Wind and Waves
ALOHA, Howzit brah? (Go around saying this if you want to sound Hawaiian)
It's been a bit but I've been having large bundles of fun, however, this will be a little short because I have this bandage on my thumb (not really Mom). I went out of NZ in style by surfing the skies, or Hang Gliding! It was really awesome. It's not an everyday feeling to go running off of a mountain cliff 2,500 feet above the ground. I went tandem though so I was with a guy who knew what he was doing even though I ended up flying everything but the landing and he just took pictures. The scenery was certainly worth taking pictures as we were gliding over this valley surrounded by majestic mountains. And yes, you can see those pictures, and an awesome video of us doing aerobatics (you can really throw those things around!) as well as lots of other cool pictures and stories, details on how to follow in the next post.
Anyway, next a much longer flight to Hawaii, rather boring, the 2nd time they were showing Bridget Jones 2, but here's a plug for my Uncle J.R.'s pharmaceutical product Ambien. This is quite a beautiful place and the people are really awesome. In case you didn't know Aloha doesn't really mean "hello" as much as represent the spirit of friendship and hospitality (but I digress and the thumb throbs). The surfing here is great, no wonder it is legendary. The first night, I hung out with some great people from Knoxville and a new artist friend, we drove most of the coast and it is spectacular. I ended up going boogie boarding with Michael today at Sandy Beach (orignal name) and it was really cool. Dropping into these sweet waves and charging through a nice tube, gotta love it. Sadly, it only lasted about an hour and then one wave decided to be different and just crashed all at once. It sucked me up like a rag doll and threw me down onto the reef. My world became a somersaulting whirlwind of small bubbles with brief interruptions by large rocks. When I got out, I saw I was bleeding in a few places so I went to the doctor and got nice and cleaned up. Now I'm doing fine, no real stitches(honest Mom), and it's kind of cool cause I look like I got in fight or something, "You should see the other guy." Turned out we were on the most dangerous beach in HI (oops). So I'll go somewhere else next time.
An interesting thing happened the second night. I ended up getting a flat tire in my rental car. I changed it a parking lot near a movie theater and felt pulled to go over there. It turned out they were showing The Passion of the Christ and I knew why I was there. I just finished reading through Matthew and the thing that struck me the most was how numbed many of us are to the story, how ordinary it can seem. When in fact it is the account of the absolute singlemost amazing and meaningful time in the history of all that we know. I mean the God of the Universe put himself into the skin of a human and did a great number of things that we now only expect to see through the "magic" of the movie theatre. And then He shattered the divide we created through obstinance and gave all humanity access to return to the selves we were created to be.
WoW.
It's been a bit but I've been having large bundles of fun, however, this will be a little short because I have this bandage on my thumb (not really Mom). I went out of NZ in style by surfing the skies, or Hang Gliding! It was really awesome. It's not an everyday feeling to go running off of a mountain cliff 2,500 feet above the ground. I went tandem though so I was with a guy who knew what he was doing even though I ended up flying everything but the landing and he just took pictures. The scenery was certainly worth taking pictures as we were gliding over this valley surrounded by majestic mountains. And yes, you can see those pictures, and an awesome video of us doing aerobatics (you can really throw those things around!) as well as lots of other cool pictures and stories, details on how to follow in the next post.
Anyway, next a much longer flight to Hawaii, rather boring, the 2nd time they were showing Bridget Jones 2, but here's a plug for my Uncle J.R.'s pharmaceutical product Ambien. This is quite a beautiful place and the people are really awesome. In case you didn't know Aloha doesn't really mean "hello" as much as represent the spirit of friendship and hospitality (but I digress and the thumb throbs). The surfing here is great, no wonder it is legendary. The first night, I hung out with some great people from Knoxville and a new artist friend, we drove most of the coast and it is spectacular. I ended up going boogie boarding with Michael today at Sandy Beach (orignal name) and it was really cool. Dropping into these sweet waves and charging through a nice tube, gotta love it. Sadly, it only lasted about an hour and then one wave decided to be different and just crashed all at once. It sucked me up like a rag doll and threw me down onto the reef. My world became a somersaulting whirlwind of small bubbles with brief interruptions by large rocks. When I got out, I saw I was bleeding in a few places so I went to the doctor and got nice and cleaned up. Now I'm doing fine, no real stitches(honest Mom), and it's kind of cool cause I look like I got in fight or something, "You should see the other guy." Turned out we were on the most dangerous beach in HI (oops). So I'll go somewhere else next time.
An interesting thing happened the second night. I ended up getting a flat tire in my rental car. I changed it a parking lot near a movie theater and felt pulled to go over there. It turned out they were showing The Passion of the Christ and I knew why I was there. I just finished reading through Matthew and the thing that struck me the most was how numbed many of us are to the story, how ordinary it can seem. When in fact it is the account of the absolute singlemost amazing and meaningful time in the history of all that we know. I mean the God of the Universe put himself into the skin of a human and did a great number of things that we now only expect to see through the "magic" of the movie theatre. And then He shattered the divide we created through obstinance and gave all humanity access to return to the selves we were created to be.
WoW.
posted by Jonathan Hassell at 00:53
1 Comments:
JonD,
Wow!!!
I for one can't wait to hear your "Tales from the Trip". I thought I was over my parental paranoia until the scuffing with the coral ordeal. I trust in God's Grace of protection only so far, when it comes to single men and their love affair with invulnerability. At any rate, remember that to have a pipe you have to have the coral below. So, find a pipeless surf so that we can hear "Tales from the Trip", instead of "Tales from the Crypt".
Dad
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