Topic: Coming to Maui on August 2nd

[Fyrel]

I'll be staying at the Outrigger Royal Kahana from August 2nd to 7th. Anybody up for training with my brother and I?

[Gregg]

I have no idea what's near Kahana, other than the beach. Kahana Gateway is pretty small. Fields, gulches, stream beds...
Because you're not going to be around on Saturday 1 or 8, my chances of getting to Lahaina, Ka'anapali or Kahana are pretty small.

Will you guys be staying West Side, or coming over to Central / South Maui to play tourist? Any plans for Thursday - Aug 6? Let me know.

[Fyrel]

We'll probably be playing tourist; my parents are planning to travel all around the island, and I don't think we have extremely concrete plans yet, so we'll see if we can work something into our schedule. I'm pretty sure my parents are willing to let me train wherever.

[Gregg]

We'll try to play it by ear, then... I hope you have a great time.

[Fyrel]

Right, my parents say we have nothing planned, so anything goes. Any spots you can show us? Name a time and a place.

[Gregg]

My idea is to meet up at Iao Valley. Your parents can walk around, enjoy the cool, look at the sites, or go into Wailuku or Kahului while we run around. Wear stuff you can totally trash, and bring a change of clothes. Assume you're going to get wet and muddy. If your parents like to hike, there are 2 decent hikes that I can show them.

You can do a little regular parkour at the beginning, if it isn't too crowded. I'm planning to head upstream/ into the forest for Methode Naturelle inspired training - which means we'll be walking, running, jumping, crawling, climbing, balancing, lifting, carrying, throwing, catching, swimming [tho the water's very shallow], and maybe some sumo wrestling or something.

For time: It's really best at like 10 am... I'll try to get in touch with Shiloh. I think it will be more fun with 4 [or 6 if your parents want to join in].

 

[Fyrel]

Alright, so I do have internet here.



What's the address/exact place we're meeting?

[Gregg]

I'ao Valley State Park.

[Fyrel]

Sorry if it's an obvious question, but where exactly at I'ao State Park? I've never been there, so I don't know if there's an obvious meeting spot or not. Sorry.

[Gregg]

Sorry - I got interrupted while I was typing. Iao is west of Wailuku by a couple miles. The road twists and turns, but ends in the Iao parking lot. From there, a wide paved walkway leads up to the bathroom and a couple rails. That would be an obvious place to meet. But it's not a beautiful place to hang out, so I'll look for you anywhere between the rock wall at the opening of the walkway, and the bridge that overlooks Iao Stream w/ a view of the Iao Needle.

I'll wear my brown HIpk shirt, and the shorts I'm wearing in my avatar photo. (I hope they still fit.)

[Gregg]

I've tried to get in touch with Shiloh. He's taking time off from the forums, and didn't answer his phone. I left a message and email. I hope he can make it.

[Fyrel]

Alright, I can't wait. Will we be constantly traveling or will we stay at each spot for a little bit?

[Gregg]

We'll move. Iao's 99% natural. We'll play it by ear, a little.

[Gregg]

8:30: I feel like I used to before a marathon.
8:40: Toilet refused to flush. Luckily for me, I've been to Philippines. Pour in a few gallons of water, it flushes. Yay. Time to fill out a maintenance form, tho.

Getting ready to go, so I'll be early. Was going to try to tie in with a computer service call, but now I'm not sure.

[Gregg]

Tim, Tom - it was a ton of fun. Thanks for taking time out of your schedule to hit Iao with me.
Shiloh - you missed it. It was epic.

The lower trail at Iao is where I'm going to take any visiting traceurs from now on. It's gorgeous, green, wet. The guavas are beginning to ripen. I wish the yellow ginger was also in flower. Anyway - we stayed mostly on the path, hiked up-stream for about 45 minutes. Then we went down to the stream and tried to rock-hop back. There were some epic bails - I lost my glasses at one point early on and had to swim around underwater until I found them.

Tim and Tom were wearing 5.10s. I was barefoot, but carried slippas just in case. They were able to do bigger jumps, longer precisions onto the rocks, bigger drops. I played it a lot safer, a lot more QM or taking a bunch of smaller rocks. Finished off with a bit of a swim, then hit the rails for some regular-type PK.

I'm looking forward to the photos.

[Gregg]

I just saw the discussion Tom started at BAPK on old age and parkour. Now I'm trying to figure out if I'm older than Giorgio.

[based on http://www.americanparkour.com/content/view/4303/378/ ]

[Fyrel]

*massive facepalm*

I'm sorry, I totally forgot to get the pictures here....I really should get something to remind me of these things. Anyhow, here they are. MASSIVE IMAGE LOAD AHEAD



Views from the tourist area:







Iao Needle:






You know it's going to be a great day when the first thing Greg does is to find a wild guava fruit for us to eat.
"My aunt always told me that the pulp will give you the runs and the rind will give you constipation, so eat both. Hopefully it'll balance out."



Heading out on the offroad trail:
Greg is more of a man than we are and is going on this barefoot, hence the sandals on the hands.













Finally arriving at the stream:
The first attempt at jumping from a rock went awry. We didn't spot a patch of moss from the rock, and Greg slipped and fell into the water on the first jump, knocking his glasses into the water.



I wasn't much better off; I seriously underestimated the moss and assumed I could jump from where Greg could not. The photos speak for themselves.




Possibly my favorite shots of the bunch:




I wish this photo wasn't blurry.


Tim and Greg eyeing a jump:



Wheee!



Greg in action:



Bails!
Looks painful, but he's fine.





Fell while winding myself up for a jump.....without jumping:



Swimming!
The water was cold, but manageable, and we had fun swimming a couple laps.





Misc photos:

















Overall it was a very great trip. It was a great experience, and was very different from the usual training you get in the cities, yet you end up utilizing the same skillsets. The place is beautiful and was very fun. Thanks for taking us out there, it was the highlight of the vacation!

[Gregg]

You've got some great pictures in there! Tim's bail pic is so funny, and of course the one where you were going to do the big jump, and slipped off the rock. And my glasses bail... I may crop that and use it for my avatar

Too bad jumps don't look as big on camera as they do when you're looking at a rock [or gravel] on the other side of the water.

Thanks so much for training with me.