** i was flipping through some old magazines and came across this article in surf1st. brought back some memories. it was only last year but seemed so long ago. sorry for the blurry photos but my phone camera sucks. getting a new one soon so things should get better. but even though it’s blurry, you get the picture….

this place is called “shotgun” and is located in chiba. never been there before, never seen it break before, but just heard a lot about it. heard that it’s nuts, heard that kelly slater paddled out there on a 6′ day and got barreled, heard that some waves are impossible to ride. pulled up there before sunrise on the biggest wave day of japan history. the waves were 10-15′ and sucking up. made tahiti look like waikiki. remember that huge typhoon that tracked from mexico all the way to japan? yeah, that one. anyway, got dropped off out the back on a jet ski with japanese big waver misao tako. i remember it being dark with huge mountains rolling in from the horizon. it was the two of us verses the pacific ocean. tako-san broke his board in the first 15 minutes so the jet ski picked him up and took him in. then it was only me and my 8’6 in the lineup. was i scared? yes i was. i usually don’t get scared but i was scared that day because i was at a spot in another country, surfing it for my first time, and knowing that the waves were only going to get bigger and bigger. i was out there alone for about 40 minutes but felt like hours. managed to catch a few waves and started getting confident. after a while, all the chiba boys paddled out so it was pretty cool. what’s funny is that when the waves are small, everybody talks story while waiting for a wave. but when it’s big, nobody talks. it’s pretty much silent out there. we were having an unreal session, some guys were getting sick ones, and kinsan was on the jetski shooting photos. it got sunny, clean, and everybody started getting happy….

i remember sitting the deepest waiting for my last wave of the day. all of a sudden, i seen guys paddling to the shoulder racing for their lives. i couldn’t see what was behind the first swell but after i paddled over it. oh shit!!! a freak 15’+ set started sucking up on the outside and i started paddling as fast as i could to get outside. no luck. the wave broke on my head so i let my board go and dove under. my leash snapped and my board broke in half. then 3 more sets broke on my head. it was nuts!!! almost everybody got cleaned up and there were broken boards and freaked out surfers all scattered around. i swam to the outside to have the jetski pick me up and i was out of there. that was by far the biggest and craziest day of surfing for me in japan. if you asked me that day if i wanted to do it again, i would have said “no way”…. but now when i look back and think about it, i want to try again. next time, i’ll have a longer surfboard and bigger balls…. kinsan took these photos that day. look at those surfboards in the photos. those are 10′ long so imagine how big and thick the waves were….

the day before, we were surfing this inside reef and the waves were 8′ or so. on the outside of the bay, there were waves that looked 15′ breaking and heard that nobody surfed there before. maybe because the cliffs are 150 feet in front of the wave? anyway, hayato and i jumped on the ski to go check it out. figure go try to catch one so we got dropped off between sets. no waves were breaking so we paddled into the lineup. was looking around and hayato told me “i think we’re sitting too inside”. right as i was about to say “yeah”, this huge set came in and broke on our heads. cleaned us up and that was it. we have to be more careful in the future. but oh my gosh, those 2 days were “unforgettable”…..

4-6′ windy shitty surf.

good morning. 6:30am on this freaking windy morning. outside has some winds with gusts up to 22mph and expect it to get stronger as the day goes along. the buoys are up on the north shore and so are the waves. 2-4′ now but expect 6′ by this afternoon. round 2 and 3 of the pipeline masters will run today. after this swell, nothing is coming so they have to go. if you go to watch the contest, take a jacket for the rain, and take a wall for the wind. as for town, chest high sets at bowls. 5 guys out. gosh, solid south swell in town in december? the past 2 days were unreal. thanks santa…. anyway, got to get out of here. will try to send a photo of pipe from my blackberry. hope it works… aloha…..
**last night i went to check out this canon seminar held in downtown honolulu. it was 4 hours long but worth every minute. some of hawaii’s top surfing, wedding, and journal photographers showed up. i was kind of nervous in my shorts, tshirt, and slippers. leaned a lot about the new canon equipment and met the key guys for canon in hawaii and usa. there was a guest speaker named Paul Gero. paul’s been shooting for 35 years and started when he was only 12. he had a slide show of his work. oh my… it was awesome. paul shot for magazines such as time, sports illustrated, national geographic, and even covered president bush. his photo were awesome and gosh did i learn a lot. i’m really glad i attended that seminar and can’t wait to next year. and how’s this? they cleaned my sensors on my camera while i was waiting. for free!! and the seminar was free too!! thanks canon…. can you sponsor me a 600mm lens and i’ll put a sticker on my surfboard. i’ll even put the sticker on my forehead.. haha….

*check out Paul F. Gero’s WEBSITE…..

up until now, i’ve been using the old school phones with no email and no internet. went in to t-mobile the other day and was looking around for a new phone. $249 for a new blackberry pearl was kind of steep so i was going to stick to my old outdated phone. then one of my surfing friends that works there walked in. i’ve known john park for a long time. he’s the marketing manager at t-mobile and has been there for a long time. he asked me what i was doing there and i told him just checking out the new blackberry’s. he gave me his card and told me to call him because he had an extra one. oh my gosh!! score!!! i was so stoked!!! i finally had time today to play with it and it took me all day to figure things out. it’s too high tech for me but i got to get on it. now i can do things on the road and don’t have to sit in front of my computer all day. perfect timing for north shore. now you will see some up to date photos of the waves and stuff. keep you posted… just give me a few more days to figure it out….
**can somebody tell my why i can’t check my hotmail with my blackberry??? it’s freaking driving me nuts….