journeys

Captain James Cook was the first European to record contact with the Hawaiian Islands, and that was in 1778.
230 years later, I was looking at the white caps of the vast Pacific Ocean out of the window of the plane from my vantage point in seat 7K, thinking of Captain Cook and what a phenomenal journey he made to get here - It took him 3 years to get here from London, via Australia and the South Pacific.

Turns out, it takes almost as much effort to get here from Cape Town. In fact, the journey from Cape Town to the Hawaiian North Shore is probably the longest any surfer can make to a surf destination.

It entails 30 hours of actual flying time across two continents and two oceans, transfers through 5 airports, and finally, because you can't get enough of a good thing, a 2 hour bus ride around Oahu to reach the North Shore.

Unfortunately for photographer Alan Van Gysen, he did all of the above, and then he arrived on the North Shore after dark, got dropped off at a random bus stop and still had to find the house. After dragging his radically heavy camera gear up and down the road above Sunset and Backyards for an hour as he retraced his steps 6 times to and from Ted's Bakery to make sense of Dave Richards' directions, AVG finally made Dave meet him at Ted's Bakery and walk him home. Apparently Dave doesn't know his left from his right and his instructions were all backwards as a result.
Here's hoping Dave knows his backhand from his forehand because the Reef Hawaiian Pro kicked off at Haliewa today. It's the first contest of the Van's triple crown, and want to know the good news? The swell is due to kick tonight, and Surfline is calling a North West swell of 3.3 metres with a period of 15 seconds.