good evening. the best backdoor so far this year today. if i would have to rate it on a scale of 1 to 10. i would rate it a 9.5. if the crowd was a little more mellow, it would be a 10 for sure. perfect sunny 4-6′ a-frame barrels both backdoor and pipe. the crowd? bruce irons, shane dorian, ross williams, tamayo perry, marcus hickman, jamie o’brien, ikaika kalama, myles padaca, kahea hart, tj barron, and many more to name. it was packed with locals and today was a sign on how the rest of the year will be out there; crowded. oh yeah, shimpei horiguchi was out and scored a pretty nice backdoor wave. as for foreigners trying to get a wave out there today? forget it. it was good to see everybody surfing so dam good. and good to be back in the lineup talking story. diving, hunting, whatever. i can’t wait till the next good day. i’m going out earlier. have a great evening….
**after all these years visiting so many countries, my ultimate memories are not the waves, not the fish, or not the weather. it’s the experiences with the local people. interacting with the local people in their countries is the exciting. don’t get me wrong, i love the 5 star hotels and stuff but if you want the experience of a lifetime, you have to live out the real local life. so when i found out i was staying with a local family on the remote atoll of manihi in tahiti, i was really excited….
family gatherings in front of the barbecue. something you won’t experience at hotels. i was watching everybody prepare for dinner that whole day and i was amazed on how they all worked together. if i can sum it up in a few words, it’s food from the heart….
so before dinner, we all gather around to say grace. we give thanks for the food and are healthy lives. and every time we did that, i felt like part of the family. i felt so welcomed and so at ease. i felt like i was at my own home…..
the whole family came to the airport to see us off. they gave us leis again that smelt so sweet. when i got on the plane, i was tired so i started to doze off. then as we were taking off, i seen at the corner of my eye Fabienne riding her bicycle along the road waving goodbye. gosh, that was touching…
then right ahead of her was joseph standing on the roof of the speeding bus jumping up and saying goodbye. yeah, very touching…
to the right is Gilles. Gilies is the man of household with one big heart. before we left his house to the airport, we gathered around in a circle all holding hands before our last meal together. this is what he said with his calm voice, “i want to thank everybody that came to my house and spent this wonderful time with my family. when you came into my house, we were strangers, now WE ARE BROTHERS….” holy cow…. those were the most touching words i’ve ever heard in my life. there were 10 grown men standing there and i swear, i wasn’t the only who had tears in his eyes… i had the most awesome family lifestyle experience on the island of manihi that i’ll remember forever. just by meeting and staying with my new brothers for that week changed my life. it made me want to reach out to more people and be nice to everybody that comes to hawaii.
oh, before i forget, the tahitian on the left is Aravina. one night i was falling asleep at the dinner table because i was so tired from diving all day. aravina looked at me and told me “kirby, if you go to sleep, i’m going to shave off your eyebrows…” and he was serious. so i went in my room, locked the door, and slept…. haha…
