**if you know me, you’ve probably heard this story before. but somebody asked me the recently which was my most memorable photo ever published. this is it…

my brother-in-law tony moniz took me to backdoor for my first time in 1990. those days, it was super heavy. guys like dane kealoha, perry dane, michael ho, and other heavy locals ruled the spot. i used to sit in the inside taking anything i could get, mostly closeouts. tony used to always tell me to go, and when he did, i went no matter what. this was one of those times. there was a 6’+ wave coming in at backdoor and nobody wanted it. tony told me to go so i paddled in on my 6’3 dennis pang and pulled in. before i got pounded and almost drowned, i guess a photographer snapped a shot. two months later, my sister called me from local motion where she used to work and told me that i got a shot in the new 1990 Surfer Magazine Calendar. I will never forget that day. I thought she was joking. i got in my car and headed to foodland because it was the closest store where they sold magazines. i found the calendar and when i opened it up and saw this photo, it was one of the happiest moments of my life. i got chills. back then, there was only 2 surfing magazines so getting into one was huge. and a calendar? no way? that year in august, i saw that calendar hanging all over the place in hawaii. i was super stoked to become surfer calendars “unidentified surfer”. yeah, they wrote “unidentified surfer” because they didn’t know who i was. i didn’t care. it’s all good. that photo was taken almost 20 years ago and that trips me out that i still surf out there. i loved backdoor after i caught my first wave out there over 20 years ago and love it even more now. can’t wait for this winter season….

**i was 16 or 17 years old when i met carrie ann inaba. i use to work at niu valley 76 gas station near her house when she use to pull in with her red toyota supra once a week to put in gas. right when she would pull up, everybody would race to be the one to put gas in for her. and of course, when it came to that, nobody could run faster than me. we ended up becoming friends and hung out for a while. we use to talk about our dreams and i remember laughing at her all the time when she told me that she wanted to become a famous dancer. carrie use to run around dancing all over the place and i seriously thought she was joking. see, back then, i couldn’t comprehend with dreams because my dream was to hang out at sandy beach drinking beers with the boys my whole life. but carrie was different. she was driven… and also from punahou. yeah, punahou kids have huge dreams and most of them come true. anyway, throughout the years, i’ve seen her go from launching records in japan, to the popular tv’s living world’s “fly girl” to madonna’s “girlie show” dancer, to hollywood movie actress, and to where she is today, the dancing with the stars icon. she’s on top of her game and it’s so awesome to see her so successful. every time i see her on tv, she looks and acts the same as she did years ago. a cool chick with a great personality. driven… that’s carrie ann inaba…

**by the way, i still have a couple photos of her back in the days in my album. if i posted it on my blog and she found out, she would hunt me down and kill me… haha.. so i won’t go there….
**CLICK HERE FOR CARRIEANNINABATV…..

**and i know not too many people in japan know carrie ann inaba so here she is:

oh my gosh, i got huge fish and nice barrels. waves are 4′ and perfect. i think i’m in paradise. no computer no cell phone. my long vacation. hope you are happy too.
text message by captain’s cell phone