![I really need to get my expired passport in order because lately I have been thinking back to 2002 when I was in French Polynesia for a world competition in outrigger canoe racing that took place in Bora Bora.
This image was the week after the event when I was island hopping.
The final morning on my second to last island of the trip I paddled out to a secluded motu (reef) island, floated and swam with the lagoon sea life, soaking up the last full day of sun of Mo'orea sunshine [I think I was au-natural here that day getting full tan] before paddling back to the main island, jumping on my beach cruiser bike to get my first and only tattoo from a traditional Tahitian artist, [part of it is represented on my profile art]... so essentially this photo is of the last hours of my pure unmarked virgin skin. I then promised myself afterwards I would not get another tattoo unless I returned to these islands and hopefully this same artist.
As to insure waterproof imaging from paddling across the lagoon, this photo and others that morning was shot with a store bought disposable Fujifilm underwater film camera, then many years later digitally scanned for archiving.
Here I am on a smaller neighboring motu looking back at the larger one. Sadly since I was there, and some who have been there recently knows that these motus are now occupied by tour and event excursion services and no longer the tranquil reef island I remember. Still beautiful tho but now more people in the mix, so no more naked swimming with tropical fishies and feeding them pieces of baguettes. Just lucky I had the solitude experience when I did almost twenty-four years ago.
The next day I took a ferry to Papa'ete for a couple days and on the last day I surprised and reconnected with an old Tahitian friend I met back home 15 years prior when she was on vacation. We had a blast catching up at her home with that island hospitality before she gave me a ride to the airport for my midnight flight back to California.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:j2bf33ojshiozinacbf2uyky/bafkreifbbbdwavajpiplq6kumvxme3rru37ldhu36b2u4oft6gnuajrqpm)
I really need to get my expired passport in order because lately I have been thinking back to 2002 when I was in French Polynesia for a world competition in outrigger canoe racing that took place in Bora Bora. This image was the week after the event when I was island hopping. The final morning on my second to last island of the trip I paddled out to a secluded motu (reef) island, floated and swam with the lagoon sea life, soaking up the last full day of sun of Mo'orea sunshine [I think I was au-natural here that day getting full tan] before paddling back to the main island, jumping on my beach cruiser bike to get my first and only tattoo from a traditional Tahitian artist, [part of it is represented on my profile art]... so essentially this photo is of the last hours of my pure unmarked virgin skin. I then promised myself afterwards I would not get another tattoo unless I returned to these islands and hopefully this same artist. As to insure waterproof imaging from paddling across the lagoon, this photo and others that morning was shot with a store bought disposable Fujifilm underwater film camera, then many years later digitally scanned for archiving. Here I am on a smaller neighboring motu looking back at the larger one. Sadly since I was there, and some who have been there recently knows that these motus are now occupied by tour and event excursion services and no longer the tranquil reef island I remember. Still beautiful tho but now more people in the mix, so no more naked swimming with tropical fishies and feeding them pieces of baguettes. Just lucky I had the solitude experience when I did almost twenty-four years ago. The next day I took a ferry to Papa'ete for a couple days and on the last day I surprised and reconnected with an old Tahitian friend I met back home 15 years prior when she was on vacation. We had a blast catching up at her home with that island hospitality before she gave me a ride to the airport for my midnight flight back to California.
So preceding my motu island photo is This one. The main reason of me being in French Polynesia. The Outrigger Canoe (Va'a in Tahitian) World Sprints happens every four years in a different location, basically it's the Olympics of outrigger competitions. That year (2002) it took place at Matira Beach on the outer island of Bora Bora. I was part of Team USA/California masters crew. It consisted of different course legnths and several qualifying to illumination heats that lasted five-ish days... an event of a lifetime in a place I dreamt of since I was a kid. This photo is between our heats one day as I was able to walk out pretty far in 80 degree (F) chest deep lagoon water with one of my old Nikon film cameras with a nifty-fifty mm Ai-S lens loaded with positive transparency film. The camera ended up skipping frames that week when I would use the film advance lever due to my negligence of not servicing the camera before I took this trip... Big lesson learned; If you ever take a trip to a tropical humid location, PLEASE service your camera before hand because that salt air will effect your inner mechanical parts by drying up any lubrication you have left. I ended up with 1/3rd of my rolls of film exposed from that point on, so 2/3rds of the film are blank from film advance mechanism not locking in to allow the shutter to engage. I was devastated to say the least that I was not able to capture everything I set out to on that rare trip. Thank goodness digital cameras became a thing since that time... but still, make sure those are in tip top shape before I make this trip again, hopefully that becomes reality sometime soon, after I get that damn passport re-issued. Photo is of a sprint heat, teams not known in this one. Shot on a Nikon FE with the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 Ai-S using Kodak Ektachrome slide film because I wanted to display them through slide projectors back home and for the true blue tone colors of the environment... that was the idea at least.
Dreaming of going back to French Polynesia...
After the massive flooding in Hawaii, my annual summer surf trip there may be questionable, so looking at alternatives... Need to renew passport first.
#summer #FrenchPolynesia #islands #Moorea #BoraBora #Tahiti #paradise #outriggercanoe #islandbliss
