Just putting this out there -- my next furry convention will be Megaplex 2015, hosted in (extremely hot & humid) Orlando, Florida in the month of July (so much for keeping "cool" underneath the feathersuit!). :P

This will be my first Megaplex convention. I'm looking forward to having a good time in the deep south! :>

I hope to see many of you fuzzies by then!

Happy New Year / February, everyone!

I've been bad keeping this account up-to-date with my favourite pictures of Manu Koa at the furry conventions. I'll try and do a better job going forward. I'm still a couple of years behind schedule, but that is okay. I'll do my best to keep a more regular rhythm in posting my favourite pictures from the conventions.

Have a great new year and a good start to the month of February!

See you all at a future furry convention! (My first furry con of 2015 will be Furnal Equinox 2015 in the month of March in Toronto, Canada. See you then!)

Can't believe that MFF 2014 is just whole month away! Eeeeeeee! So excited!

I miss costuming at a furry convention. The last convention was Eurofurence 20 back in August! Certainly a long wait between EF 20 and MFF! Wait will be over, soon enough!!

Who else will I get to see at MFF 2014?

As mentioned in my  manukoa character account, I plan to be attending a couple of furry conventions later this summer.

The first convention is a local con called Furry Condition, taking place in London, Ontario for the weekend of August 1-3. I'll be there Friday evening until mid-Sunday. It's the last year for Furry Condition, so I don't want to miss this party of a convention (especially when it's so local to me). We're going to send it off with a bang, instead of allowing it to go quietly off into the night and into the historic pages of past furry conventions.

The second convention is the world-famous Eurofurence, happening in Berlin, Germany during the August 20-24 weekend. I had a blast at EF 19 last year in Magdeburg, Germany. Manu Koa played on the Hawaiian theme for sure! It was not a convention to have missed! I'm so happy to have attended EF 19 last year. The people of Magdeburg was so friendly to the fursuiters! Many German people (furries and non-furries alike) were rather surprised to see "Canada" as the country location on my EF badge. It was awesome to entertain the Germans and Europeans at the convention. I can't wait to do it all again in Berlin! (A shame we'll be so far away from the city centre. Imagine fursuiting in the downtown core, like at the Brandenburg Gate? OMG! So surreal!)

Looking forward to flapping my wings and appear all birdy-like for all you kind folks. Hope to see some of you out there at either Furry Condition in London (Ontario) or Eurofurence in Berlin.

Have a great summer, everyone!

I just want to express a heart-felt 'Thank You' for all the love and joy you have for this character costume and birdy suit. I really appreciate your fascination with the costume and all the love I have received from others, whether I'm suiting at home in Canada, down south in the United States or overseas in Germany. I am truly touched by the affinity and affection you show for this character.

I enjoy performing all bird-like for your amusement and entertainment. Thank you so much for affording me the time to delight you at the furry conventions and various other meets. It's been my sincerest pleasure in bringing the character of Manu Koa to life.

I spent the past weekend in Wexford, PA attending the Western Pennsylvania Furry Weekend (WPAFW). This was my first time attending this event (I so much want to call it a "convention"; alas, WPAFW organizers have described it as a 'local meet' or 'event'). WPAFW had a record attendance number of 132 people. This made WPAFW the smallest furry event I have ever attended (I usually attend the big conventions). It was really nice to break away from the traditional con to enjoy a furry event which was low-key, free-flowing and relaxing. Kudos goes out to the WPAFW organizers and to  cadpigjr especially for cooking us such delicious feasts all weekend! It was a great weekend overall.

There is one more convention to attend in 2013: Midwest FurFest. As always, I look forward to attending this convention each year. MFF 2013 should be a blast! I hope to see many of you fine folks out there!

Take care!

I picked up some new followers since attending Eurofurence 19 in Germany last month. :>

Welcome to Manu Koa's Suit gallery! I'm honoured and thrilled for your interest in watching this account. Thank you for allowing me to entertain you at Eurofurence 19. It was my very first Eurofurence and my first trip to Germany. I had a BLAST attending EF! I hope I can attend EF 20 in Berlin next year. I really had a fun time costuming in Magdeburg this year.

Thanks for watching me!

Cross-posted from  lanakila's journal.

I’ve finally returned home after touring Germany last week and attending Eurofurence 19 in Magdeburg. Skree! I had SOOOOOOOOOOO much fun! It was my first Eurofurence convention and my first time visiting Germany. EF 19 was an incredible experience!

There were plenty of fursuiting opportunities all throughout the days of the convention, starting with the Magdeburg Zoo on Wednesday. I’ve never suited up at a Zoo before, so this was a cherished and treasured experience! The fursuit parade through the city of Magdeburg was intense and nuts! I couldn’t last 1.5 hours on the fursuit parade, so I ducked out early and headed back to the Maritim Hotel for some rest, recovery, and a scheduled photoshoot at 5:15 PM. I LOVED every aspect of suiting at Eurofurence 19.

To everyone who complimented me on the Manu Koa feathersuit, thank you! I really enjoyed entertaining you in costume, posing for your pictures and pretending to be a bird in your presence. :> Thanks so much for the heartfelt memories. EF19 was a magical experience!

I won’t be able to write a detailed recap of the EF19 convention, but I just wanted to say that I had a BLAST and I was terribly sorry and sad to see “the magic” come to an end on the last day of the convention. I didn’t really want to leave on Sunday night, but I said my final goodbyes to the folks who I saw that evening.

The following people (in alphabetical order) truly made EF19 such a memorable convention:

 coorandilla - I love all the artwork you get of your eagle character. It was a pleasure to meet you in person!
 ekorren - I’ve seen your character appear on my friends’ FA pages. It was great to meet you!
 frysco - I’m glad we were able to connect with each other on the very last day of the convention. (Eeek!) Awesome suit!
 henrieke - Yay! It was great to see you again after our last visit in the Netherlands. Thanks for all the fun times and shared memories of EF19! Sorry that I couldn’t have stayed longer with you on Sunday night. (Eeeek!)
 jackrow - It was an honour and a pleasure to meet you in person. I love all of your avian-themed artwork.
 karpour - Yay! It was great to see you again after our last visit in the Netherlands. Thanks for taking pictures of Manu Koa at EF19. It was fun hanging out with you throughout the convention.
 olven - Thank you so much for drawing Manu Koa and Kalena Pau in my sketchbook! I’m glad you love the red-crested cardinal characters so much! Thanks for watching me!
 seanc - It was a pleasure to see you again! I’m glad to have shared more time with you (in-suit as well as out-of-suit) at EF19. I look forward to seeing you again at MFF 2013!
 titash - I’ve always loved your cartoony artwork. It was an honour and a pleasure to meet the famous meerkat at EF19! Thank you so much for appreciating the Manu Koa feathersuit! I’m glad to have suited up with you for a brief moment in the Maritim lobby. I hope to see you again next year! Take care of your back!
 yotienpluche - It was a pleasure meeting you at EF19. Thanks for sharing Pizza Hut lunch with me. And thank you for taking a Polaroid picture of Manu Koa outside of the Maritim Hotel.

I apologize if I missed anyone else at the convention.

To the Eurofurence staff: thanks for the AWESOME convention! I hope to do this again next year in Berlin!

It's been a busy six weeks attending three conventions (plus a vacation trip to Peru!). Within the past six weeks, I've attended:

1) Furnal Equinox in Toronto, Ontario (March 8-10);
2) Furry Weekend Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia (March 15-18); and
3) Furry Connection North in Novi, Michigan (April 12-14)

I haven't posted many photographs in the past few weeks, though I hope to reverse this trend.

I noticed I picked up several new watchers to this fursuit account. Thank you for watching me, everyone! I'm really flattered and humbled that you you'd want to watch me in this little corner of FA.

Some of you have left comments for me. I'd love to respond to each of them, though time often escapes me. I hope to respond to several comments soon!

Thanks again for watching me! I hope you enjoy your stay here!

p.s. I've certainly had a BLAST costuming around as Manu Koa at the furry conventions. Thanks so much for all of your friendly interactions with me. I greatly enjoyed meeting all of you at the furry cons!

Just getting ready for my trip to Peru. However, here's a video clip of the fursuiters at FWA doing the Harlem Shake right after the fursuit parade.

This is one of the rare times where Manu Koa is located at the front of the camera. :)



I'm not sure if I know how to do the Harlem Shake. Hopefully my performance was okay. :P

(Journal entry reposted from my  manukoa account.)

Life has been busy over the past couple of weeks. I’ve attended back-to-back weekend furry conventions here in Toronto (Furnal Equinox) and Atlanta (Furry Weekend Atlanta). Life has been soooooo busy that I was unable to complete the traditional FWA Meme! Eeek! Busy birdy has indeed been busy!

Unfortunately, life won’t let up just yet. I have enough time to unpack the suitcase, do laundry and hang up my Manu Koa feathersuit, only to repack the suitcase again for a 6-day vacation trip in Peru! My dad and I will be vacationing in Cusco and Lima, with Machu Picchu being the highlight of our vacation trip. Unfortunately, there won’t be enough time to do a proper furry convention recap -- both for Furnal Equinox and Furry Weekend Atlanta.

High-level recap: the Manu Koa costume continues to be well-received by many of the convention attendees. I’m flattered and humbled at the same time. Thank you so much for welcoming Manu Koa into your lives and your convention-going experience. It’s a pleasure to make you smile and to brighten up your weekend! For those who have taken an interest in watching my FA accounts, I thank you for wanting to share this journey with me. I’m happy that others have enjoyed the little world that I have created for Manu Koa and Kalena Pau. It’s been fun sharing their stories through artwork and commissions. Thanks for participating in their lives on FA and in person at the furry conventions.

Both FE (Furnal Equinox) and FWA (Furry Weekend Atlanta) have both been delightful conventions to attend. I did sooooo much suiting! I’m happy to take a little bit of a break over the next month or so. ;) I’m all tuckered out of furry! Time to enjoy other aspects of life.

I’d like to extend a warm welcome to the new watchers from FE and FWA! Thanks for watching me!

For those of you who might be interested in meeting the birdy, here's a preliminary list of conventions I'm thinking about attending in 2013:

1) Furnal Equinox, March 8-10, Toronto
2) Furry Weekend Atlanta, March 15-18, Atlanta
3) Furry Connection North, April 12-14, Novi/Detroit
4) Eurofurence 19, August 21-26, Madgeberg, Germany
5) Midwest FurFest, November 22-24, Chicago

I won't be able to make Anthrocon this year, due to a scheduling conflict with work. (If the Anthrocon weekend was in June, I have no scheduling conflict with work. July conventions usually conflicts with work.)

I hope to see many of you at one (or more) of these furry conventions.

Thanks for your interest in my character and costume! I am humbled by your interest!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I'm off for the next few days, though I hope to respond to many of your comments. Thank you all for watching me. Have a safe and happy holiday season! All the best to you and your family!

I'm honoured and humbled by the 29 Watchers who are watching this account. Thank you!

The purpose of this account is to really express my personal feelings about costuming (fursuitting) at furry conventions, and abroad (ie: outside of furry conventions). I also want to talk about my personal experiences, and share them with an interested audience. My other two accounts (Lanakila and ManuKoa) were designed to share artwork and to sometimes be "in character" as the bald eagle or the red-crested cardinal. I never really had a forum where I could be "personable" as my human self. I know it's all fun to dress up in costume and pretend to be a character. For some, the dressing up as a character is an inner reflection/expression of themselves. (To a degree, I think that's true about me as well.) However, I just want to share my thoughts about the overall experience of costuming, in addition to sharing photos and pictures of Manu Koa.

Thanks again for your interest in the account. Even if your interest is solely for the bird suit pictures, that is okay. I'll use this account to talk about my experiences of being a costume performer (aka "a fursuiter").

Thanks for reading / watching!

Welcome to the new Manu Koa Feathersuit Account!

This account will post pictures of Manu Koa in suit at the various furry conventions and other events. It's a way to keep the costume pictures separate from the character artwork posted in this gallery here:  manukoa. For those of you who are interested in just the Manu Koa costume pictures, you've come to the right place.

Thanks for watching me!