Aloha All!
Thought it was about time to give Ryan's fingers a break from writing the last 10 or so blogs! It's been a wonderful year in many ways and we pray for more of the same in 2010. If you haven't checked our website since New Year's Eve than you haven't noticed we put up a new site (http://www.hawaiianfire.com/) for the new year. We thought that since everybody likes to start the new year off fresh, we would do the same with a brand new look. We hope you check it out and find that it is very user friendly.
I would like to personally thank each and every person that helped to make the new site happen. Without a team effort, the site could have taken up to a good 5 months to put together, but with all of us working together it went from vision to reality in a matter of just 3 months. Mahalo Ozz for putting so much effort and love into the project! Thanks to all the models, photographers including Steven Tabura, and writers for your time.
As the stroke of midnight was closing in I received a phone call from Ozz (Michael Neubauer, our web guy) that we were just about ready to go live with the site. I told him that I was gonna take one last review and that I would call him back in a just a few minutes. As I hung up the phone with Ozz, I sat back in my chair at the fire station and just soaked it all in that we were actually going to launch on the target date!!! I thought about the very first vision that I had going through my head a few months back telling Ozz that I pictured a firefighter stepping off of a fire truck with with his turnouts (big yellow pants and jacket) onto a beach into his board shorts. Ozz said, "no problem!" when I knew that he was really thinking "yeah sure Kev, that will be simple.....what the hell are you thinking Kev!!!!!" So after a few photo sessions we started to get really close to what we wanted. So most people would think that's great right? Well I decided I wanted to go a in a completly different direction. Obviously, Ozz was probably fuming, but he showed no signs of irritation, he just said that my new idea was a great idea! (Ozz, I know what you were thinking and I'm not going to write it on this blog) My vision was to have a surfer jumping off a boat at a tropical location with a Fire truck parked on the beach as to show the people out there that they would be learning to surf with Firefighters. After hearing this, would you blame Ozz for getting pissed on the inside? I wouldn't, and I was the one wanting it, but I knew in my heart it was going to happen and with lots of help and it turned out unbelievable. We took a trip to Molokai, hired a couple guys to take us out to a secluded surf spot with their boat, and had the local firefighters bring their Rig to the beach to watch the surf session. It couldn't have lined up any better with the weather and the waves as well. Ok, it might of not really have happend like that, but you've got to use your imagination in this world!!!
After thinking about the labor and hours spent on "thinking" I was overcome with a sense of accomplishment. Being one of the owners of Hawaiian Fire I spend a lot of time "imagining" what something should look like or how something can be done better. At times I am hard on myself for not getting more done, but at times like these, I love just sitting back with a cold Coors Light in hand and staring at the computer screen to see how all of those "thoughts" actually came together. Thanks again to all of you for making this happen.
So here's to a new year and a brand new start for each and everyone of us!
Let us know how you like the site by either emailing us or shooting us a line on facebook. Thanks for your continued support throughout the past 10 years.
Aloha
Kevin
Thought it was about time to give Ryan's fingers a break from writing the last 10 or so blogs! It's been a wonderful year in many ways and we pray for more of the same in 2010. If you haven't checked our website since New Year's Eve than you haven't noticed we put up a new site (http://www.hawaiianfire.com/) for the new year. We thought that since everybody likes to start the new year off fresh, we would do the same with a brand new look. We hope you check it out and find that it is very user friendly.
I would like to personally thank each and every person that helped to make the new site happen. Without a team effort, the site could have taken up to a good 5 months to put together, but with all of us working together it went from vision to reality in a matter of just 3 months. Mahalo Ozz for putting so much effort and love into the project! Thanks to all the models, photographers including Steven Tabura, and writers for your time.
As the stroke of midnight was closing in I received a phone call from Ozz (Michael Neubauer, our web guy) that we were just about ready to go live with the site. I told him that I was gonna take one last review and that I would call him back in a just a few minutes. As I hung up the phone with Ozz, I sat back in my chair at the fire station and just soaked it all in that we were actually going to launch on the target date!!! I thought about the very first vision that I had going through my head a few months back telling Ozz that I pictured a firefighter stepping off of a fire truck with with his turnouts (big yellow pants and jacket) onto a beach into his board shorts. Ozz said, "no problem!" when I knew that he was really thinking "yeah sure Kev, that will be simple.....what the hell are you thinking Kev!!!!!" So after a few photo sessions we started to get really close to what we wanted. So most people would think that's great right? Well I decided I wanted to go a in a completly different direction. Obviously, Ozz was probably fuming, but he showed no signs of irritation, he just said that my new idea was a great idea! (Ozz, I know what you were thinking and I'm not going to write it on this blog) My vision was to have a surfer jumping off a boat at a tropical location with a Fire truck parked on the beach as to show the people out there that they would be learning to surf with Firefighters. After hearing this, would you blame Ozz for getting pissed on the inside? I wouldn't, and I was the one wanting it, but I knew in my heart it was going to happen and with lots of help and it turned out unbelievable. We took a trip to Molokai, hired a couple guys to take us out to a secluded surf spot with their boat, and had the local firefighters bring their Rig to the beach to watch the surf session. It couldn't have lined up any better with the weather and the waves as well. Ok, it might of not really have happend like that, but you've got to use your imagination in this world!!!
After thinking about the labor and hours spent on "thinking" I was overcome with a sense of accomplishment. Being one of the owners of Hawaiian Fire I spend a lot of time "imagining" what something should look like or how something can be done better. At times I am hard on myself for not getting more done, but at times like these, I love just sitting back with a cold Coors Light in hand and staring at the computer screen to see how all of those "thoughts" actually came together. Thanks again to all of you for making this happen.
So here's to a new year and a brand new start for each and everyone of us!
Let us know how you like the site by either emailing us or shooting us a line on facebook. Thanks for your continued support throughout the past 10 years.
Aloha
Kevin
