gosh, what year was it when we went to new caledonia? it must have been 1996 or around there? anyway, it was another of john callahan explorations. a pretty diverse group of us went aboard a nice catamaran and sailed through unchartered waters searching for that perfect wave. well, we found more than that, we found isolated islands, fish everywhere, and yes, perfect waves. we surfed where nobody’s every surfed before and put 2 famous surf spots on the map. this one was on the outer reef. i remember pulling up to the spot, the waves were going off so i jumped in before we even anchored. the current was so strong pulling us down into the impact zone. the sets were like 8′ or so. it wasn’t nothing like the mentawai’s, meaning, it wasn’t perfect. you had to paddle around dodging sets and fighting the current looking for that gem. well, this was my gem. i took off and seen the whole ocean swinging right to me from the deep blue channel. it’s either go straight and eat the reef for lunch, get hurt, and die. or grab my rail, hold a line with my short board, and hope for the best. that’s what i did. i got a nice barrel, then i ate shit. luckily i’m still around to talk about it…

john callahan is the man. he’s got connections into magazines from every country in the world. so going on surf trips with him was a big help for me. i met amazing people from all over the world, i experienced many cultures before it could ever be experienced by foreigners, and i got great photos published in magazines all around the world. from this wave alone, i got photos in magazines in france, brazil, japan, and even surfer magazine in america. callahan use to always tell me “kirby, all it takes is one wave, and one shot.” he was right….

this photo is on my wall. chris malloy, hans hagen, donavon frankenreiter, noah johnson, and glenn matsumoto were on this wonderful trip. i took 200 photos with my film camera. stay tuned…

Secret beach going off again!!!
3′ and barreling.
1 guy out.
I’m going surfing!!!

salamat malan from bali! hot and humid. been eating great food and taking some great photos. can’t wait to go back to hawaii!!!!

if you were a regular person, you would think us divers are crazy. we look for the strong currents, we look for the deep water, we look for the danger. why? because that’s where all the big fish are. we cut up fish and scatter the water with blood, we dive 100′ down and shoot things bigger than us, and on every decent, risking our lives. shallow water blackout? sharks? getting lost at sea? no help anywhere near and if we all went missing, nobody would even know. at the time, none of that is on my mind. but when i look back at the crazy dives we did, i think we’re pretty dam crazy!!!! and lucky to be alive….

this is my cousins husband Damon Schmitz. nobody on the boat surfed longer than him, and nobody on the boat drank more bintangs than him. Damon averaged 8 hours/day of water time. and 8/day of bintangs. a great guy to go on a trip with because he loves to have fun! i’m stoked to have become closer to him on this trip. by the way, Damon’s a lawyer who graduated from Punahou. same school as our wonderful President Obama….

gosh, i swear that indonesia kids are the cutest. every time i go into a village, one or two kids catch my eyes. for this trip, this was the golden child. look how beautiful his eyes are.

and last, i want to congratulate kelia moniz for making the cover of fine magazine. Fine magazine is the top surf/fashion magazine in japan. if you make it in Fine, your pretty much instantly famous. great job kelia. i know how hot it was on that beach that day….
**note. kelia’s longboard made 2 mainstream magazine covers in japan along as many spreads in magazines all over the world. one lucky girl won it at the Go-Naminori Party and i hope she treasures it forever….