Blog: Crazy random things that made the 2012 boys #volleyball season memorable #Hawaii

edit: 5/8/12

2012 was a season to remember for our boys volleyball team with the first ever Hawaii State Tournament berth! But there were other random things I will always remember: . .

Longy Preseason Tournament - Traffic Jam! 45 minutes to go one mile and barely making it on time. Everyone arrived car sick. . . but they still managed to play get in to the Silver Bracket.

McKinley Preseason Tournament - Sleep deprivation 2nd weekend in a row . . . play until 10 pm and have to be there at 8 am the next morning. . . coffee anyone? Season starts this week!

McKinley/Anuenue - The boys letting their Principal lead the victory cheer that night. Woohoo! We have supporters wearing Kaiser Volleyball T-shirts!

Kailua/Roosevelt - Our team takes notice of Kailua's bench support and spirit and decides to do the same. I can still hear that cheer: "That's OK, That's Alright, Shake it Off, Shake it Off."

Castle - 75 minute bus ride for only ONE match, thought they scheduled double headers to save money? Seeing one one of our players finally believing in himself and earning a starting role for the rest of the season.

Farrington/Kalaheo - Senior night already? It's only mid-season - that is the problem with double header match scheduling only 2 home games. The team starts doing the "I'm Fired Up! - You're Fired Up!" - chant.

Kalani/Kaimuki - Hearing everyone chant "Garrett, Garrett, Garrett" and having him get in the game and score the last 2 kills to end the match while everyone went crazy!

Kahuku/Moanalua - This bus ride is way too long (105 min out and 95 min back) and having to listen to crazy high school kids go stir crazy the whole way back at the top of their lungs. No wonder the other coaches don't ride the bus. :)

Aiea (playoff at Roosevelt) - Enjoyed not having a 2 hour bus ride in traffic to Waianae like last year's 1st round playoff match. Our libero showed up with a mohawk and played lights out - told them after "It must be the hair."

Moanalua (playoff at Moanalua) - Loud, loud, loud, Moanalua AND Kaiser supporters made this a big time match, the cheering after every point was so loud my ears were ringing, plus the Banana Mascot made its debut to cheer us on! After being down 2 sets, told some of the boys "Don't worry we have the mohawk on our side" they all laughed and they won the next set! Down 4-14 in the 4th set and seeing the boys use raw will power to claw their way back to tie at 21 all - all of the screaming ,celebrating, hugging, high fives and yelling after every point was something to quite special even if they eventually lost 22-25!

Mililani (playoff) - What do you mean the bus didn't show up? We play in 45 minutes? Mad scramble by coaches, parents, and athletic director to carpool the team to the game in this crucial match to qualify for the State Tournament. The team overcame it and qualified for States - thanks to all!

Leilehua (playoff) - How do our 5 "JV" guys make more noise than anyone else in the gym? Our setter, the shortest on the team, gets 2 block solos!

Waipahu (playoff) - 3 nights in a row everyone is tired, players, parents and coaches. On to States! Head coach tells me I've got 2x more stress than him on game days because I have a kid playing on the team.

Kalaheo (State Tournament) - PA announcer doing the lineups and calling the play by play - this is big time! The Banana and Cougar mascots show up in force. The team leaves it all on the court in a great effort.

Waipahu (State Tournament) - Long season, kids play and look tired just don't have the legs today after leaving it on the court last night. . . coach empties bench. . .glad those guys got some playing time and played really hard!

What a season. . .will always remember the crazy stuff. Looking forward to next season! Great job guys!!!!!!!

Kaiser Cougar boys volleyball a year of firsts #volleyball

What a season 2012 was! All first time events for Kaiser High boys volleyball!

The regular season was full of ups and downs beating eventual DII champ McKinley and losing 2 excruciatingly close
matches 1-2 (13-15) in third.

Qualified for Silver bracket in Longy Preseason Tournament

Finished runner up in Gold bracket in McKinley Preseason Tournament falling to Kauai 2-1

Won first playoff game beating Aiea 3-0

Finished 4th in OIA playoff tournament

Only team to take a set off of undefeated OIA Champion Moanalua in the tournament 1-3 (22-25) in fourth set

Qualified for Hawaii State Volleyball Tournament!

Still trying to catch my breath! Great job boys!

Sunrise

Sunrise

Mixed plate from BBQ Town

Waiting to attack #cat

Hiking Blog: Kilauea Iki Trail #hiking #Hawaii

Hiking Blog: Kilauea Iki

by Neal Kasamoto

The Kilauea Iki trail in Hawaii Volcanos National park is one of my all-time favorite hikes. We try to hike it everytime we visit the Big Island. The trail is a 4-mile loop the hike is moderate and takes about 2 hours.

There are 2 trail heads one at the Kilauea Iki overlook parking lot and the other at the Thruston (Nahuku) Lava Tube parking area which are 0.25 miles apart. We choose our starting point depending on where we can find parking.

View of Kilauea Iki Crater on the way to Thurston Lava Tube

Trailhead from Thurston Lava Tube parking area

The trail guide and numbered markers starting at the Kilauea Iki parking lot show the hike in the counter-clockwise direction. We prefer hiking in the clockwise direction. Hiking clockwise, you encounter a long, 1.2-mile decent hiking down many switchbacks through a forest with little or no views at the begining of the hike. If you hike counter-clockwise you hike up these switchbacks at the end of the hike when you are tired. Most people we see hiking are also going clockwise, unless they picked up a trail guide at the Kilauea Iki parking lot!

Long way down from the rim to the crater floor at the start of the trail

Crater floor - hardened lava lake

The hike across the crater floor is awesome! You hike across a hardened lava lake on smooth terrain, the as you approach the cinder cone or volcainic vent, Pu'u Pua'i, parts of the lake have cracked and have been pushed upwards. After passing the cinder cone, you trek across jagged volcanic spatter from Pu'u Pua'a that was cemented toghether when it cooled; this is not a'a lava.

Pu'u Pua'i cinder cone

Hike across jagged volcanic spatter

The ascent to the rim on the other side is steeper (using stairs) but fairly short and not as high compared to the rim on the other side. At the top there are marked connections other trails: the Byron Ledge Trail and the Crather Rim (around Halemaumau) Trail. The hike back is along the Kiliauea Iki crater rim through a forested area with views and lookouts along the way!

Pu'u Pua'i with Halemaumau errupting in the background!

Remember to hike through the Thurston Lava Tube too!

More information on the Kilauea Iki erruption can be found here from the USGS website:

http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/history/1959Nov14/

Full moon!

Blog: Vibram fivefingers Treksport follow up #Hiking #Hawaii

Vibram Fivefinger Treksport follow up

by Neal Kasamoto

In February 2011 I convinced Vibram to send me a replacement pair of Treksports since the original pair was "defective" and the crosses on the bottom started peeling off:

http://nkvball.posterous.com/vibram-fivefingers-treksport-and-kso-the-real

The first pair MUST have been defective; almost 10 months later with weekly hikes up Koko Crater and a 3 hikes on the lava at Volcano National Park they are in pretty good shape. They are worn, parts of some of the crosses have broken off, but not peeled off entirely like the first pair. The rubber under big toe cracked slightly and had to be glued back using Shoe Goo. But they are still holding up and are still in good shape, I just used them today!

The original pair must have been defective, the entire crosses peeled off almost like a layer see pics in my previous blog. This pair has been great and very durable considering that they are used weekly on Koko Crater which is a demading hike. I just bought another pair today!

Koko Crater

Kilauea Iki

Vog!