The lucky participants of the 2009 Mercedes-Benz National Final were treated to a golf tournament on the Royal Ka’anapali Course, a musical performance by Eddie Kowalczyk, a luau, a comedy performance by Kathleen Madigan and an unforgettable year for humpback sightings in Maui. We were glad to be the photographers on board to document it all for the fifth year in a row.

Hawaii is pretty far from anywhere. It doesn’t matter how many hours and flights it takes to get there though, because there is nowhere else like it. This year it was all about the humpback whales. We saw one on our approach into Kahului, and on the hour drive from the airport to the hotel we could see them breaching against the sunset. We spotted them from the golf course during the tournament and the whale-watch tour was an unprecedented view in our experience.

The last time we went on one of these tours we got to see a few breeches by babies in the distance and were thrilled when a mama swam underneath the boat. This time, two males were competing for the attention of a female who decided to use our boat as a cover from them. The “maui mugging” as it is called, lasted almost 45 minutes to the joy of the spectators. The captain is unable to start the engines when the whales are that close and must wait it out. At right one of the males pounds his tail against the surface in a contest that the two males engaged in. It was good to be on a boat bigger than that of our neighbor’s shown in the background.

Mercedes-Benz and Sage Collective always put on an amazing event and we were honored to be part of the team.

View News Archive     Share