last night the Dom Perigon Rose Vintage 2000 came out. it tasted so good!

cheers to 62 year old Kimura-san. wishing you another great year ahead of safe travels, lots of good waves, and many classic moments.

2 cakes is always better than one.

this strawberry shortcake was so delicious!!!

and the lobster sashimi we ate with the lobster still alive. so sweet and so good!
welcome to another great moment in life.

OMG! Indo curry and nam.
BIG!

north north sumatra is where i’m headed tonight. been there 7 years ago and had a great experience. 7 years ago nobody knew where it was, there were no boats as we had to sail from padang. took 29 hours to get there but when we arrived, i remember pure paradise. i didn’t see another human being for 7 days. it was just us and the beautiful islands surrounding the banyaks. i know there are 4 boats operating there now with a few surf camps. more people and more crowded. that’s why i’m focusing on diving because i know that world will still be empty.

we stopped by a busy port on the way up to get supplies. once we left, that was it.

one of the spots is called treasure island. here is Tamae Taro on a jewel. still can’t believe we had this spot to ourselves for a week straight.

another thing i remember was the water being so clean. i shot some amazing underwater photos that were published in magazines around the world.

i was the only diver on the trip. so from the very first day, i remember Tokura-san telling me “ok kirby, go get us some sashimi for tonight.” it was scary diving alone in the late evenings but i had to feed the crew. i remember just pulling up to a spot 50′ deep in the channel off this secluded island. i loaded jumped off, loaded my gun, dove down to the bottom, waited, and about a minute later, i seen a huge GT come to say hi. i had only one breath and one shot. i took it and as soon as i knew i had it, i threw it on the dingy and headed back to the big boat. 10 minutes later i was back, everybody was stoked, especially me.

when you shoot a big fish like this alone, you have to take the perfect shot. if you do, you land the fish. if you don’t, the fish will land you.

i was the youngest guy of this crew. everybody older than me and everybody well respected in the japan surf industry. i still remember being inspired by each ones story to success.

Tokura-san is a very successful man living a dream life. i traveled with him for 20 years and he showed me the way to happiness. retired owner of Dove Wetsuits still surfing hard and traveling the world. i owe this great man a lot. here he is catching the perfect tuna on our last day of the trip. we had a 29 hour sail back to port and this tuna went a long way.

this is my catch on the last day right before we left. one guy ordered a snapper and luckily i found one. in fact, i found 2.

these were the kind of sashimi platters we were eating every night.
i leave tonight with 8 divers and 5 surfers. expect much more sashimi to come. we will be eating very well and surfing a lot as 3 back to back to back swells are heading to indonesia right now. i’m freaking so excited!!!
surf your dream…