All good things must come to an end

From my little perch in a 10th floor apartment I try to absorb enough of the Waikiki view to last me a lifetime. Well that might be a little overdramatic seeing that I will surely return to Hawaii some day, but with my current finances in mind I think it is prudent to assume it will be a while before my return to surfing glory. The view from where I am sitting really is spectacular, lapis blue sea and lightly swaying palmtrees as far a the eye can see, but Waikiki and I will probabaly never really get along. Too many highrises, plastic replicas of Hawaiian artifacts, and way way too many tourists. That might sound a little hollow considering that I myself am a visitor to the Islands, but Id like to consider myself Kama'aina (meaning welcome resident or long term visitor). The next time I visit though I think id prefer to reside on one of the other islands. Maui which we visited this past week was amazing in many ways, and especially the North Shore towns of Paia and Hana had the local vibe that spells Hawaii to me. No rush, friendly attitudes and most importantly room to move and live. It didnt hurt that the best kitebeaches in the world are located nearby, and that one can get to ride one of the gnarliest waves in the world, Jaws, if one should suddenly develop suicidal tendencies. As most of you have probably guessed I would definitely choose the North Shore if I was ever to live on Oahu again. Still bugs me that I never got to kitesurf Mokuleia on the North Shore, but at least I got to see polo up there which is almost as cool. Not. Sitting hunched over my laptop the question of how best to spend the last days in paradise does present itself. I struggle to come up with anything really good, but I can proudly say I got up at 630 this morning and had a pretty good surfsession at Waikiki beach for the first time. Im hoping therell be wind tomorrow so I can get in one last tropical kitesession before its back to the muddy waters of Amager. I am however looking forward to the briliant Scandinavian winds! Tonight I will drink brightly colored cocktails because this i Waikiki after all, and then I will begin to look forward to my 36 hour flight back home. Aloha!

A celebration of evil globalized monopoly

Today, heavily hungover, I decided to feast in all the wrongs America has to offer. So the girls and I went to "hang out" at the Barns and Noble/Starbucks franchise conspiracy at Ala Moana Center. Two of the very evilest franchises the world has seen, joined forces to steal even more of your attention, time and money. And oh does it work. In this particular coffeeshop/bookstore you can tak any book or magazine on the shelf (and mind you ive never seen as many copies of either anywhere) and read for as long as you want while consuming endless amounts of much too cheap due to monopoly coffee. They have every magazine avaliable here, and regardless of your fetish youll should be well pleased. Its porn for the wannabe intellectual is what it is. At the Satrbucks counter I recieved service from a tiny trasvestite lady who insisted that my name was "Miss". Which resulted in a conversation along the lines of: "Here's our coffee miss" - "oh thank you miss" - "oh your welcome miss". Probably only funny at the time. Now the only thing left to decide is which of the books within reach I will preview: Windows 7 secrets or Skintight by Susan Andersen...

The return of the urbanized Hawaiian

It's been a while I know. And much has happened since the last posting. Most significantly I have abandoned the country life in Kailua, and setteled into a Pent House in buzzing Waikiki. Gone is the serene mornings, and clean country air and in its stead I find an ever pulsating nightlife and fastfood in all shape and sizes. Did i trade down? Well in most ways I probably did, but then again its hard to complain when you wake up to a glorious mountainview from the 22 floor, and start every morning out by taking a dip in the pool on the 6th floor. The Waikiki life is in many ways the antithesis to the quite village that is Kailua. Our building is "secure" meaning that you need a central key to do any and all things. The elevator does not go up or down without it and you cant access the pool. This means that you personally have to go down and pick up all guests, which I suppose is kinda good hostmanship, but very annoying nonetheless. The Waikiki surfing is not bad but crowded as hell, which is a shame as I have all the time in the world on my hands with exams being over and all. The exams were quite stressful but as far as I can gather I am now unoficially a straight A student. Consider this a preliminary notice though, as the final results are still pending. Tomorrow Christian and I are headed to the infamous West-shore of Oahu where the locals allegedly beat you up if you are a white boy. Were hoping the rumors of the local un-aloha behaviour turn out to be wrong... Ill let you know.

Why one crazy landlady in the house is worse than two on the roof

So my landlady lost it. During the last couple of days I have been indited with a wide range of different house-crimes amongst those are the theft of my next door roomie's shampoo, and having entertained illigal company. More specifically my old and dear friend Flemming slept over one night because we were going camping in the morning. The young man next door ratted me out to the landlady and the shit hit the fan. A house meeting was called because the indian-jewish spirits of the house had been disturbed by the unrest. This last part is purely speculation by the way. I call it as I see it you know? So now im F'ed in the A basically, because my pride prevents me from staying much longer in the asylum I have called home for the last 3 months, and it is not easy getting a place to stay for a month and a half without paying an arm and a leg. But hey, at least camping was fun.

We went to the North Shore and set up camp. We found a nice little private camping site called Friends of Malei Kahana (I finally managed to memorize the name, but still cant get the hang of the spelling though). We arrived and it seemed we had gotten the perfect spot. No one around to complain about the noice and inappropriate behaviour and the beach only a stone's throw away. We went kitesurfing for about an hour and when we returned at whole frekin platoon of the Boy Scouts were setting up camp next to ours. When an actual platoon of army guys decided to visit our camp later in the evening I had a nagging notion that we might not be welcome the following day. But what the hell: Seize the Day, no?

It turned out we didnt get kicked out at all. Not one complaint. Very tolerant or very deaf people. Rent of the trip was spent surfing and boozing making it a pretty perfect weekend.

Booze cruise and beyond

Sam arrived not to long ago and since he touched down things have taken a turn for the worse. Heavy drinking has been the order of the day and my previous brand of clean Hawaiian living has been tainted. Will it ever be the same I wonder? Not to say that it hasn't been fun. This friday Flemming, Sam and myself decided to join the teenage tourist delinquents in Waikiki on the notorius booze cruise. The booze cruise is a short 1,5 hour journey on a catamaran equipped with a abundant bar. It costs 20 dollars and then the world is your oyster for the duration of the trip. Of course we missed the cruise by 10 minutes and had to watch the mothership of boozing take of without us. We have already booked tickets for next week. That trip we will most likely also miss. It takes more than a missed opportunity to knock us out however and we quickly re-organized and sat down at the nearest sea side bar. Its the first time ive been doing some Waikiki mainstream drinking and its certainly an experience. Its like driniking in the 80ties. After that we went to first friday downtown and did the boogie. The Honolulu nightlife is actually pretty happening when you figure out where to go. We ended up in what I assume is Honolulu's answer to Copenhagen's McKluud: Golden Gate Pub. We shot some pool with what appeared to be some local homeless people, and we shot some shots with each other. Much to my regret it turned out to be very difficult to find a decent kebab to finish of the evening, so we had to go for hotdogs!?! An unworthy ending to an otherwise epic night.

In case of an emergency the exits are located...

I jumped out of an airplane this saturday. A stupid thing to do some would say. Was there something wrong with the plane? some would want to know. Well actually there just might have been something wrong with the plane. It looked like prop from a 2. world war movie, except for the fact that it was covered in doodles apparently made by a kindergarten class. The padding inside the plane was hanging from the walls and ceilings, and the seats were very uncomfortable. In many ways it was a plane that suggested jumping as the safer option to landing. As the plane ascended to its destination at 16000 feet, we, the passengers, got the most amazing view of the North Shore of Oahu where the tiny skydiving airfield was located. Mountain ranges streched as far as the eye could see and the Hawaiian shoreline never looked more inviting. Unfortunately scenery like that makes you comtemplate how stupid you are to voluntarily be risking your life by jumping out of a resonably safe aircraft. On the other hand you know that your mind in bound to fuck with you, and try to persuade that little baby of a man living within you to abandon this idiotic notion that man were ever meant to fly without motorized assistance. So you tell the little voice to nutt up or shut up, and contrary to what you might expect it worked. What really helped me overcome my fear og jumping was the fact that the tiny red haired guy in front of me was obviously much more scared than I was. I mean this dude was pissing his pants. You can pretty much always pick out the really nervous guy by identifying the white knuckles that come with holding on to your seat way to hard. Also his very very quiet demeanour was a good clue. When someone that scared is sitting right next to you, it sort of takes the pressure of your shoulders. Hell I look like a regular daredevil compared to this guy. "Ha ha. Hey everybody come see how scared this pussy is." When they open the door at 16000 feet it IS freakin scary though. I was last out of the plane, and my instructor didnt see it prudent to stop at the door before jumping like everyone else. He just ran us straight from our seats and out the door, threw us into a backflip and it was ON! Sickest feeling ever. Two thumps up. Highly reccomended.

Why it's harder to go backwards than forwards

Glorious springbreak is upon us. No homework for an entire week, means time to finally do something meaningful with my time. Pretty much everyone else has fled the island to visit either family on the mainland og some of the other Hawaiian islands that are supposed to be much more beautiful than Oahu. I have no money so Oahu will have to do for me. The beautiful thing is that Oahu seems a lot "lighter" now that everyone has left as Devon from my sustainability class put it. The beaches are less crowded, the lineup has room for even chumps like me and traffic congestion seems a little less prevalent than normal. I have been surfing like a crazy motherbiatch during the week, and gotten a little better. A have also sprained both my albows and seem to be pouring water out of my skull on a constant basis but it's all good! Mike has taught me how to do the turtle roll where you flip over and use the bottom of the board as a shield against the biggest waves. This particular technique appararently causes the "water coming out of your head syndrome". I have no surf pictures yet but I do have a shot of the surf-ready Buick. Sweet!



The title of this posting refers to a bit of community work that I have had time to do this week. Along with an American Kailua-girl named Becky and a french Kailua-girl named Cloe I went to do work on a ancient Hawaiian Heiau (meaning temple). To get to the site we hade to go through a cement quarry, and the site itself lay right under the H-3 highway. This slightly parculiar coincidence is due to the fact the the temple was discovered during the construction of the highway. The city council wanted to build on top of the ancient ruins but some locals chose to oppose the decision by camping out under the construction site for 3 (!) years. Eventually it was decided to run the H-3 just next to the ruins rather than through them. Our particular job for the day was to clear the road leading to the temple because a funeral service was to be held there during the weekend. The old caretaker of the ground had just passed away and his dying whish was to be buried in the temple of his forfathers. So we did prison work basically, stading in a long line clearing bushes and rocks off the road. The grandson of the caretaker worked along side of us so everyone was happy to help. In the end we ate lunch a the temple site, and got a tour of the grounds which was lush with Papaya, Coconut, Avocado, Chili, Sugarcane and whatnot. I have never seen that sort of abundance in my life. The site is home to both the male and female heiau. Back in the day the women hung out in their temple (there was different places for playing, workig and giving birth) and the men fought and chilled in their penthouse heiau from which they could keep an eye on the women down below. Both temples are almost completely destroyed though and the restoration is going to take many year to complete if it ever happens. The people working on the highway ruined the remnants of the temples in a matter of months and it's gonna take forever to rebuild. Sometimes it really is a lot easier to move forwards than to go backwards.

In the pictures you can see our tourguide, Lelei (I think it was...), the grandson of the deceased caretaker.