Hawaii Kai and the baby whale

Today we paddled out at Hawaii Kai. We had Jimmy Austin, the current world champ (well untill the end of this month, he humbly said...), as coach.

We launch where the Hui Nalu Canoe Club is. Snooping around like a tourist, a beautiful wood canoe caught my eyes. I don't know the brand but it was so beautiful.

Jimmy wanted to take us out of our comfort zone today. So we went out to the island (see that greyish photo with half the island on the left). Not only we were out our comfort zone, we also saw two Humpback Whales. A mama one and a baby one. The baby whale was a little curious...and decided to swim towards us.....so Jimmy told us to hug the rocks (ok not literally hugging the rocks, but paddle close to the rocks).

Whales are magnificent beings, but at the same time you will also put your life at risk if you paddle too close to one...one slap of the tail on your canoe and you are a goner...

I also had the awesome opportunity to paddle on the Scorpius XS today. It is the smaller one of the two current Scorps on the market. I really like this canoe. Its like my current OC1 but not tippy. And that baby surfs like OMG....the only con it has is the rudder. Its compilcated make made it easier to fall off....but everything else ticks the box. Highly recommended.

On the way back we commented on how little islands resemble its name. For example, rabbit island...(see the photo with a greyish island on the blue water?)....can you see it resembling a rabbit?