Mahalo Nui, Andy Irons

Since we left our best boards in Nicaragua, the first order of business was to make enough money for each of us to buy a stick for this winter in Hawaii.  That didn't take too long and here's what we got:

Ian got a sick Tractor board shaped coincidentally, for Andy Irons (yesterday was his passing - RIP Andy - what a truly devastating blow to the islands of Hawaii and the entire international surfing community.)  I got a JC.  Ian is madly in love with his new board and I'm getting used to the thinness of the nose on mine, but am loving the ease of duck-diving.  Unfortunately, neither of us are getting in the water as much as we'd like but I suppose that's the trade-off with work and also, the commute to waves.  

This project has made us feel like we brought a little piece of Nicaragua home with us.  Ian built a raised planter box a couple of weeks ago, and we've planted an array of herbs, vegetables, and strawberries.  Everything is doing really well, especially the tomatoes, the jalapeños and the manoa lettuce.  It's fun to check the daily progress of our plants.  The Hawaiian chili plant was struggling initially, but has somehow managed to pull through.  Bless this state and it's year-round growing season.  

And here are a couple of throw back pictures from our last couple of weeks in Nicaragua.  Jaime was visiting from Maui and convinced me to get on a horse, after the fin of her board gashed open her arm and put her out of the water for her last few days in town.  I'm glad I did because it was a blast.  Puna followed us the whole length of the beach, keeping an appropriate distance and I managed to get my old girl Canelo, moving at a jockey's pace.  What a beautiful sunset we got too.  

And that's that.  More to come.  The circus is arriving to the North Shore and the Rip Curl Pro starts this week.