super stoked to hear from Masamune-kun’s mom that he went surfing in shikoku! wow! he’s a real surfer boy! keep on surfing Masamune-kun! i miss you kid!
want to thank Hikaru-san for making me realize how lucky i am. this photo you took makes me appreciate my job, my friends, and this beautiful hawaii.
and thank you Hikaru-san for the natto senbei! love it!
so cool to think you can be in the mountains surrounded by beautiful green, fruits, and flowers.
then 30 minutes later be in the ocean surrounded by beautiful blue, fish, and sailboats.
want to thank Aoi’s mom for sending me these photos of our training session at kewalo’s yesterday. i don’t only teach kids how to surf, i teach them how to respect locals, i teach them how to understand the ocean, and i teach them how to smile.
Aoi is a very shy kid. reminds me so much like me when i was his age. i was exactly his age when i surfed Kewalo’s for the first time. i was so nervous. i was so scared. i paddled out with my friend Carter and we had to start from the very bottom out there. that’s just part of surfing culture here in hawaii. i will never forget my experience and now all i want to do is make it easier for the kids to make their Kewalo’s debut.
first, if you’re a kid, you have to jump off like a kid. there goes Aoi.
and if you’re an old kid, you still have to jump off just like a kid. that’s me. haha. i don’t know if i’ll ever grow up.
getting out of the water is the hard part. it takes practice and nobody’s going to help you. you fall, you get cut, you step on uni, you get embarrassed. it’s part of learning and everyone has gone through it. it makes you a stronger person.
another thing i teach kids is there is no limit to your surfing ability. Seth and i were talking about Seth’s first session at kewalos. i brought him out here for his first time when he was only 9 or 10 years old. his other brothers and sister were wimps so only Seth jumped in my car that day. i remember him being super nervous standing in this very same place. then i pushed him into some overhead waves and his eyes lit up. from that day on, i knew he was going to be a champion surfer. thanks Seth for coming down today to inspire Aoi. hopefully it will give a spark to a kid that wants to follow in your footsteps as a respected professional surfer.
thank you again Chifumi-san for taking these photos. see you guys again soon!
