though were born happy as Larry. This one was mean though, he hurt my feelings and left me not wanting to skate past that house ever again.

Yesterday, Nelly, Ethan and I went for a hike through the Jungle looking for nothing in particular. We ended up in that same area with the waterfall I wrote about a few weeks ago. This time though, Ethan took us on a very interesting path that saw us balancing along a plastic pipe miles off of the ground. Heights is a big fear of mine and this was high! After the pipe and a bit more bush bashing we ended up above the waterfall. If you read the last write up about the waterfall you will remember that we jumped from about 8 meters. Ethan had now lead me to a jump on the opposite side of the fall that was another 8 meters higher than the first jump we did. Did I mention I'm scared of heights, I can't remember. Anyway, assessing the situation, the only way down was to either jump or try to climb down the 16 meter, muddy cliff. Either way would probably result in me falling so I chose to jump. It was sweet! Scary as hell, but sweet!

Some ninja Avocado and Jabong hunting has also taken place as well as the feasting of Avocados and Jabong. Being beaten by the waves at Sandy's beach has also become some what regular. The other day Sandy's was pretty flat but every now and then a set would come in of maybe 5 foot waves. Even I can tell a tourist in hawaii, if they are whiter than me they certainly aren't local! So, this father and son come swanning into the water. Dad is maybe 40's and the son is 17 or 18. Both looking stoked, if not slightly nervous and both wearing black framed seeing glasses. The son makes it out fairly easily while dad gets battered by the waves, rolls about like a hauled out seal without flippers and eventually, has the glasses ripped from his face by the waves. Blinded, dizzy and stunned he flops about the water for a while with his son looking for the glasses. No chance. Eventually he heads back to the beach, stands with his wife trying his hardest to watch his son who is still busy looking for his old man's specs. The son makes a terrible mistake. He turns his back on the waves and sure enough a stomper comes in, smashes him to the ocean floor, rolls him all the way to the beach covered and full of sand at his parents feet... Without his glasses. 2 sets of prescription glasses in less than 40 minutes, they left myself and some other guy from Texas in stiches from laughing and trying our hardest not to get dumped by the waves ourselves. 

Until next time...