good morning. 5am and i couldn’t sleep well because i was thinking about the waves. swells on the way up today and i can’t wait. still too dark to see the waves but i’m going surfing anyway. hope to get barreled today…. have a safe day and see you in the water….

this is aki ogura. aki is a pro bodyboarder from chiba and one of the coolest chicks. i met her for the first time down in wakayama about 4 years ago during a typhoon. before that day, i’ve been there a few times and didn’t even surf because the waves were small. that day, it was aki’s first time there and the waves were going off. lucky girl…. then it was 2 years ago we would meet again. we all went on a boat trip together in the maldives for 2 weeks for a couple magazine articles. that was one of the funnest trips i’ve ever went on. and the rest of the group would probably agree. so it was really good seeing aki last night. what a small world….

this was the international crew. we had south africa, singapore, japan, hawaii, maldives, and jacksan from tennessee… gosh, i can’t wait for another trip like that…
**check out aki ogura’s interview on go-naminori…. CLICK HERE….
**and last, want to check out something amazing? a couple of days ago, there was a huge shark the size of a bus spotted in the waters of molokai. you must see it. it’s nuts!!!!!

good sunny evening. gosh, how good did it feel today when the sun came out? really good. went surfing this morning at sunset point. from the beach, it looked crowded and not that good. paddled out and it was actually pretty fun. head high, clean, and all beginners out. surfed for only 30 minutes but caught some really good waves. supposed to be 8′ by tomorrow afternoon so looking forward to that….

had a freaking nuts crazy fun barbecue at nick nozaki’s house last night. it was good to seeing everybody having a good time. it was raining, muddy, and windy but nobody cared. i don’t remember too much but all i know is that my feet is still dirty…. oh, and i came home with somebody else’s slippers. sorry. wanted to thank nick for letting us invade his house and wanted to thank tokura-san for buying all the food and stuff… arigato gozaimasu….

i passed by the kitchen a couple of times on the way to the bathroom and ended up staying here for most of the night. warm room with warm people….

i was so happy to see yumie. yumie is such a sweet girl. chiaki took like 3 photos of us because yumie kept on closing her eyes. then chiaki said, “good enough, yumie’s eyes in this photo are more open then naoka’s in any of his photos” haha. that was pretty funny….

on the way back from the north shore today, i passed by backdoor and seen my nephew’s and friends hitchhiking for a ride up to rocky point. boys will be boys….

and last, wanted to say thanks so much to tokura-san for everything in hawaii. have a safe return to japan. this is yesterday at a secret beach we surf at least once every year. a place to relax, ride good waves, and enjoy with nobody around for miles and miles…. it’s only us and the turtles….

when is the last time you seen backdoor like this? yeah, it’s been that long. this was last winter… shane dorian in the office. 7 photographers all trying to get that perfect shot. not only surfers now days have to get good positioning in the barrel, the photographers have to position themselves too to get that unique one of a kind shot. it’s pretty cool being on both sides. pulling into the barrel and getting your photo taken by lots of photographers and seeing it in a magazine is pretty awesome. and at the same time, swimming in the water while a surfer is coming straight at you trying to get as close as you can get, taking a shot, going home and download it into your computer, and then see it published in some major surfing magazine. that’s pretty awesome too. but if i had to choose one, i’d be the surfer in the barrel for sure…. gosh, i can’t wait for another day like this. when it comes, i’m surfing ALL day…..
**by the way, a lot of people tell me that i’m really lucky because i eat good food all the time. just wanted to say yes, i think i’m lucky too. so thanks to everybody that makes that happen because i’m not eating it by myself….