good evening. went down to watch my nephews and niece surf their finals in the local motion surf into summer event at bowls. it’s amazing how long this contest has been running. i use to look forward to this contest every single year when i was competing. 6 guys out at bowls? you got to be joking….

the kids got escorted back and forth across the channel. they don’t know how lucky they are. well, me too. thanks rocky canon for the ride. if you weren’t there, i wouldn’t have even gone out to shoot….. by the way, this is the menehune division finals. stacked!!!

so here i am in the water with my 2 nephews surfing their final. josh and seth don’t like to lose but i think they understood that only one of them can come in a winner. so they worked together and sat at the end bowl, right were uncle told them to sit. yeah, i told myself that i wasn’t going to say anything because i didn’t want to make them nervous. but once that horn blew to start the heat, i was yelling my head off. haha… i think i was more nervous then them…. but the boys just freaking went off. josh is the shy one but the way he was surfing today wasn’t shy at all. he was like a mini sunny garcia. doing power snaps… and yes, if your 11 years old and doing power snaps like men, you deserve to win. and joshua did that. he won….

seth is like a wave magnet. he catches a lot of waves and does a hundred turns until the wave is done. if it wasn’t for his older brother, he would have won that heat hands down. but 2nd place right behind big brother is still a keeper…. and yeah matchi, your board seems to be working really good….

isaiah was on fire these past 2 days. the only bummer thing is that the waves were junk in the finals and couldn’t get a good one. if he did, goodnight… check out this freaking turn in the finals. i always think isaiah is old but the kids still only 13 years old… he got 4th but don’t let that result fool you. i didn’t say anything in isaiah’s heat because i know what he will say. “uncle, you embarrass me…” it was hard, but i kept my mouth shut. haha…

kelia cracks. i get nervous watching her because she’s so nervous. after she did this snap, i yelled to her, “ride it till the end”… as soon as i said “end”, she fell. shit!!! then she paddled back out and said “uncle, you make me nervous”…. haha. so after that wave, i didn’t say anything. and she did her thing and won the girls shortboard final. wait, i thought kelia was a longboarder? i guess not….

this is the best part of contests. getting your trophy and your big goodie bag. i sure miss that. anyway, just wanted to congratulate all the competitors in the contest and hope you get to surf until you get as old as me….

good morning. 6:30 memorial day monday. waves are small around the island. good for a dive but the winds looking like it’s going to back down again this week so i’ll wait. i went online to research some techniques on holding my breath longer and going deeper so kind of want to try it out. or maybe it’s just a matter of singing a different song in my head every time i go down? it’s usually the carpenters but maybe i’ll try something more mellow. is there? anyway, even thought the waves are small today, there are a lot of surfers in the water. knee high sets with 40 guys at the park, 15 at rockpiles, a bunch at bowls getting ready for the contest today, and even 12 guys and 3 stand up paddlers out at knee high laniakea. it’s a holiday so expect a lot of surfers enjoying this beautiful day. i’m going to outside to take a deep breath of fresh air, come back in my house, and go back to sleep…. haha…. it’s a holiday right?
**got some video clips i put together of our diving session the other day. i was bummed that you can’t really see the sharks fin coming in.. i guess if i had a better camera or if my dig. cam wasn’t in the plastic ziplock bag, you could see it. oh well…. my new dig cam can’t go underwater so i can’t take clips of the boys actually spearing fish and stuff. i lost my other one and thats that. maybe i can get olympus to sponsor me a new one? or if anybody knows if casio is going to come out with a waterproof dig cam, please let me know. to me, casio is the best and once they come out with an underwater one, i’ll be the first in line to get one. but for now, you’ll just see what we bring up from the underwater world…. check it out….

and speaking of big sharks. another surfer killed by shark in mexico. and a swimmer at another spot in mexico got attacked. that’s 3 this month…. scary….

good evening. paradise in hawaii… trade winds, waves, and blue skies. surfed bowls rights yesterday and it was pretty much going off. the contest was on but they only judge the lefts so the rights were wide open. your not really supposed to surf there but snuck over for a few perfect ones… checked the waves this morning and it was still 3′. so i waited until the tide came up and went out there this afternoon. shit!!! the swell dropped big time. nobody was surfing the rights so i went out to get a few. then when the contest was over, it was just me out at bowls by my lonely self. the ocean went totally flat and i had to actually paddle in. that sucked…. isaiah, josh, and seth are in the finals tomorrow. kelia surfs too. i’m going down to watch the groms rip up the leftover ankle snappers… have a great memorial day….

this is kyle nakamoto from skin diver tv and red sea adventures. kyle is usually the guy taking the video for his show but this time, he was in the spotlight…. he got the trophy fish, a 30lbs ulua…. kyle just started a blog on his website. CLICK HERE TO CHECK REDSEA OCEAN ADVENTURES BLOG….

shawn fujimoto is an expert free diver. he taught me so many things about free diving and the ways to stalk various types of fish. he’s like the kelly slater of free diving. check out his big uku….

i usually take my boat so there’s so much responsibility. i have to keep track of the divers, my boat, and pretty much everything because i’m kind of responsible if something happens. so when i go on somebody else’s boat, i feel pretty relaxed. relaxed enough to take a nap and squeeze my fins like it’s my pillow…. thanks a lot kyle for taking us out on your boat. and sorry for taking up the whole back seat for my nap… haha… by the way, who took this photo with my camera???
**youtube video coming tomorrow….