The Luck Pot

Picture of Steffi – our housemate who cut her dreads off yesterday! It was very emotional for her as she has had them for quite a long time. She looks and feels great though. Congratulations Steffi!

It has been a busy few days. Z and I took Thursday off, got Vanessa’s car and headed out SURFING! Scott, our housemate came with us. Our plan was to return to Lahaina, the place where I had my first lesson. Unfortunately the wind was blowing and the waves were scarce. Scott, a much more seasoned surfer than either Z or I was anxious to catch some more exciting waves.

We asked around at the surf rental shop and were told that the waves would be better 15 minutes north at Kahana. Z and I rented boards and the three of us took off towards Kahana.

Scott was the first to jump out of the car. There were condo developments lining this particular strip of ocean, so we had to find a good entry place to get to the beach. While all this was happening our beautiful sun had disappeared and the sky was gray and overcast.

Scott looks out and declares “yeah man, we can totally surf in this!” I can see that the surf is breaking MUCH farther out than it had where I had surfed before. And NO ONE is surfing there. Not a soul on the beach. We try to ask around about whether it is safe to surf there, but we could not seem to get any conclusive answer.

Trying to assuage my fears, Scott assures me that I can handle the bigger waves and the only thing I should be worried about is sharks. SHARKS???!!! Great. Just what I needed. I thought sharks didn’t hang around Hawaii all that often.

Scott is persistent however, so we park the car, suit-up and unload the boards. I am (as you can imagine) pretty vocal about my concerns. To no avail. We get into the water and start paddling out. I paddle for about five minutes before turning around. It was too eerie and all I kept thinking was “haven’t I heard some rule about not surfing areas that you are not familiar with??? And if there isn’t such a rule, there definitely should be.” My paranoia took over and I bailed.

Z and Scott continued however. I watched as they paddled farther and farther out. Anyway, they surfed for a bit and then returned and we all went back to Lahania, the sunshine and the smaller waves.

Sure enough, upon our return home we recount the events of our day to Vanessa. Without mentioning my cowardice or the ominous feeling in Kahana Vanessa (who has lived and surfed in Maui for 11 years) tells us that most people don’t surf there as it generally suspected to be haunted. On top of that – a surfer died last year from a shark bite while surfing that very same break. Nice. Scott is in BIG trouble.

The rest of the evening was spectacular. Myra lead an “Energy Management” class – sort of a guided meditation. Afterwards we feasted on our potluck (or as our Italian roomie calls it ‘luckpot’) dinner. Yum. We all slept well last night on full tummies.

Today was a working day. We hit up yoga in the morning and then transferred a massive amount of mulch from the bottom of the very very long and steep driveway to the top. It was a stupendous workout and I proudly showed off my new blisters at dinner.

Z and I will probably zonk out early tonight. We are working a bit tomorrow. Sunday the whole house will be heading out for a long hike that involves a number of swimming holes and caverns of some sort. I am sure I will have many pictures and stories to report on then.

PLG and KAG – have a wonderful trip and give Jenny many many hugs for me!