good evening. what a long day. it’s 8pm and i just got home from the north shore. this morning, i went to pick up matchi, and the two yugawara boys from the airport. i’m stoked when my friends come to hawaii. now i have more people to surf with….

this is their first time to hawaii. shun is 10 and ryota is 11. they were so happy to be in hawaii that they started acting like tourists. they were so cute….

when they got to my house, they we saying “wow, wow, wow”. i asked “wow what?” and they said everything “wow”…. then they got their cameras out and started taking photos of the sky, mountains, and trees around my house. when their parents see the photos they take, they are going to laugh….. they are staying on the north shore for the next 10 days so figure while their in town, break them in and surf some town waves. so i went to pick up my two nephews seth 10 and josh 11. pulled up to kewalos and the waves were going off!!! 3′ and perfect. the kids were having so much fun. and they were all ripping. josh and seth told me “wow, they surf good”. i was pretty surprised on how good they got since the last time i seen them surf in japan. kewalos was going off and the kids didn’t want to come in. they looked bummed when i told them one more wave. we had to get out to the north shore to watch the pipe masters and surf v-land….

we scored and found a parking right in front of the billabong house at pipe. bobby was outside so we got the free escort onto the billabong house lawn. on the way, taj burrow and dave rastavich were hanging out. the kids freaked out that their heros they see on videos were right in front of them. it was funny…. we watched a few heats from the billabong house. this is something not too many kids can experience… that is pipeline breaking right in front. and look at the two tourists shun and ryota taking photos again. haha….
the waves at pipe were junk and the contest was kind of boring so we headed up to v-land. and yes indeed, v-land was the spot. 4′ and perfect. so many barrels but so many people. the two kids got their taste of a north shore session. it was a fun day and we got in two perfect surf sessions. i took some photos and video with my dig. camera and will try to post it tomorrow. right now, i’m sunburned and too tired to do anything. good night….

oh, we ate lunch at taco bell. check out my hot sauce. i was looking at one and it had the writing “i’m taking the day off. see next packet”. what? so i grabbed the next packet and read it, “i collect straws”. what?? what does this mean? i was confused. so after i drank my 40oz. big gulp of caffeine mountain dew and got all loaded up. i took all the straws out of the dispenser and put it in my pocket. now, “i collect straws”…..

good morning, 6:30am here on this beautiful day. small waves in town. actually seen a chest high perfect wave at bowls. 3 guys out. looks fun and it’s super clean. the water finally cleaned up in town. i was out in waikiki yesterday and the water was crystal clean. north shore looks 2-3′ right not but should be getting bigger. the buoys are up so probably 5′ by this afternoon. i think they will get the pipe masters started. well, it’s going to be a beautiful day out there so get in the water. have a nice day….

i remember going up to kamehameha school 3x a week to train with tony moniz, todd mitsui, kaipo jaquias, eric barton, sunny garcia, john shimooka, kalani robb, and many others. trainer kimo middlesworth use to get us in top shape. we use to start off at 5:30am running down a 2 mile hill, hitting the bottom and grabbing 50lbs bags of sand in rubber tubes and putting it around our necks. running up and down the hill 7x. race back up to the gym. and when i mean race, i mean race. the kind when we got to the top, somebody would throw up. it was that competitive. and that was just the start. we hit the gym, do 1000 sit-ups, jump rope for 15 minutes, stretch, and do 15 reps of like 15 weight routines. then it was off to the pool. the freezing pool. we did laps and laps until we were totally out of breath. underwater exercises, kickboard races, and end it with a protein shake. that would take about 2 hours. then i would either be off to surf the north shore, or off to school. we were so fit that surfing big waves was nothing. we use to paddle out on the biggest days out at sunset, haleiwa, lani’s, pipeline, and pretty everywhere unridable. we use to follow tony, which meant we were surfing the biggest waves on the north shore. rain, onshore, or closing out. anything. when i think about it now, those were the days. no photographers, no media hype. it was just us and the ocean. we did it for the challenge and for the feeling. we could care less of anybody seen us or not… so here i was a few weeks ago taking nao in the pool for some short training exercises. as i was waiting for her to come back up from holding her breath, i was thinking. i was thinking of how much those years of hard core training paid off. thanks kimo for taking the time to work our butts off….

nao’s first attempt at holding her breath was 24 seconds. by the second day, she could hold it for 1 minute 15 seconds. and from barely making it from one side to the other swimming under water, she did it easily over and over again. pretty impressive. next step? swim out to big sunset with no board and fins. practice diving under big mountain white wash. get ready and see you next year nao…

by the way, if you didn’t see it, this is the go-naminori ad we ran in the past Japan Surfer Girls Magazine….. go girls….
**want to watch the PIPE MASTERS? CLICK HERE…..

**want to watch the PIPE MASTERS IN JAPANESE? CLICK HERE…..

good evening. kind of a cool day here in hawaii but gosh, it was so beautiful outside and outside was where i was all day. the sun felt soooo good. waves on the north shore was small but fun. town even had some fun waves with hardly anybody out. i just checked the north shore forecast and not any big swells on the way. might be a small pipe masters this year. that would suck. the buoys ain’t showing anything yet so keep your fingers crossed. anyway, the weather here in hawaii went back to beautiful so i’m feeling pretty high. and wanted to say congratulations to all the marathon runners again. i drove by waikiki and seen everybody having a hard time walking. it happens every year. well, it’s getting a little chilly outside. might be a cold winter night. keep warm and have a great evening….

got up pretty early this morning and seen the coolest clouds outside of my window. i knew it was going to be a beautiful day….

when i left my house and was driving, two birds flew on my windshield wipers. they were just cruzing so i pulled over and took a photo… then i ate um. haha. just jokng…

and do you know where this is? one of the most famous mountains in the world. not too many people get this angle. take a guess….

and if you know where the top photo is, you know where this spot is. this is a secret spot and only one guy was out there today. it looked super fun. so did all the spots around here…

brandon has the best view of the sunsets from his house. he called me last night and told me to look outside my window. it was nothing like this. i wish i had a view like this. if i did, i would be home every single evening watching the sunset sipping on a glass of wine. wait, i don’t drink wine. but i probably would….