Thursday August28日 2025年

The Deep Silhouette

I’ve known Kimo Gasper for over 35 years.  He’s a super good underground surfer that only the hardcore surfers know.  Also one of the best divers on the island. We went to Japan together in 1990 for the World Surfing Championships, we surfed Big Rights for 35 years straight on every big swell, and now we’re taking sunrise photos together.  Haha.

The water was so clean!  So clean that when the boys were diving, I could see sharks swimming to check them out.  I’ve never experienced that kind of visibility before.

When the dolphins swam by, it looked like an oil painting.

On the way back, it was sunset photo time.  We were still between islands and it was the calmest day the ocean will ever get.

After spending the peaceful day surrounded by nature in total seclusion, it’s never a happy time on the approach back to Oahu.  It’s a time when you realize “what happened to this island???”

For the whole day, this is what we were looking at.  The sun rays beaming down hundreds of feet into the deep blue sea.  You get mesmerized and almost sucked out of reality.  Your heartbeat is slow, your breath is calm, and you’re almost falling asleeep.  Then out of the deep when you see a silhouette of a big fish or shark, you wake up really fast.

Dive day of the year

Waking up at 3am and getting ready for an exciting day.  All of us knew that this was the best day of the year for the kind of diving we do.      

This is just my gear so multiply this by 5 and that’s over a thousand pounds of stuff.  

If you’re a free diver, you kind of have a special relationship with each other.  It’s of mutual respect as we all know our lives depend on one another.  So much can go wrong when diving with guns, sharks, currents, and the unpredictable forces of nature.  We’re not just diving off a calm white sandy beach in shallow water.  It’s actually the total opposite.  Most people think we’re crazy but crazy is our life.  Extreme free diving is all about discipline, respect, knowledge, and flow…

Yes, it was indeed the calmest day of the year.  Not a cloud in the sky, not a breeze of wind, crystal clear water, and a totally flat ocean surface when it’s usually wild out here.  

First fish in the cooler early in the morning.  A sign of a good day to come.

December 9, 2023 Hawaii Surf Report

Yesterday once more:  Dawn patrol blue water free dive trip.  This is morning paradise on Mayuki…

Good morning 6am.
Pipeline Masters ON!
North shore 8-10′ and good.
Ala Moana waist high and good.
Diamond Head chest high and good.
Light winds so another perfect day.
Last day of light winds. Windy starting tomorrow.
Sunny and warm.
Going to the sea.
Have a wonderful day!