good morning. 6:30am on this saturday morning. waves on the north shore came down. maybe 3′ and i bet v-land is going off again. conditions look a little morning sickness but should be cleaning up. town has a little swell. chest high with 7 guys at rockpiles and 10 at bowls. happening today at queen’s is the rabbit kekai grom contest. should be some little rippers. water still dirty so cannot dive. shucks… anyway, have a nice day….

i’m pretty happy with my new olympus 790 SW water/shockproof camera. it sucks for surfing photos but awesome for portraits…. this is joshua the other day at gas chambers on the north shore. i’m still tripping out that i’m actually surfing the north shore with my nephews. can’t wait till they move down to pipe and backdoor….

this is grom fever. josh, kalani david, and friend…. all around 10 years old…

i’m surprised josh still surfs. when he was 9 years old, we were surfing out near his house and his leash wrapped around the reef and got stuck. it got stuck while he was underwater and was pulling him down. he freaked out but was smart enough to take his leash off. he was a little shaken up but recovered. a normal 9 year old would hang his surfboard up and never go in the ocean ever again….

seth’s another hard core grom. i asked him what happened to his foot that day. he told me that he stepped on glass and had a deep cut in his foot. i asked him if he went to the hospital. he said “nah, i just super glued it. it hurts a little but it’s ok”…. what???

anyways, heading to the UH Football game tonight at the aloha stadium. can’t wait.. GO WARRIORS….

and last, this is the yangtze river dolphin. they live in the yangtze river in china and haven’t been seen in years. scientist listed as possibly extinct. that sucks…

pulled up to backdoor/off the wall at 6:45am. only a couple guys out and looked pretty fun. but had a funny feeling i should check v-land. pulled up to v-land 5 minutes later and oh my gosh!!! E-P-I-C!!! v-land was 4′ and perfect!!! long barreling rights…. i was running on the beach and paddled out as fast as i could. just like a kid. i’d say v-land was a 10 on a scale of 1-10. surfed and got barreled for 2 and a half hours with not too many guys out. score!!!
then drove down to sunset to watch the contest. it was 3′ and windy off the point. it was kind of booring after surfing epic waves all morning so i was out of there….

dropped by glenn minami’s shaping room to pick up seth’s new boards. a 4’5 short board and a 4’4 bullet. gosh, those boards are so small. and gosh, those boards look so sick….

results for the x-cel pro:
1st- Joel Centeio
2nd- Mason Ho
congrats to the boys from hawaii….


i took my olympus camera out to surf the other day. todd mitsui and bobby higa were out so i snapped this photo. surfing perfect waves with only a few guys out brings a smile to anyone….

speaking of bobby higa. bobby is part owner of VERTRA SKINCARE…. he gave me a bunch of sunscreen for my precious face. haha…. i came home and was playing around with my icamera and wanted to know how i’d look if i was half shane dorian. not bad yeah?? haha… gosh, i’m so black you can’t even see me. i’d better put more vertra sunscreen on my face before i surf. thanks bobby..

check out nakajima-san’s gallery from chiba the other day on GO-NAMINORI.COM… got some nice photos. and gosh, the water looks cold….[:???:][:???:][:???:]
***attention bowls, kaisers, rockpiles surfers…. get your ass down to the bowls parking lot tomorrow morning at 10am to protest the privatized gated pay parking planned. if you don’t, expect to pay $5/hour to surf your own spot….

good morning. 5:30am. shit, the winds picked up. it’s blowing kind of hard now and the waves in the north shore don’t look that good. the buoy came up so the waves are on the way but back to trade wind weather. the xcel pro should be finishing today. i got a lot of things to do today, but first, got to surf. going to the north shore. want to beat the traffic so i’m out of here…. see ya… oh yeah, the biggest safeway supermarket in the country is opening today in kapahulu. i passed by there yesterday and couldn’t believe how fast they built it. when i left in july, nothing was there. now it’s a huge building with all kinds of stores around. kapahulu’s got a new look and i like it…..

i’ve been looking for the perfect size pelican camera case for a long time. i was usper lucky and scored one in okinawa. keith is in the marines and had an extra one made for night vision goggles. he was super cool enough to give it to me… thanks keith….

it’s perfect for traveling. these cases are so strong that you can put a raw egg inside, throw it off a building, and it won’t break. even stronger than a pelican….

this is kevin and keith. kevin is from kauai and has been living in okinawa for years. super nice guy and really good diver…. keith is in the marines stationed on kadena air force base. we stayed at his house. he’s also another really good diver. thanks guys for teaching me a lot of diving tips. can’t wait to hook up with you guys again….

keith’s wife is from thai. we were so lucky to eat real thai homestyle cooking. soooo good. and so spicy too. thanks so much…

and i still think japan has the most beautiful sunrises. check out this okinawan sunrise. sick….
finally, check out my new hobby…. see you at tantalus…