Friday night and the kids are all right...

This is the local celebrity - Bethany Hamilton. She is a young surfer girl who got her arm bitten off by a 14-foot tiger shark on October 31, 2003 while surfing around here. You should visit her website and read her amazing story (www.bethanyhamilton.com/bio.htm). We came to watch the sunset at Blackpot beach but I was struck by the fun atmosphere - the water is filled with the local kids surfing and playing on the small waves.

I love this picture of all the local kids catching the same wave. This is fun surfing where the kids romp on their boards, jump from board to board, tandem surf, or just dance on their boards trying to be the goofiest surfer. Notice that the surfer in the foreground is Bethany.

From the end of the pier at Blackpot beach, we watch the surfer kids race to have fun before the day ends. The beach is filled with kids, dogs, and few tourists. It is one of the those rare moments where you feel you are part of a community instead of some alien resort estate. Families are camping here awaiting the big surf expected tomorrow, waves from 12-28'.

Its Friday evening and this is how all the kids play until nightfall. Whereas kids on the mainland would be playing baseball or kick the can until dark, kids here surf and romp in the waves.  

At the end of the day the light takes on magical properties where the color of the sea matches the sky giving you the sense of infinity. (the weird sky is an artifact of digital compression, the original has a sky of uniform color).

The forever beautiful Hanalei Bay at sunset. I love the way the clouds look almost like another layer of mountains in the horizon with their tip aglow from the setting sun.