i can write a book about these photos but i don’t have time so i will keep it short. it was a rainy, cloudy, windy morning on august 26th, 1993. there was this huge typhoon right off tokyo. back then, i use to wake up early everyday and check the waves at this one spot i heard that gets really good. i was driving on the coastal freeway and it was kind of dark so i couldn’t see the ocean. then all of a sudden, a huge wave broke over the freeway and water was everywhere. it was like 30′ of spray going over my little car. i freaked out and thought i was going to die. i made it through two sets and shortly after, they closed the freeway. i pulled off and drove to the spot kind of scared because i knew it was going to be huge. there were only a few cars. already there was glenn matsumoto, hiroyuki kotsusa, and photographer hiroyuki fujiasawa. we were in the rain watching the waves and it looked too dangerous and out of control. just getting past the deadly shorebreak looked impossible. the waves were 8-10′ with bigger sets washing through. 9 out of 10 of them were just huge closeouts. i use to surf out of control big waves with tony all the time in hawaii and i thought to myself that if he were here right now, he wouldn’t hesitate for a second to paddle out. so i grabbed my 7’0, waxed it up, and paddled out. glenn and kozz were right with me. i caught my first wave, slipped, and ate shit. my tropical water wax was too hard for the cold water coming out of the river. i went back in and waxed up again. this time, i waxed my feet. paddled back out and there it was, huge lines over the horizon. i saw it coming. i knew that 9 out of 10 of these were going to close out so i just took a chance and picked the second one. i took off on a bomb, bottom turned, and pulled into this huge barrel. i remember thinking to myself in the barrel that if i don’t make it out, i was going to die. somehow, i sneaked out of the barrel and made it. i was so stoked!! i went in right after that wave because i knew there was no way i would get anything better than that. and it was just too dangerous. not to mention, no lifeguards. photographer fujisawa-san was in the rain with his umbrella set up and his camera out. i didn’t think anything because it was way too dark. nobody in hawaii would shoot on a day like that. but yet, this isn’t hawaii. a month later, i was eating dinner in a bar in chiba called “topanga”. fujisawa-san walked in with an envelope. he opened it and showed me this cover shot. i’ll never forget that moment. i almost shit in my pants. i was so freaking happy and still am to this day. that was 14 years ago and the waves never got that big ever since then. back then, we use to surf big waves for the thrill, not for the photo. that day 14 years ago, i got both…..
**after the cover came out, i was at the marui pro in chiba and martin potter came up to me and said “nice cover, is that off the wall?” i think i said “yes” because i didn’t want anybody to know it was japan. i kind of felt bad lying…
**anyway, wanted to thank surfing life magazine for giving a guy that nobody knew a cover shot. a cover shot that changed my life.. doomo arigato gozaimasu……
