good evening from jakarta. wow, it’s been a long day but i’m finally half way back to japan. my flight leaves in 3 hours so i’m going to get a massage, eat KFC, and get on my flight. i just tried to check my mail but it’s still downloading. 584 and counting. hey, i’ll get back to you all later. oh, get this, i was invited on another surf trip from june 19-21 to miyazaki. that’s in a few days but, i’m there!!!! surf japan, surf indo, surf hawaii, surf everywhere. invite me, and i’m go. yup, GO-NAMINORI…..

akazawa-san has been surfing so good recently. in my opinion, he’s surfing better than ever. after the 3rd day of him surfing so good and fast, i went to investigate his surfboard. shit!! he’s riding a 4 fin chris kaysen retro board. he let me try it on 2 waves and when i first stood up, i already knew it was a magic board. fast, loose, and solid. akazawa-san told me that that’s his magic board and i was actually jealous. but i just remembered something. chris kaysen is in japan now shaping for TSSC and will be there for another week. PERFECT!!! so i just sent yasan an email begging him to let me order the exact same board akazawa-san has. it’s the kind of board that needs to be in my board bag while i travel. thanks akazawa-san for letting me try your magic board, and thank you yasan for maybe letting chris shape one for me?? please????
anyway, my massage is waiting and i can’t wait to get back to japan. eat some good food, surf some good waves, and meet my friends….. see ya….

salamat pagi, we just got back to padang. it’s 4am and i’m sitting in the dark looking out the window thinking about our past week on the sanssouci2. gosh, what an awesome trip with awesome people. fish, surf, and fun. you should have seen out sashimi platters last night. 3 big platters, one of tai, or snapper. one of GT, or travelly. and one of tuna, or maguro. fresh fish caught a few hours before!!! it was the perfect way to end our trip. now drive to the airport, fly back to jakarta, 9 hour stopover, then 8 hour flight back to japan. i’ll be back there tomorrow morning and the first thing i want to eat? not sashimi. umm…. shabu shabu? yup. i’m going to an all you can eat shabu shabu restaurant and going to eat myself to sleep…. anyway, be back soon….

his is taro tamai. a pro snowboarder that carves it up in the ocean too. gues where this is? never mind….. haha..

the water was as clean as it gets. i had my mask on the whole time when i was shooting. seen some crazy shit going on under water. i was amazed…. seen a whale, dolphins, turtles, and millions of fish. and off in the jungle, i heard there are tigers, gorillas, monkeys, snakes, and all kind of life in there. i went to the beach to grab some shells and i heard the weirdest noises. some scared the shit out of me. pretty heavy stuff… anyway, here is eiji-san pulling into one of the most secluded surf spots in the world….. ahhh…. life is good….
i took 1,298 photos so stay tuned…..

every winter season, rick knows when the waves are good. i think we check the same surf reports because i always see him out at backdoor, even before me….

these are the kind of photos i like taking. pipe is 8-10′ and you have to time the sets to get out. 11 year old shun murakami and japanese photographer legend naoya kimoto getting ready to jump into one of the deadliest surf spots in the world. i wonder what they are both thinking…

and along with the sunsets come the moon rising…. full moon @ north shore hawaii….