thru tokyo…

good morning. i wanted to thank alex for sending me this email and photos of this magazine i haven’t even seen before…..

and it’s weird how you selected this photo as one of your favorite because even though i haven’t seen the magazine, i actually seen this wave with my own eyes. i was there!!! i will never forget that august 26th day back 16 years ago. it was a day to remember and a day i haven’t seen ever since.
here’s the story. glen matsumoto and i use to keep in touch when ever this secret spot got good. back then never had cel phones, surf reports, or internet so you would have to just go and check for yourself. the night before, we planned to meet there at 5am in the morning. the spot was an hour and a half away from my house so i remembering waking up really early driving down to the beach. i took the beach bypass road which is about 50′ or 25 meters above the beach. it was pitch dark and while i was driving, this huge wave from the ocean broke over my little k car. what the heck??? that’s when the butterflies set in. i knew that if a wave could break over that bypass, the wave were freaking huge. the bypass closed soon after and as i pulled up to the spot, glen was there. i was amazed on what i seen. 8-10′ huge typhoon storm waves that looked like beasts. nobody was out and it looked dangerous. the shore break made waimea bay shore break look like waikiki. if you break your board or snap your leash, your done. no lifeguards or nobody can save you. but glen and i didn’t think about that. we were from hawaii and just thought that it’s time to surf. i remember paddling out and wondering what the heck did i get myself into. to tell you the truth, i don’t even know how we made it out past the shore break. anyway, we had our hawaii guns so we were prepared. 2 waves later, i caught one of the best waves i caught in my entire life. that was enough so i came in. glen was still out there and as i turned around to look for him, i seen him take off on this beast. i thought he was going to straighten out but he drew a line off his bottom turn and pulled in like a mad man. the wave closed out but he got this incredible shot taken by yoshiro nakayama that was set up on the other side of the bay. this day was a historic day for glen and i because after 16 years, it hasn’t gotten that good again, or should i say that big again. this photo of glen will go down in the history surfing books in japan forever….

tokura-san has one of the best surf antique collections in the world. every time i walk into the factory, i get flashbacks when i see that surfboard on the left. that’s tom curren’s board that he rode in the haleiwa pro in hawaii and won the contest in 10′ waves. it’s a maurice cole shaped board that caused a lot of controversy because tom curren didn’t put any of his OP stickers on it. he ended up getting fired and moved on to bigger and better things…

speaking of antiques, i went to an old okinawa house while i was in okinawa. i see things that blew me away. it’s amazing how simple the okinawan’s use to live their lives. it was very interesting…

i’m still hanging from the other night in chiba. haru-san, naoka, eri-chan, ushikoshi, hayato, and everybody else was in bond surf having a great time. this photo is a keeper….