When Geno Pawlak goes looking for wave action, he dives 40 feet beneath the ocean surface and leaves his board at home.

Instead of South Shore breaks such as Bowls or Kewalos, the University of Hawai'i-Manoa associate professor heads out to the ocean fronting Kaka'ako Waterfront Park, where an underwater observatory hums, quietly collecting data on nearshore coral reef.

What happens there and how it affects the everyday lives of Hawai'i's residents is the topic of "The Kilo Nalu Reef Observatory: A Window into Hawai'i's Coastal Environment," the first in a series if public lectures about Hawai'i's dynamic ocean environment, tomorrow at the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach. The series is a part of Outrigger's observance of the Year of the Coral Reef.

"The Kilo Nalu Observatory functions as an extension cord that enables us to put instruments into the ocean," Pawlak said. "Information we collect from these instruments (which is then sent to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) can report how big the waves will be, how good the swell is. We can also measure water quality, temperature, salinity and turbidity, or how much 'stuff' is floating around in the ocean - which is useful for divers to know."

While such information has both sports and commercial value, what Pawlak and his team are looking at scientifically is more complex.

"The reef and sand are reservoirs for ocean nutrients." Pawlak said

"What we're trying to understand is how the movement of water across the reef affects the exchange of nutrients in the sand and the coral; in other words, what happens to the biological activity when the waves pick up? How are the nutrients broken down and recycled through the seabed?"

Pawlak grew up in Panama and has spent all his life around the ocean. He is an ocean engineer - a specialist in fluid mechanics - fascinated by how waves and currents flow across boundaries such as coral reefs, and the interactions that take place.

So, what shape are our reefs in?

"Our reefs are taxed, but it's remarkable that in an urban environment we can actually go offshore 100 yards and find a live coral reef," Pawlak said. "What the Kilo Nalu observatory tells us is that ocean conditions are highly variable with day-to-day change. As an ocean state, we need to be in touch directly. The ocean is dramatically more complex than we ever envisioned."