Sunday Stills challenge theme this week and last week is ‘Your 2024 Year-in-Review.’ See more responses here. As before, I’m going with a favorite photo from each month of 2024, with a caption and link to the post the photo first appeared in. Last week, I posted favorites from January through June (here). This week, it’s July through December.
The Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational, commonly known as “The Eddie,” is scheduled to be held today. This big wave surfing event, at Waimea Bay on the North Shore of Oahu, only takes place when open-ocean swells reach a minimum height of 20 feet. Such swells result in wave faces of 30 to 40 feet in the bay. Because of this requirement, this event will be only the eleventh to go during the 40-year history of the tournament.
The tournament is invitation-only with 45 competitors lined up this year. If you’re interested in seeing the activities, the contest will be streamed on ripcurl.com or rogue.tv, starting around 8:00 am local time.
For more information about the event, go to https://www.theeddieaikau.com/ or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eddie.
The photo was taken from Keokea Beach Park, and features much, much smaller waves!
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Cozy.’ See more responses here.
This mother and her pup were looking pretty cozy on the beach at Keokea Beach Park. Mothers stay with their pups for five to seven weeks. During this time, the mothers generally do not feed, while pups feed on their mother’s milk. Mothers are typically huge when they give birth, but they lose a lot of weight during the rearing time, while the pups get correspondingly bigger.
This pup was very young, and it was quite dramatic to see how quickly the pup got bigger and the mother smaller!
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Bucket List Images.’ See more responses here.
I’ve never had a bucket list, but if I did, being able to do this might be on it. However, if I tried this now, I suspect all that would happen with the bucket is that I would kick it.
How did he get there? See the slide show below.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘State and local parks.’ See more responses here.
Sifting through a ton of park photos, it was the island’s beach parks that came out on top. It’s possible to get in the water at all of these, though some require more caution than others.
On my recent visit to Keokea Beach Park, I saw this on the rocky shore. It’s hard to know who placed it there. It could have been a local, but it could also have been a tourist. Tourists have taken to making such offerings, thinking they’re honoring Hawaiian culture. But they’re blissfully unaware that, in Hawaiian culture, the when, where, why, how, and by whom of these things can be very specific. Any deviation from correct practices can turn a good intention into an insult.
A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, except perhaps in politics, where it appears to be a prerequisite these days!
A few days ago I posted photos of people surfing outside the breakwater at Keokea Beach Park (here). This photo shows the sheltered waters inside the breakwater.
Last week, I went out to Keokea Beach Park for the first time in quite a while. It’s a scenic little park, with a breakwater protecting a shallow area where kids can get in the water safely, a rarity on this stretch of coast.
Outside the breakwater, waves rolling in from the northeast had lured some surfers into the water. It looked a little hairy, riding those waves, apparently headed for the rocks. But the surfers were angling across the waves, from right to left as I looked at them, and so were pretty safe unless they made a major mistake. Those who did end up in the water were dismounting rather than wiping out.
Graham's Island 