met Watanabe-san a few years ago. a super cool surfer from Ishinomaki. been surfing every year with him and just have a blast. this year, he brought his nephew along for the ride.
Shunsuke-san on his first hawaiian wave. wave after wave, he kept on going and going. tired, but very happy.
you can’t find a super long wave like this in japan. so i kept on telling him, “ride it till the end and enjoy every second.”
Watanabe-san hasn’t surfed in 6 months so he got his 6 months worth of surfing in just 2.5 hours.
seeing the improvement year after year really makes me happy. and yes, it was absolutely perfect!
and yeah, i’m riding perfect waves along the side. an awesome feeling.
i was talking to my friend Egan on the beach yesterday. we were talking about the philippines and he asked me “isn’t it dangerous?” i told him “well, it can be dangerous if you get kidnapped. but it’s more dangerous if you get hurt surfing. we surf at remote areas. no hospitals, no lifeguards, and no help for hours and hours.”
“and we’re surfing heavy waves breaking on shallow reefs. one mistake, and you could die. that’s what makes it interesting. this is high risk, high return surfing!”
so experiencing that with Carter was super cool. now he knows what i’ve been doing my whole life. and now he’s got to experience it first hand. and ever since we got back a month ago, he asked me about 10 times, “when are we going back?” haha. it’s very addicting to live life on the line. i can’t wait to do it all over again!
