If you’ve done the Ka’au Crater hike you’ve no doubt seen this temple. It sits at the back of Palolo Valley and you drive past it on you’re way to the Ka’au Crater trailhead. But, have you ever been in it?

The Mu-Ryang-Sa temple is a humble Korean Buddhist temple that’s been around for over 30 years. As your driving to the back of Palolo, it’s hard to miss. This weekend I decided to check it out before heading into the rainforest. I thought I would walk around for 5-10 minutes but ended up spending over half and hour here taking pictures. And I would’ve stayed longer if I had more time. There’s eye candy galore on these grounds.

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Ah, Sandy Beach. The most beautiful sandy bottom beach on the Southeast side of Oahu. It looks peaceful and serene here, but those who know this beach know that this is not the typical scene.

This is the typical scene. Utter chaos.

But on Saturday, some of the chaos was controlled. There was a bodysurfing competition and the islands best bodysurfers charged this infamous shore break.

Most of you probably know where it is, but if not, you can get to Sandy Beach (or just “Sandys”) by driving Eastbound for 25 minutes from Town. It’ll be the first beach you see after you pass Hanauma Bay. If you’re looking for somewhere to swim and sunbathe, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere. There are many better beaches for that. The parking lot is always full here, it’s not good for swimming and it’s swarming with genetically perfect local youths that will (unless you too have sub-5% body fat) make you feel like a fatty.

But if you surf, this place is awesome. And if you’re a bodysurfer or bodyboarder, this place is epic.

I cruised out here for a morning BBQ with some friends. The waves were too big for my taste on this day. I had my fins in my car and that’s where they stayed. My camera on the other hand got some good use. Check out the full post to see pics of some local men and women bodysurfers.

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I got this photo today from my friend Howard. It’s from our Mount Olympus hike back in March of 2010. It’s a fun hike if your looking for something close to Town. Howard is really into shooting with different types of film and lomography. This was taken using redscale film (where the film is exposed on the wrong side). I didn’t do any post processing on this photo. The film and camera provide all the character.

More photos by Howard:

• Windward View in HDR
• Byōdō-In Buddhist Temple

Yeah, people do this in Hawaii. This is a compilation of some 2010 BASE (buildings, antennae, spans, and earth) jumping night raids. These fellas are local Hawaii BASE jumpers/skydivers/ground launchers/speed flyers. I asked if I could share this video on my blog and the Ghost said it was all good so, here it is. It would be unreal to be walking through Waikiki and see these guys fall from the sky.

See also:

• TheBASEGhost’s Channel on YouTube.
• See some Hawaii speed flying.
• Skydive with Skydive Hawaii.
• Pictures from my first skydiving experience: Skydiving at Hawaii’s North Shore.

This trail starts at the base of the Waianae Range on Schofield Barracks.

Coming up the ridge, paper bark trees will indicate where to make your ascent.

Certain times of the year, the views are green and lush.

While crossing a huge notch, be sure to look back and see this perfectly framed view.

If you’ve never hiked on the Waianae Range in West Oahu you gotta check it out. You may have heard of two hikes on this range: Ka’ala (highest peak on the island) and Kalena (knife edge ridges). But, there’s a lesser known trail called Pu’u Hapapa that we found to be super fun. I learned about Pu’u Hapapa from Kaleo’s “Island Trails” blog. He’s done a few different variations of the trail had great things to say about it. It turns out that Cory has done this trail too and offered to show us the way.

We went up a ridge that has two notches and came back down the same way. The hike is relatively short (at around 4 miles round trip) and offers beautiful views of the entire island. It’s would be a great introduction to the Waianae Range. I really really like this hike. Like, really.

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It was a dark and stormy evening.

These guys were were paddling with urgency.

I wouldn’t want to be in the water with this happening above me either.

The skies over the islands were alive.

Waikiki appeared to be under attack. In a beautiful sort of way.

Yet at times, the light bursts made the the city look serene.

The day started off sunny and warm. But at around 3:30 in the afternoon a small but mighty thunder storm hit the islands. It brought heavy rain and a ton of lightning. We even had water spouts (tornadoes over water) popping up over Ala Moana. The storm has passed now and hopefully tomorrow will be a beautiful beach day. I’ll be stuck in the office but I have a couple friends in town on vacation and I hope they get to enjoy the day.

Facebook and Twitter have been abuzz with pics from the storm. I managed to get a few okay shots but some of our local photogs (with way more talent than me) snapped some really amazing pics.

See some incredible photos here:

• Lightning photos from Quarkcsj (on Flickr).
• Chasing Lightning by Dallas Nagata.
• Amazing Pictures of Tornados in Hawaii (on Buzzfeed).