when you chase typhoon waves in japan, you have to gamble. everything changes at any moment. the waves, the wind, the weather, and the crowds. you need lots of money, and lots of support to get good waves at different places. we don’t have too much money so we pile up in a car, then move together. that’s cheap surfer style. but as for the support, i don’t know anybody else in this whole wide world that has more support than i. it was 5:30pm yesterday when we decided to drive up 14 hours. it was a gamble, but when we pulled up at 8:30 this morning, i felt like we won the lottery! the waves were pumping, it was sunny, no wind, and the waves couldn’t have been any better. i want to thank toda-san, takami-san, tomoyuki-san, matsu, kimura-san, and my sponsors for making this all happen. everybody knows i love to get barreled and today only had barrels, big and thick ones!!!! after scoring good waves yesterday, and then scoring good waves today, nobody in the world is a happier surfer than i. thank you everyone for sharing waves with me, and thank you everyone for putting up with my selfishness. you can call me wagamama surfer. haha.
on the way here, we already got the report that the waves were pumping! i started to get butterflies in my stomach and told toda-san “drive faster!!!!” i’ve been surfing this spot for 20 years and today was probably the most perfect of all these years.
getting past the shorebreak was super dangerous. the rocks flying around hitting every part of your body. i got hit in the head before and had to go to the hospital so i know how dangerous it is. today was hard just to pass the shorebreak to the lineup. then as i got out, i seen atsushi inamura take off on a monster and pull in. the only thing that was going through my mind was “I WANT ONE TOO!!!!”
then the next wave i seen tetta mori take off and get this perfect barrel. those 2 waves were the most beautiful waves i’ve seen in a long time. not it was my turn. everybody went in and only had 6 of us out. i waited and waited for the good ones. first wave, barrel!!!
i ended up getting some super good barrels. probably the deepest and longest ones in years. thank goodness matsu took my camera out of my bag and shot some amazing photos. yes, all these photos are taken by matsu. if you could have seen my face in this photo, i was so freaking smilin! and still am! it’s 2:36 and i’m waiting for a dream evening session. this has been a great surf trip for me so far. when i go back to hawaii this weekend, i’ll be smiling my ass off!
i want to thank my support crew for making my dreams come true all the time!!!
have a nice rest of the day!
