good evening. gosh, today was probably the longest day of my life. the longest suffering day. it all started last night when we went to eat out. ordered chicken curry, pork adobo, and fried pork. i think it was the fried pork but when i got home, my stomach started hurting. i ended up staying up all night curled up into a ball. yes, food poisoning in a third world country. it was the second time in my life, the first one on a boat in indonesia. let me tell you something, it sucks. i feel like i was dying today. pissing out of my ass, throwing up. and lucky me, my heat was the second one in the morning so i had to paddle out at 7am. body aches, cold sweat, and pretty much down but i had to go out. the waves were too perfect. i caught a couple and got second so i surf in round 2 tomorrow. the other guys in my heat were tripping out because i threw up 3 times during that heat. it was hell. came back to my room and slept, well, tried to sleep. i ate a mango and that came back out in 5 min. luckily tokura-san and hayato were nice enough to make me miso soup with rice. what a life saver. thanks guys. oh, and hayato got food poisoning too but not as bad as me. as for iron stomach tokura-san, he was fine as usual. it’s 8:30pm now and i feel a little better but my body has no power.
as for the waves, gosh, it was going off today!! super sick barrels. got some good surfers in this contest so it’s cool to watch. well, i was trying to watch from my bed. they ran the contest until dark. the last heat of the day was the best. epic…. tomorrow should be good too so i hope i feel better.
**oh, i was the 4th surfer to get food poisoning in the last day. i ended up seeing the aussie doctor at the contest and he gave me some good medicine. gosh, if you haven’t experienced food poisoning before, i hope you never have to. especially in another country. i learned something today, watch what you eat and be very careful. i can’t handle another day like this. it was total pure suffering….
**photos coming up later. the contest starts at 6am and i’m going to climb the mountain to get some lineup shots before it starts. i hope i have enough energy…. see ya….

this is sick. a baby bird with feathers and everything in an egg. a popular filipino dish. yuck….. i’m going to throw up again….

somebody sent me an email from indonesia asking me who’s here from indo. here it is. Wayan ???Kopling??? Wirtima, Made ???Raditya??? Rhondi, Rahtu Suargita, Wayan ???Betet??? Merta, Ketut Juliarta and Tipi Jabrik. all rippers….

mabuhai. the boys are in town. the hype is up and this contest is going to be one to remember. the trucks full with boards and surfers pulled up at cloud 9 around 5pm. some of the hawaiians are mikala jones, makua rothman, kamalei alexander, stephen kohone, rico, jason shibata, and some others. betet, tipi, and some of the boys came from bali. everybody seem stoked the waves came up today. had some overhead barreling sets. surfed twice and shot photos too. it was a long day so it’s time to sleep. had a great local style dinner. fried pork, mango chicken curry, pork adobo, and some warm beer to wash it all down. gosh, it’s so hard to get a cold beer around here. imagine being in the sun all day, super hot, sweaty, humid, and opening a warm beer in the evening. it just doesn’t taste that good. and the warm rum and cokes? well, i guess it’s better than drinking contaminated ice. we got a freezer/refrig put in our room so we just been making our own ice. anyway, back to the contest, get this? man on man heats? how’s that? all we need is some waves and this contest will be the one to remember. be back soon with some results. the contest should be on tomorrow morning. can’t wait… salamat….

a friend of mine emailed me asking me about the water in the philippines. he asked if it’s warm, and if it’s clean. yes, and yes. very very warm and very very very clean. if you don’t believe me, check out this photo from yesterday. what do you think?

and last, when ever i go hunting with my friend brandon. we target practice in the mountains. load up the car with a bucket full of ice cold beers, grab the bow and arrow, and shoot the dummy pig. gosh, you could shoot a pig a day here in the philippines. a friend down the street here is making a “imu”, or hawaiian oven. they got 3 pigs, 7 chickens, and fish. the stuff the chicken with the pork from the pig, put some fish around it, and wrap it in ti-leaves before putting it under the hot rocks. they will be digging it up tomorrow so can’t wait. now all i need is some poi….