good evening from maui. jumped on the superferry at 6:30am this morning. 3 hours later, i’m in maui. at $39 a ticket, i guess you can’t beat it yeah??

left oahu and had a hard time breathing. so much vog…. but when i got to maui, it wasn’t so bad. voggy but still beautiful…. haven’t been here in 8 years since the hui backdoor shootout when it was held at honolua bay. i was lucky at that time to surf for the japanese team. surf honolua bay with 4 others out? oh yeah….

the superferry has up to 40 knots speed. that much speed on sheet glass water made it smooth sailing….
**anyway, the waves were super fun at this beach break called “nevamind”. i’m tired and ready to grab a beer and watch the sun go down on the horizon… have a good evening. in fact wait, i’ll take a photo from my room…..

not bad for a maui sunset yeah? i guess the vog has it’s good side. the sky turns orange and you can look right into the sun… well, gotta get back to my beer…

good morning. 4:45am on this hazy thursday morning. waves on the north shore came up. buoy 1 is 9 feet 13 seconds. expect solid 6′ + on north shores with epic conditions. my boards in my bag i’m out of here…

and gosh, how was the haze in the air yesterday? gosh, felt like i was in LA again. and the bad news is that it ain’t going away for a while. but you know what’s cool about it, it’s the only time you can look straight into the sun… this was 6pm yesterday driving down kaimuki….

anyway, this is were i’m heading right now. solid swell, no winds, and plenty aloha…

good evening. super small waves around the island. no waves to talk about. watched a few heats of the billabong pro online and seen kelly slater lose. already? yup. he lost to tahitian local manoa drollet. i guess kelly slater is human after all….

check out my lunch from the chinese restaurant down the street. so good….. i’m still full….

drove by sandy beach to check out the waves. there was this huge monk seal sleeping on the beach. i tried to take a nap next to him but he got pissed off…

like always, when ever there is a photo moment, i don’t have my good camera. if i did, this could have been a postcard… oh well, at least my cell phone camera can give you an idea of how beautiful it was today….
**every country has their own rules on becoming a professional surfer. back in the days, the way to become a pro surfer in america is just by taking money. yeah, enter a pro contest, make it to the money round, take the money, and your a pro from then on. those were the rules back in the 80’s but now, it’s changed. the amateur surfers in america are making money from the age of 10 years old. it’s pretty confusing. now days, the kids wake up one morning and say “ummm, i’m going to be a pro from today”. and that’s it, their pro…. weird yeah?? but in japan, it’s a totally different system. a system i had to go through and i kind of like. you have to go through the system of tests and the judges decide if your qualified or not to be a professional surfer. so a pro surfer in japan, you pretty much have to earn it. not just waking up one morning and deciding yourself… what the heck it that????

anyway, up until now, there were no women’s longboard professional surfers in japan? i didn’t even know that. so who are these 4 girls? these 4 girls are the first ever women’s professional longboarder’s in japan. there was a contest last month and these 4 girls earned their professional licenses. this is going to be a part of japan surfing history forever. so just wanted to congratulate yuko shimajiri, miku uemura, ryoko maruyama, and juli warisaya on making some history in japan… omedeto gozaimasu…. and wanted to thank yuko for letting me steal this photo off her blog. well, she didn’t let me steal it, i just stole it. sorry.. check out YUKO SHIMAJIRI’S BLOG BY CLICKING HERE….