The Pink Glide…

Good morning 3:15am.
Ala Moana waist high and good.
Diamond Head chest high and bumpy.
Trade winds at 20mph.
Sunny and warm.
Going to the sea.
Have a wonderful day!

sometimes in a day, you will only get once chance.  so when that chance comes, you better deliver.  for the past 7 years, i’ve been stressing to this student that when i say “GO” you better GO!  sometimes she goes, and sometimes she doesn’t. when she goes, she learns something regardless if she made it or not.  but when she doesn’t go, she didn’t learn a thing.  so recently, she’s been going whether the wave is knee high or 20′.  and that is making her good…

this morning was super small.  maybe waist high at the biggest and very slow.  we where having fun but nothing special.  my student happened to be on the outside peak at Bowls when the set of the day came.  i yelled “GO!!!!”   she turned, paddled her hardest, and rode the biggest and best wave of the day.

luckily i had my camera so i started filming.  she popped up at the perfect time.

knees bent, looking forward, and very calm.

she made it look pretty easy.

then she starts doing a bottom turn.

it was a beautiful thing to see.

as i went over the wave, i saw her turn right and fly down the wave.

that was the biggest and best wave of the morning.  that was her golden chance and she took it.  if she didn’t, she would have probably regretted this for a while.  but she did so she was smiling in the car all the way home.  and will probably be smiling in her sleep tonight.  haha.

back in the 1970’s and 80’s, there use to be a restaurant called the “Ranch House” in Aina Hina.  when i was like 13 years old, my Mom and Sister use to go every Wednesdays to this restaurant and listen to live music.  sometimes i would go along with them and we would sit on the table directly in front of the band that played every Wednesday night.  that band was called “The Makaha Sons of Niihau.”

that young man on the right is Israel Kamakawiwo’ole or Bruddah IZ.  i remember him strumming his ukulele and singing his heart out.  i was literally sitting on a table 6′ away from him.  my Mom and Sister became friends with them so most of the songs they played were etched into my mind for the rest of my life.  and whenever i went to see Bruddah IZ in concert after that, i would get the chills listening to his voice.  it’s so powerful.

after winning award after award, Bruddah IZ was recognized world wide with his songs “somewhere over the rainbow” and “white sandy beach of hawaii.”  this video was a song they sang at the 1996 Na Hoku Hanohano Awards.  it’s called Kaleohano which is my favorite song of my life.  when i hear it playing, i get chicken skin and teary eyes.  please listen to his heart through his voice.  it’s amazing…