Jaws happened kind of unexpectedly while I was in Maui last year- Luckily I had rented a rugged Jeep, which turned out to be pretty nifty. Due to previous heavy rain, the dirtroad leading to the bluff overlooking the ocean and the break called “Jaws” was one muddy mess. The cops had blocked off access and allowed only fourwheel drives in. I passed a long procession of surfers, hippies, a few tourists and Maui locals who had come to party. The less fortunate had to make their way through the mud by foot in a forty minute walk. I was actually far less interested in the spectacle but the spectators. Obviously, people had come well prepared, there was plenty of food and beer to go around. Lots of spliffs were passed. Supposedly it was the biggest swell of the decade. Once in a while the crowd cheered to another enormous break.
Once I wrapped my shoot with Kula in Kailua on O’ahu’s eastern shore I noticed a couple of local fishermen casually going about their business. One of them went into the ocean and emerged about 30 minutes later with a bounty of freshly caught fish, while the other one looked on holding his young daughter.
One of my assignments led me to Waikiki, a shopping mecca with too many high rises and overrun by too many tourists for my taste. Not much to it really. I very much favored O’ahu’s western and eastern shore. I had come to Waikiki to meet Jeannie Chesser- a very sweet lady who had sadly lost her pro surfer son Todd Chesser to the ocean in big wave surfing in the late 90’s.
Out at daybreak we hung out later at her place where she unveiled a pristine 60’s Mustang given to her as a present for her 16th birthday.
Just a couple of Waikiki Beach impressions…
Back in Maui, I had to check one more person off my list: Garret Gisi, a physicist who had had an wild epiphany while surfing. Garret’s favorite surfing spot on Maui is La Perrouse Bay, a beautiful lava formed shore, littered with white coral fragments, just breathtakingly beautiful.
I made it to the Haleakala, Maui’s largest volcano for sunset, arguably the 2nd best after sunrise… It is a bit of a journey, driving upland and gradually climbing all of the over 10.ooo,oo feet in elevation to the “house of the sun”. All the way up there it is freezing cold and otherworldly gorgeous.
