6 years ago, shun stayed at my house for a week. we went surfing everyday and it was his first time to hawaii. then 5 years ago, ryota came with shun. these 2 little kids were so cute. so quiet, so excited, so respectful, and so curious. i took them out to kewalo’s for their first session and the rest is history.
i remember the 2 kids taking photos of everything they saw. the sky, the plants, and pretty much everything. classic. haha.
then since my dream was always to connect hawaii and japan, i introduced shun and ryota to my nephews their age, joshua and seth. they surfed together, they pushed each other, and they had fun just like regular kids would. the language barrier was hard, but somehow they overcame that.
fast forward 5 years. i found out the good news yesterday. shun won the all japan surfing championships!!!!
and ryota got second place! these 2 kids dominated the contest in ise and i’m super proud of both to them. these kids from yugawara’s dreams have only begun. back then, i knew they were going to make it big in surfing. why? 2 reasons. first, they both surf good. but most important, they both have great personalities. great kids that are well raised by the people supporting them. you need both to make it in surfing these days. congratulations to shun and ryota for making us all proud!!!!
**check out this short clip from 5 years ago. classic!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wghMdmIljLU[/youtube]
