good morning. wow, first time i slept in so good. it’s 9am here in japan and sweating already. going to take a cold shower and head out. check the waves, which will probably be flat. maybe go for a swim? go back sleep? i don’t know. anyway, have a nice day…
**it’s always good to travel around with my camera because even on the smallest days, you can get some pretty nice photos. photos that will last a lifetime…

this is yamamoto-san. i met yamamoto-san when i first came to japan. he’s always been kind to me and when ever i see him, he’s always got this big smile on his face. a smile like the same one in this photo. super happy cool guy….

sometimes you shoot on the best days and can’t get a good shot. and sometimes you shoot on the smallest days and score. i like this photo because of the way this surfer is flowing with the wave. he ate shit right after but who cares? as long as you got the shot right???

keito was this little kid i met about 7 years ago. he was staying at the dropout house in kamakura when i went for a abalone/sazae dive with the late edo ogawa-san. the 3 of us swam out from inamura and i remember this little grom holding his breath for super long. i was impressed and even though i haven’t seen him surf before that, i knew he was going to be good. you could just tell by the way he connected with the ocean. it’s good to see keito rising to the top of his class. by the way, sick photo….

if your a grom and want to surf good, move to chiba and surf shidashita everyday. japanese pro champions like shuji kasuya, takao kuga, zuccho, fukuchi, izuki tanaka, and hideyoshi tanaka are some of the guys from there. check out all the groms out there chasing their dreams…. cool….

this is kent nishiya. kent is from california and is 15 years old. he’s a pretty cool kid that surfs good. wanted to say hi to his mom miyoko over there in california… hi…

good evening. just checked the wave forecast for the next 7 days. NOTHING!!! oh my gosh!!! i think i’m going to go crazy soon. my friend sent me an email from hawaii telling me the waves are flat and shitty there. hey, all you guys in hawaii, hawaii is never flat. you can always find a head high waves somewhere. yeah try looking at sandy’s? hello…. you don’t know what flat is. come to shonan right now and i’ll show you what flat is. i guess i better get out my suit and dancing shoes and go straight to roppingi.. haha… go easy… yeah, i told you that i’m starting to go crazy.. so better stay away from me or i’ll drag you there with me… haha. but seriously, if there isn’t any surf coming soon, i might be writing my next blog from hawaii….

met this cool chick at a cool party in chiba the other night. her name is kat. she’s half kiwi, and half japanese. speaks fluent in both languages, young, surfs, and is a musician. as soon as i found out she could sing and play guitar, that was it. i told her that i wasn’t going to leave that party until she busted it out and sang for us. so she did…

this girl has confidence and when she started strumming her guitar and singing, out came the chicken skin.[:????????$B!/(B???:][:????????$B!/(B???:][:????????$B!/(B???:] it was standing room only and i wasn’t the only guy with chicken skin in the room. this girls going to be famous someday. kat was cool and gave me her CD so i’m going to put it in my computer now and download it to my ipod. be back with some video i took along with a link to her website. chotto matte kudasai ne…
**that phrase “THANK YOU FOR THINKING OF ME” was in my head all day today. she wrote that song and it is stuck in my head. pretty cool lyrics….
**and last, wanted to thank hayato’s dad mike-san for letting me borrow his car while i was in chiba. that was the coolest car and i felt like a kid driving it. it was like a golf cart on acid. yeah, electric car that goes 50 km. that’s freaking fast. i wish i could buy one in hawaii but i know that won’t work. somebody would steal it in a heartbeat….

good morning. gosh, what a blast i had in chiba this past weekend. it’s been a while since i went to a contest in japan and i was pretty amazed on high the level of surfing is these days. gosh, the kids are ripping!!! here are the finalists of the contest….

ok, nao omura is the real deal. i haven’t seen her surf since the last time she was staying with me in hawaii. but i just seen her go from level 2 to 10. yeah, i said 10. and in her semifinal heat, her top two scores were both perfect 10’s. yeah, kelly slater and bruce irons couldn’t even do that at uluwatu, but nao did it here in onshore waist high waves. that’s pretty dam amazing and probably the first time it’s ever been done here in japan. this is her right after the historic semifinal heat. how happy can you be? congratulations nao….

now for the finalist. yeah, that’s nao on the far left. wonder what she got? yeah, 1st place. now she gets to be on tv here in japan….

this is the under 12 division finalists. the kid holding the board won it. i don’t know his name but i’m sure i’ll hear more about him in the future. all the kids were ripping in the final…

the under 16 division was pretty nuts but kashia from shikoku stood out from the rest and won it pretty easy. he just had too much power compared to the rest of the boys…

this was the 20 and under finalists. wanted to congratulate each and every competitor who gave it their all this past weekend. by watching all of them, i realized two things. one, the level of surfing in japan is at an all time high. and two, i’m getting old.. haha….
**it was good to see old time friends and to make new friends. wanted to thank everybody in chiba for being so kind. hope to make it back there again soon…