Skip to main content

The 2011 World Fireknife Competition

I'm always amazed that we keep discovering new things here. You would think that on an island this size, we would have seen pretty much everything there is to see. We've been out to the Polynesian Cultural Center four times over the last couple of years, but we'd never seen the Ha - Breath of Life show. I'd heard it was very good, but for some reason we hadn't seen it.

Well, last night was the second night of the 2011 World Fireknife Competition, and the top three competitors were going to be competing during the intermission of the Ha - Breath of Life show. Because we have annual passes to PCC we were able to go for free (always a plus).

They do not allow videos or photography during the show, but I found a commercial of sorts on YouTube which I have embedded here for your viewing pleasure:


The show was amazing! It featured all the various dance styles we usually see at a luau but also wove a story through it. It had the romance of a love story, the warm-fuzzies of a family story, the excitement of a tribal war, the humor of watching someone learn to walk through fire without setting their grass skirt on fire, and the drama of life and death. The scenery was gorgeous and dramatic and the music had us shimmying in our seats. I can't believe we didn't go see this before now!

During intermission, they brought out the top three finalists of the World Fireknife Competition. I believe they said that there had been twenty-one competitors originally. The top three were performing last night, and again tonight, and one will be chosen as the winner. Of the three remaining competitors one was from American Samoa, one was from Orlando, Florida, and one was a local fellow from Laie. These fellows were amazing! They would take the fire and stroke it across their chests and legs. They would hold the stick with their feet, with the flames touching their feet. They each twirled two fireknives at a time, and one of them added a third!

I did take some videos, but because of the low light, my videos are not terribly clear. So once again, thanks to YouTube, I found a video of last year's winner for you to see how phenomenal these men are. He even touches the flames to his tongue, and then uses the flames on his tongue to light the other end of his fireknife.




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ben's Feet

Ben went camping with his youth group this weekend. He said it was the best weekend he's had since we've been in Hawaii, and possibly in his entire life. The one negative part was that he stepped on some coral out in the water and cut his feet up pretty good. He swears it was all dead coral - you shouldn't touch live coral, much less walk on it because it damages the coral. No one ever mentions that it also damages your feet. They just tell you not to damage the coral. Also, coral is a living organism . If you step on live coral and a tiny piece breaks off in the cut, it will continue to grow. Did you see the movie Alien ? If some creature incubates in Ben's feet, then breaks out and eats us all one night, I'm going to be quite miffed. (Make sure you read the inscription on his tee shirt in this picture. It's quite appropriate.)
Post a Comment
Read more

Mammogram

I'm having my annual mammogram today. I always hear about how painful they are, but honestly, I've never thought they are that bad. Not the most comfortable, but not painful either. Every time I have a mammogram, I'm reminded of this story. It won the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition and I still get a kick out of it every time I read it. So I'm posting it here today for your reading pleasure: Erma Bombeck Writing Competition 1st place in Humor Category Winner Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon "The First Time's Always the Worst" The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside o...
1 comment
Read more

Japanese Fishing Shrine

Here's an interesting little spot we stopped to see. I'd passed this many times before and had never stopped to see what it was. Since GG and Sherry were here, we decided to check it out. There is a shrine of some sort with a statue and a carved rock. There was no information on sight as to what it is that I could find. There were flowers, food and incense left around the base of the shrine. There was a ceramic statue and a rock with a figure carved into it. None of the food was old or rotting (although plenty of it had clearly been pecked by birds) and the flowers were all fresh which made me think it must be cleaned and cared for on a regular basis. After we got home, I did some research and found this article about it from the Hawaii Star Bulletin, our local newspaper (I have edited out some bits, but otherwise the article is unchanged): "Maintenance" of the monument has been assumed by a group of Vietnamese Buddhists - Shingon Shu Hawaii, the Buddhist temple th...
2 comments
Read more