Kaleo Lancaster, owner of the popular hiking blog Island Trails, just released his 2011 video summary. And once again, he kills it. (You can watch the 2010 video summary here.) I’m amazed at what he’s able to do with a GoPro.

I hope you find this video is as inspiring as I did.

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See also:

• Watch video in HD on Vimeo (it deserves a second viewing).
• Visit Kaleo’s blog Island Trails (in my opinion, the best resource for info on hiking in Hawaii).
• “Like” Island Trails on Facebook.

The temple sits at the base of the Koolau Mountains in Kahaluu (East Oahu).

It’s one of the best places to snap photos of koi.

There are ornamental details all over the place.

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If you like photowalking, you can’t go wrong making a visit to the Byodo-In. The temple sits at the back of a mortuary called the Valley of the Temples. It’s a replica of an ancient temple in Japan of the same name. This was my first time visiting the temple.

You can spend an hour or so walking around taking pictures. Once you start paying attention to all the details, you can find some very interesting compositions.

Get a new dSLR recently? The Byodo-In is a perfect spot to come practice your skills.

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The front door of Next Door in Chinatown. The event was held here.

I ended up on stage at one point to introduce a slideshow I put together. Justin had some space to fill before the films started and asked me I wanted to throw something together. It sounded like a great idea at the time, but I didn’t realize it would take me 8 hours to make an 11 minute slideshow.

Of all the films that showed, one of the most inspiring was the one about a nine year old climber named Ashima, called “Origins: Obe and Ashima.”

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The Reel Rock Tour showed in Hawaii last month on November 20th. It was presented by Volcanic Rock Gym and the event was held at Next Door (in Chinatown).

Every year a company called Reel Rock accepts entries into a competition for climbing and adventure short films. Judges select 6 to be part of the Reel Rock Film Tour and they are screened at events all over the world.

This was the second year that VRG brought the film tour to Hawaii. Last year it was much smaller (as the climbing community was much smaller) and held at the rock gym. But this year, Justin (the owner of VRG) decided to see if it was possible to make an event out of it. As it turns out, there’s a pretty good demand in Hawaii for adventure films and we had a full house.

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A few miles off the coast of Maui is a crescent shaped island called Molokini Crater.

The island is actually the tip of a submerged volcanic cone (or crater). Molokini Crater is known as one of the best places to go snorkeling in Maui.

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If you live on Oahu you know that we’ve been having incredible sunsets all week. There’s vog (vog = smog caused by volcanic gases) in the air and as the sun sets, the skies glow red.

I was surfing on Saturday and noticed that the skies were completely overcast. Sometimes this ruins the sunset but other times the clouds actually intensify the redness of the sky. The clouds spread the colors of the sunset across the sky which then reflects off the ocean.

I took a gamble, cut my surf session short, went home to grab my camera gear and drove out to Portlock Point to see what the sunset would look like. The skies were grey the entire drive out to Hawai Kai. But right when I stepped out onto the cliffs at Portlock, I saw a sliver of pink on the horizon.

A few minutes later, I saw this. I was happy to see that I didn’t drive out there for nothing. The skies caught fire. Facebook and Instagram were flooded with photos of the sky as seen from my friends all across the island. It was an incredible sight.

As the sun set, the skies still glowed pink and purple but the water turned blue again. The intense red sky was a fleeting sight. It came and went in a matter of 15 minutes.

I just started learning how to take these types of photos so they are not nearly as clean as I wanted. But, I’m not sure when I’ll be able to catch this moment again. To be at this location and see this view was unreal.

See also:

• Learn more about Portlock Point

Just north of Makapu’u, on the windward side of Oahu, is the Makai Research Pier.

It’s a long pier that you can’t miss while driving up the coast. At the end of it, sits the office of Makai Ocean Engineering.

You can’t access the pier unless you work for the engineering company, but that’s fine. I came out here to take photos from below. UPDATE: I’ve been informed that the pier is open to the public on weekdays. This is great … I’m gonna have to check it out next time.

The posts form what looks like a tunnel.

Look up to see some cool textures.

Erosion eats away at the bottom sections.

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There is a dirt lot where you can park by the pier but don’t linger too long. I believe break-ins occur regularly around here. Or, if you plan to linger, don’t leave anything of value in your car.