Sunday, October 23, 2011

Puka Pali & Likeke Falls hike

It was bargain day on the hiking trail today. 2 for 1! Puka Pali and Likeke Falls. We met up at the Pali Lookout this morning to hike up to the Pali Puka...yep the cliff hole...or hole in the cliff if you want context.

The hike to the puka was short but challenging. It was up, up, up the whole way. Not to mention we traversed along a ridge with a vertical drop down the right side. I kept thinking favor your left, favor your left. If was going to slip and fall I wanted to fall to my left where I could land in some shrubs and trees. If I went right it was down the cliff into instant death. Yeah, favor the left.


Puka Picture!

It wasn't long until we reached the top of the trail and the hole in the cliff. I actually thought the hole would be bigger but it was still pretty cool to see. There were six of us and the hole was just large enough for us to cram in for a picture. But we still had to be careful, there's nothing on the other side of the hole except a vertical drop and more instant death. It's a dangerous hole.


The rain started falling just as we started to head back down to the Pali Lookout. Made things slippery and now I kept thinking favor your right, favor your right. Going down was tricky. The rain didn't help. We had to take it slow and be sure of our footing, or at least I did since I hike in worn down running shoes. But we got out relatively safely. Only one person fell but got right back up, wiped the dirt/mud off, and kept on going.

Back at the Lookout, the rain continued to fall while we waited for some more people to join us for the next hike: Likeke Falls. The falls hike was pretty easy, the first half followed an old paved road which ran alongside the Pali Highway. The trail began when we actually had to go underneath the highway. It was an easy trail, just a little slippery from the rain, which had now subsided.

Likeke Falls. You can sort of see us.
We reached the falls and stopped to enjoy the sight and take some pictures, throw a go-pro camera into the water, and generally mess around. For some reason I had the inclination to climb up the rocks along the side of the falls. So I did. As far as I could safely go, at least. Then we posed for a group pic in front of the falls. Again, I had an urge to climb something so I went for a tree branch that hung over the area. It looked like a comfortable seat and it was.

We met another hiker who came to the falls from another trail. Older guy. He was dressed rather nicely for a hike. Long pants, belt, and an aloha shirt. He even had a spiffy hat. Nice fellow. Gave us a little history lesson about the trail and how it was an old cobblestone road.

Getting back to the Pali Lookout from the falls was a bit tiring for me. I mean, this was hike #2 already and it was all uphill. But we made it. Just in time for the rain to start up again. And it rained hard. But hey, at least it rinsed the mud off us a bit. Good hike!

NAGA - as a spectator

 Today was the North American Grappling Association (NAGA) tournament. It's a submission grappling tournament but it's primarily made up of jiu-jitsu practitioners. I didn't participate but was there to watch and support my teammates from Gracie Barra University of Hawaii.

When I arrived the kids tournament was winding down and the woman's competition was getting ready to go. The event took place in a high school gymnasium and mats were laid down above the basketball court to make up 12 rings. The place was packed. The bleachers were crowded and spectators surrounded the mats. It was standing room only and luckily for me, GB had taken up a spot along the end of the mats. We had a pretty good view of all the fights.

With almost 12 fights going on at all times there was plenty to watch and teammates were constantly rolling. It wouldn't be practical to recap every match I watched so I'll go over some highlights and a few key matches I was able to watch. Oh, I should mention that I'm purposely leaving out names.

The first medal match I saw was for the younger age group. One of our 16 year old blue belts made it to the finals of his division. It was a good match. The 16 year old ended up in top-position and was able to mount a good offense and defend several attempted sweeps. But eventually he was caught off balance and ended up on his back. I didn't see exactly how the match ended but I think our 16 year old tapped out to a choke. He rolled well and took home silver.

Our women were next to roll in the no-gi competition. Two of our own teammates got paired up and had to go against each other. Always unfortunate when that happens. I don't know who to cheer for so I usually just keep quiet. Both rolled well and scored points but the match ended with an armbar. The one who pulled off the armbar went on the the finals. In the finals the opponent quickly attached the neck with a standing guillotine choke. My teammate tried to pull guard and escape but the choke was in deep. So deep that my teammate ended up going unconscious, a rather scary moment. Tense moments passed as all of the GB people hoped she would be okay. She came to a moment later and as soon as she smiled we knew she was all right. Hats off to her, she took home silver.

When the woman's gi competition started up our newest blue belt took the mat. Unfortunately she got a tough draw and went up against a teammate, who is a three-stripe blue belt and an instructor for the woman's class. Yep, our new-blue was up against her instructor. But she did well. She jumped and pulled guard and was able to keep our 3-stripe under control for the first few minutes. But our 3-stripe would not be controlled for much longer. She methodically broke out of guard, passed, and worked for a submission. An expected result but it was great to see both ladies laughing together before, after, and even during their match. Good job ladies!

The men's no-gi competition was going on and one I was able to catch part of a finals match involving one of our guys. This guy is one of our more experienced white-belts and helps instruct one-on-one intro classes for new members to our school. My vantage point was a bit far from the match but I saw some nice take downs, sweeps, and reversals. The moment that stood out to me was when our guy was in top-position, the opponent threw his legs up high in an attempt to catch a triangle choke but instead ended up throwing a knee into our guy's nose. The match had to stop for a moment to make sure there was no bleeding and that our guy was okay. Our guy finished the match strong, likely invigorated by taking a knee to the face, and won on points. He did awesome. Although he ended with a swollen and blueish nose, it went well with his gold medal.

The while-belt gi competition was next to get underway. I've watched most of the these guys progress since they first joined and I was excited to see them roll. One of our guys had a very exciting match. He had my favorite take-down of the day as he began the match with a sacrifice-throw. FYI, a sacrifice-throw is any throw in which you expose your back to your opponent. There's an inherent risk with that, hence the name sacrifice-throw. Anyway, our guy did a beautiful sacrifice arm-throw then immediately went to work. He passed his opponent's guard, went to the mount position, and even took his opponent's back. Our guy got reversed and ended up on his back but was able to work back to guard and get a sweep. It was a non-stop, action-packed match and our guy won by submission.

Another white-belt I was eager to watch just recently got his third stripe (so I guess you could say he's a third-degree white-belt) and is one of the most motivating and positive guys in our school. He's a big, strong guy and one of the things we've been trying to instill in him is “technique, not strength.” Today, I think he was able to keep that in mind. When the match started our guy pulled guard right away. He worked non-stop to control his opponent's posture, constantly breaking him down and keeping him low. This kept his opponent from mounting any sort of effective offense, plus it tired him out. After a few minutes our guy started to work for a sweep. He nearly pulled off a sit-up sweep but was stuffed just before he got it. His opponent stood up to try and break the guard but our guy didn't let him escape. Our guy immediately went for a pull-feet sweep. He wasn't able to get it but it kept the opponent off balance so he went back down to his knees. The match ended scoreless and went to a referee's decision. The ref awarded our guy with the win because he was more active and attacked several sweeps. Very good job. With the win, our guy took home gold.

The blue-belts gi competition was next and I was very excited to watch one my instructors compete. He's a three-stripe blue belt and was sporting a Chuck Liddell like hair style. In every match he jumped into guard and went to work playing spider-guard and attacking sweeps. FYI, spider-guard is a type of open guard where you control your opponent by keeping a grip on his sleeve and keeping your foot against his bicep. It's a great way to control your opponent's upper body and easily move with your opponent as they try to move around you. Our guy worked his guard beautifully. He had my favorite sweep of the day. I believe it's called a helicopter sweep. Our guy was on his back with his feet on his opponent's hips and a grip on each of his opponent's sleeves. The opponent was trying to shift his weight but our guy was able to extend his legs and lift the opponent completely off the mat. He kicked his legs up, pulled his opponent's sleeves down, and flipped his opponent over onto his back. The beautiful part of it was that our guy not only flipped his opponent but also rolled with him and finished the sweep in the mount position. 6 points! Our guy won that match en route to the finals.

The final match started out just like all the others. Our guy pulled guard and went to work attacking sweeps. And much like all the other matches, our guy got the sweep. He then passed guard and ended up in side-control. Our guy was up 5 to nothing. His opponent was no slouch and kept active. The opponent was able to reverse position and get on top but that didn't last long as our guy quickly reversed position again and passed the guard and got into side-control. Our guy dominated the match by controlling position and racked up the points. I think the match ended 14-2 or something like that. Our guy deftly won his division and won the gold.

NAGA was fun to watch and it was great to see so many of my teammates step up to the competition and to see several of them win medals. Our school had a large cheering section and I was joined by several teammates who weren't competing but showed up to show our support. Makes for a great atmosphere. My hat's off to all those who competed. Keep up the great rolling, see you all in training!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Hawaiian Overthrow

Ok so I'm going to do something way out of the ordinary and actually write about a serious topic. I've been living in Hawaii for about 10 years and truth be told I do not know a whole lot of Hawaiian history. In high school history class we spent a whopping one week on Hawaiian history and none of it covered the events of how Hawaii became a state (I went to high school in a small mountain town in California, not much interest in the topic there). And I really didn't learn too much more while at the University of Hawaii.

As I understand it, The Kingdom of Hawaii was basically overthrown greatly due to the political influence of sugar plantation owners. There were great profits to be made and plantation owners wanted to ensure land use for their own gain (greed strikes again!). The Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown, the royal lands ceeded to the United States, Hawaiian culture and language was discouraged, and it all resulted in a lot of resentment and anger among Hawaiian people to this very day. I feel I should also mention that the American president, Grover Cleveland, was sympathetic and felt America violated law along with a trustful relationship with Hawaii, but he didn't have much more time in office when Hawaii was annexed and the following president was so sympathetic.

Ok so there's the brief history as I know it, feel free to correct or add anything. But what spawned this blog was a short essay I recently read speculating what Hawaii would be like today if the overthrow never happened. In short the gist of the essay is: 1) If the royal lands were never ceeded the Hawaiian Kingdom would still have land 2) if the US military didn't occupy Hawaii there would be no US military in Hawaii, and 3) if the US didn't suppress Hawaiian language the people would be bilingual speaking both Hawaiian and English.

Yeah, so I figure these points are pretty much no-brainers. Now the author of the essay is no idiot, which leads me to believe the intent of her essay is to stir the emotions of a certain audience rather than to really explore alternative histories. So it got me wondering, what might have realistically happened??

First of all, let me say I have no idea. But before we go off completely vilifying the United States there are a few other things to consider. The United States wasn't the only major country that found it's way to Hawaii. I believe the French also had a sizable stake in the islands during the plantation era. Native Hawaiians were not the majority population during the plantation era and they weren't the only group being supressed. I believe the Chinese were the majority and they were the most militant in response to plantation owner suppression. Perhaps if given the opportunity the Chinese would have risen in power and eventually claimed the islands. Hawaii is without a doubt a profitable place and greed is universal. Finally, Hawaii is in a strategic military position in the Pacific Ocean.

With all these other factors it's hard to believe that Hawaii would have been left alone. Sure, the Kingdom was recognized and on good relations with other major countries making it seem as though the island nation would be left independent. But the Kingdom was recognized and on good relations with the United States too before the overthrow, which diminishes the notion that other countries would not have done what the US did.

I guess my whole thing is I'm disappointed at the essay. It's too easy to peg the US as the villain because hey, in regards to the overthrow the US was a villain. That much is clear and has even been acknowledged by the federal government. But to stay in that perspective and not even consider the reality of the situation and plausible alternate histories in a writing that claims to do so in its title is just...well it's just boring!

I was hoping for something more. Like, did the Hawaiian Kingdom realize it's position on a global scale and the interest many other countries may have had in it? If not what could have helped them to do so? And if so, were there any indications that the Kingdom could have guarded itself against those interests? Or what other countries, if any, were in a position to overthrow the Hawaiian Kingdom if the United States had not done so first? What else could have plausibly happened?  What might Hawaii plausibly look like today if the United States did not overthrow the Hawaiian Kingdom?

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Writer's Indecision

I haven't written a blog in a while. I thought I had a case of writer's block. I couldn't decide if I wanted to write about my fitness training, hiking, the struggles I'm experiencing as a writer (or should I say aspiring writer), some general musing, or post another office-related haiku. As I debated what to write about, I ended up not writing anything at all.

I didn't have writer's block. I had writer's indecision.

And I'm experiencing the same thing in other facets of life. As mentioned above, I'm aspiring to be a writer and I'm currently working on a story that I hope to one day see published as a novel. But lately I've been stuck trying to decide where to take the story. I have the end in mind, but not sure exactly how to get there. Should I introduce a new character? Should I take the characters on a brief side-adventure? Should I introduce a villain? Should I do nothing and keep thinking about it? Yeah...

There's a lot I want to do when it comes to fitness. In recent months I've been focused on training jiu-jitsu. But I've wanted to get back in to running and swimming. Last year I ran a lot and did fairly well in some events I entered (see my past blog about the Great Aloha Run for a recap). And swimming is fantastic. There's something about swimming in the Hawaii ocean that just makes me feel balanced and good. Recently I made some new friends that go hiking almost every weekend and I've had a great time on the few hikes I've done. I'd like to do more. But then there's the problem: jiu-jitsu, run, swim, hike...it's tough to fit them all in my schedule. And the more I try to decide what to do, the more indecisive I become.

Take last weekend for example. I wanted to go to jiu-jitsu training and practice some new techniques I've learned. But I also wanted to go hiking. The group was going a pretty fun looking trail I've never been on that offered great views at the top. The dilema: both were on the same day at the same time. I debated with myself all week long. Hike or jiu-jitsu, practice a cool new technique or check out an awesome view, do one or do the other...Yeah, so I ended up oversleeping and missing out on both. Figures right?

I'm pretty sure there's a lesson in there...