Aloha, another amazing day in paradise. Whatever your particular passion in sports and activities, there is no place like Hawaii to train. As I hit the streets today I could see people of all ages involved in some athletic pursuit and all were smiling. Checked out the tandem surf contest at the Duke's Ocean Quest. Tomorrow should be more surf contest, beach volleyball tournament and a huge street party at night.

Training today consisted of an ocean swim at Kuhio Beach. After a few minutes of warming up it was face in the water for 35 minutes. I haven't done any consistent swims in the ocean for a long time so this was a reminder about how hard it is to keep a line with waves coming into you as you swim. I chose to swim parallel to the shore for that reason, to work against the waves and get used to the sensation of the water. The tourists on the beach probably thought I was crazy but it was a good swim, though I did drink a little salt water. Don't recommend that. Tomorrow I'll run the park again and go have lunch at the Grass Skirt Grill in Haleiwa. Best place for gourmet food on a paper plate on Oahu.

Thanks to my dad, Curly Cornwell (in the picture above, he is in the front row middle), one of the original Waikiki Beach Boys, I have a connection to the industry here. I too as a young man worked the beach with my dad teaching surfing and giving outrigger canoe rides. As a part of a week long celebration. Duke's Ocean Quest, there was a party at "Duke's" today to celebrate the beach boy tradition. Luckily we were here and were guests of Duke's for the party. Didn't expect it but had the opportunity to catch up with some friends from the past. Many of the old crew including my dad have long since passed but it was still awesome to hang out with some of the current watermen and rekindle the connection we have. In particular I was able to connect with DiDi Robello, of the Aloha Beach Services (check out the website), the oldest current operation on the beach today. I worked for his dad back in the day. Mahalo to all I met today, it was amazing.