Another Golden day in Paradise…

Good morning 4am.
North shore 8-10′ and good.
Ala Moana waist high and much cleaner.
Diamond Head chest high sets and good.
Light South/West today.
Sunny and warm.
Going to the sea.
Have a wonderful day!

Going to do my blog backwards today.

After I caught my first wave, I knew it was going to be an amazing session.  I haven’t surfed here in many years so it was good to reminisce the good old days.  This spot is very challenging so you have to connect to the ocean or you will be lost at sea.  So yes, I had my concentration face on.  Haha.

Perfect waves, perfect conditions, and nobody around.  I had the whole spot to myself!

When I checked the ocean in the morning, I saw the West swells still pretty strong, the onshore winds, and lots of energy.  Diamond Head looked fun but it was already getting crowded.  So I decided to go back to my Old School secret training grounds because the waves would be bigger, stronger, and nobody will be there.

We were one of the first group of surfers that explored up the Banyak archipelago.   These islands were only accessible by boat so we had to take a boat from Padang, which took us about 40 hours to get to the Banyaks.  Back then, there were no other boats and not a single surf camp.  We had every spot to ourselves so nobody hassling for waves.  We also had a special group of surfers known as “The Niseko Snow Surfers.”  I was the photographer on that trip so I just surfed from behind the lens.  This is Gentemstick boss Taro Tamai on a perfect wave at Treasure Island.  He was carving the waves the same way he carves in the mountains.  It was so beautiful to see.   

When I wasn’t shooting photos, I was shooting fish.  It took us 2 days to get there and I remember arriving in the evening right before dark.  The boys went surfing and I went hunting for the evening sashimi platter.  The reefs up there were untouched so I was like walking into a fish market.  We had sashimi/Bintang parties every single night…

Then I went back there 10 years later and there were boats, surf camps, and lots of surfers.  The treasure has been found…