had an wonderful day with mother and son. Nozaki-san and 9 year old Shui-kun.

i think spending such quality time in the ocean with your child is priceless. something a child will never forget for the rest of his life. i know that because that’s the only happy experiences of my childhood. Shui-kun is very lucky.

when he caught his first wave, i was surprised on how good he was! omg, so good, and so cute! look at him go!

then Nozaki-san went on a good one. now i know why her son surfs so well. they surf together all the time in japan and support each other. amazing.

this kid is not only a good surfer, he’s a good turtle spotter. he saw turtles we couldn’t even see.

yes, this one was so small that i missed it.

some of the waves Shui-kun rode were overhead. and he kept charging them!

his goal was to improve in surfing. today, that was accomplished. by the end of the session, he was surfing totally perfect! gosh, i love kids!!!

another good one for Nozaki-san!

another beautiful and happy day in hawaii. so stoked to surf today with Nozaki-san and Shui-kun.

then we went to check out diamond head. it was absolutely perfect! head high waves, no wind, glassy conditions, and whales on the outside. pure paradise!

thank you for the awesome morning!

and this little surfer was so hungry after. the cutest smile ever!

then had an amazing afternoon surf session with Asayama-san. caught good waves, and had a golden sunset time at the park. the perfect end to a perfect day! by the way, look how fit Asayama-san is now! much more inner and outer muscle from 2 weeks ago. probably the fittest 67 old surfer in hawaii.

Day!

i was supposed to pick up Asayama-san up at 2pm yesterday afternoon. i get a call at 1pm and he tells me he’d rather go diving. haha. i say “of course!” that ended up being a good decision because after 10 days of surfing, i’m sure he needed to rest. and the best way to rest is to free dive!

we dive 3 spots. first stop was diving with 3 sharks and one turtle. another first time experience for him.

second dive was another turtle spot. i’m trying to teach Asayama-san how to make turtles curious. if you swim towards them, they will swim away. if you swim on the side of them, they will come in and say hi.

just watching him all afternoon going up and down was pretty cool. it’s our 4th free diving session and i can see a big difference in confidence underwater. that is huge!

and we have our underwater sign language. i’m always diving down after Asayama-san to see if he is ok. in this case, he’s ok.

it’s crazy how deeper and deeper Asayama-san is going on each dive. wherever i anchor the boat, he dives to the bottom no matter what. this time, it was 34′ and pretty deep. i didn’t think he would go down, and actually touch the bottom. in fact, i couldn’t believe it!

and coming up very slowly like you’re supposed to.

i had one eye on Asayama-san, and one eye on the fish. and when i seen something delicious, i’d go down and spear it.

the one on the left for sashimi, the one on the right for the steamer.

i love eating this fish. the best sashimi!

so i get home and fillet the fish. now going to let it sit in the refrigerator for a day and eat it sashimi style!