Welcome to The North Shore
Hard to believe that it was almost 12 years ago now that we took a family holiday to Oahu's North Shore. It was the most amazing holiday with memories that will truly last forever. We spent 5 weeks living in a house on the beach at Rocky Point. This was a time when we were learning as a family about Autism and how to help Joshie thrive and learn and grow, and how to help Benny not be lost in the background. We wanted to give the boys an adventure as family. This was at a time when J would spend every waking moment surfing. Working with his surfing coach at the time, who accompanied us on the trip, we planned the trip to coincide with tail end of the Hawaiian winter, our goal was to make sure we lined up with waves not too big and not too small. I'd say we got it pretty right. On the first weekend there, a small swell pushed through that created a surfable wave at Waimea Bay. With his coach, Joshie, paddled out and I can remember seeing, with my heart in my mouth terrified, him pushed into the biggest wave he had ever ridden. Unfortunately I had the wrong lens on the camera, but it is still one of the very best images I never took! He came in absolutely pumped. There wasn't another wave at Waimea the whole time we were there! It cemented my belief that we must never let ourselves be constrained to what the world thinks we are capable of doing, that anything is possible, you have to find your passion and chase it with every ounce of your being. For the next 5 weeks we swam, and surfed, we explored every rock pool and chased every wildly coloured fish. It's a really special place, Chris and I honeymooned there and 5 years later we went back for Joshie to run his first marathon at the Honolulu Marathon. Fingers crossed we'll get back there one day, but for now, these are some of the most special images I have.
Image 1: Splash. This is my all time favourite image. It was taken on the beach at Pipeline. It captures the simply incredible interaction of the sand and foam that I have never seen anything like on any other beach. This is one of the few images I have taken that hangs on the wall in our house.
Image 2: The shore break at Waimea Bay... enough said.
Image 3: Even on a small day Pipeline is huge... one of the three surfers is Joshie... he didn't catch a wave that day, it was really big... but he can always say he paddled out at Pipe. This was another heart in mouth moment watching from the beach as they paddled to get under this one that came out of nowhere...
Image 4: Sunset from the beach house we stayed at... I can never get sick of this, it's stunningly beautiful...
Image 5: Sharks Cove... from the ocean side... taken whilst snorkelling!
Image 6: We spent so much time snorkelling and the green sea turtles were so captivating, what incredible creatures. Such a privilege to have spent time swimming with them and capturing the odd image here and there!