Perfect Day

I was once asked, what was your most perfect day?  Without hesitation, that day would be November 25, 2008.  On Maui, it started with a surfing lesson with Soul Surfing Maui (www.SoulSurfingMaui.com), where my 8 year-old daughter caught her first wave (see photo below), a basketball game watching future Denver Nugget Ty Lawson lead North Carolina in the Maui Invitational (http://www.mauiinvitational.com), a call from NASA to schedule my astronaut interview at halftime (I was a finalist for the NASA Astronaut Corp in 2009), and an evening celebrating with my family at the Hula Grill (http://www.hulagrillkaanapali.com).

Hannah's First Wave at Age 8

But what got it started off on the right step was the man throwing his arms up in celebration in the photo above as my daughter caught her first wave, Brian DeCook.  Since that first wave we have been lucky enough to go back and surf in Maui with Brian two other times and they have all been phenomenal experiences.  My family always looks forward to returning to Maui and surfing with Brian is a key aspect of every vacation we have had there.

The last time we visited this past November, my wife joined our line-up and tried surfing for the first time.  Despite ACL surgery less than a year earlier, Brian helped her catch her first wave.  All three of us had an incredible day catching waves and enjoying the beautiful Maui weather.  To give us the opportunity to relive the experience over and over again, Brian used his Go Pro camera mounted on one of the boards to capture all of the fun we were having. He then edited in some great local music to go along with the best clips to capture this incredible memory.  I invite you to watch our surfing adventure at the link below and I recommend to anyone going to Maui who wants to learn or improve their surfing to look Brian up.

Soul Surfing with the Moshers