wow, surfed Bowls this morning and the rights were epic!  one of my students was surfing her longboard and caught around 30 waves.  i was pretty happy watching that because it makes me proud!

then i spent the rest of the day watching the live webcast of the Sunset Pro.  omg, i was stressing out!!!  thankfully, Seth made it to finals day!  Kelly Slater lost so the World #1 spot is up for grabs!  if Seth makes another heat, he could be the Worlds #1 surfer.  that’s pretty crazy!  see you on finals day which will probably happen on Saturday!

thanks to the pandemic, i’ve been able to go surf the North Shore a lot this season.  for the past 15 seasons, i was just way too busy.  so this year, i’ve drove out there the most smiling the whole way there and home.  i’m not only searching for the barrel, i’m also trying to better my free surfing.  and the only way to do that is to practice on powerful waves.  this particular day, i took out my 5’10 Vesso Black Jack shaped by Gen Asano.  my focus was to do a clean turn throwing as much spray as possible.  as Ben Aipa would tell me “always finish the turn with an exclamation mark!!!”   so the last photo of this sequence is my favorite because even the turn is done, i’m still pushing my hardest to put an exclamation mark on that turn.  i think Ben would be proud of me…

!!!

Waiting @ Rockpiles…

Good morning 4:30am.
North shore 10-15′ and wild.
Sunset Pro probably ON! Go-Seth!
Ala Moana shoulder high and perfect.
Diamond Head head high and good.
Trade winds at 20mph.
Sun, clouds, showers, and rainbows. Winter weather is back!
Going to the sea.
Have a wonderful day!