Tag Archives: Surf

Abstracts: A’ama crabs and sea spray

Abstracts-A'ama crabs and sea spray

One of the first things anyone visiting a rocky seashore here will see is lots of little black shapes skittering away. Those shapes are a’ama crabs.

On this day, I had, as usual, spooked the crabs into motion, but after putting a little distance between me and them, they settled down again. Where they settled was on this sloping rock next to a blowhole. Moments later, water shot out of the blowhole creating this scene.

Where I would have been squealing and running from the sudden deluge, the a’ama crabs remained. I guess, living on these rocky shores, they are well used to this sort of thing.

Goldilocks’ breaking wave

A wave breaks off the Kohala coast
This week’s posts are in response to the WordPress photo challenge on the theme of ‘evanescent.’

In a previous photo challenge, I posted a photo of a ‘mountain of water.’ I’d been trying to capture waves breaking toward me and though that one didn’t break, it provided a surprising photo.

I mention this because a couple of days ago I was snorkeling and the surf was higher than I expected with visibility in the water consequently poor. I figured I wasn’t going to get any decent fish photos, but I thought I might get a nice surf shot. So I headed toward a deep spot close to shore where I could see the waves breaking toward me. I got to the spot and popped my head out of the water just in time to see a large breaking wave racing my way. It was probably the perfect shot, but sad to say, I lost my nerve. This was a big wave. I swam away, too late of course, and ended up in a froth of whitewater, pushing into my mask and up my nose. And then it was past.

I had to laugh. Truth is, I was never in danger. There’s enough space where I was that even this bigger wave wasn’t going to trouble me. But for that fleeting moment, I had serious doubts.

And this photo? Well, if the ‘mountain of water’ was too small, and my recent encounter too big, this wave was just right.

Mountain of water

A wave looks just like a mountain
Sometimes I get caught up taking a set of photos of certain things. Lately, I’ve been trying to capture waves breaking toward me. On this day the water looked promising, but mostly the waves refused to break.

However, it was a pleasant surprise to find that I’d managed to capture this image. The water has lumped into a pleasing mountain shape and the coral below looks like aspects of its rocky face.

A view of Maui and a wandering tattler

A wandering tattler flies along the Kohala coast
A wandering tattler flies along the Kohala coast on a bright breezy day. What’s notable about this photo is that it was taken in the afternoon and Maui is visible. The reason for that can be seen in the waves. They’re coming from the west to northwest. Waves were from the northeast are driven by the usual northeasterly trades, and those winds would have pushed cloud cover across Maui by this time of day.

Signs: High surf

A high surf sign at Hapuna beach

This is what people think of when they think of Hawaii: golden sand, blue water, and rolling surf at Hapuna beach, often touted as one of the best beaches in the world. Trouble is sometimes the surf gets too big, which is when the lifeguards have to get busy. Not sure the surf in this photo warrants the sign, but even small surf can cause trouble for people unfamiliar with it.