OMG, RUN!!!
Good morning 6:35am.
North shore 3-5′ and little bumpy.
South shore waist high and clean.
North/East winds at 20-25mph.
Clouds, sun, showers, rainbows.
Have a wonderful day!

the Travelers’ Choice: World’s top 25 hotels just came out. i was very interested so i looked down the list and actually found a hotel i stayed at before. #6: Cocoa Island by COMO, Maldives. #6 in the whole wide world is such a great honor for a hotel like that. it was almost exactly 3 years ago when i was invited to this beautiful resort island. stayed for 8 nights and had the memories of a lifetime. best service, awesome rooms, and one of the most beautiful places in the world.

yes, the maldives is on the totally opposite side of the world from hawaii. took 2 days to get there but once you arrive, time stands still.

here is one of the rooms i stayed in. right on the emerald waters edge. nothing to do except enjoy the beautiful ocean right in front.

waking up every morning to this was like a dream. one morning i even paddled my surfboard to the island super far away. took about 1 hour. the waves were so good, no people, and just had a wonderful time.

then as night falls, the stars come out and the night view is as perfect as you can ever imagine.

i’m so happy i have a photo with me in it because from a dream, it’s now a reality. i can look back 3 years to this day and remember the wonderful time we had there.

this is all i need to live a happy traveling life. my surfboard, my fishing pole, and my free dive gear. if you drop me off at some secluded island, i could survive. but if you drop me off at a resort island like Cocoa, i could survive with a huge smile everyday. makes me miss the maldives!
Here are the top 25 on the global list. humm, which one next? haha.
1. Gili Lankanfushi Maldives
2. Nayara Hotel, Spa & Gardens, La Fortuna de San Carlos, Costa Rica
3. Shinta Mani Club, Siem Reap, Cambodia
4. Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest, Hungary
5. Belmond Palacio Nazarenas, Cusco, Peru
6. Cocoa Island by COMO, Maldives
7. Hotel Alpin Spa Tuxerhof, Tux, Austria
8. Al Maha, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
9. St. Hubertus Hotel, Gramado, Brazil
10. Tambo del Inka, Urubamba, Peru
11. Hotel Belvedere, Riccione, Italy
12. Four Seasons Country Club, Quinta do Lago, Portugal
13. Dar Al Masyaf at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
14. Mandarin Oriental Pudong, Shanghai, China
15. Constance Moofushi, Maldives
16. The Gritti Palace, Venice, Italy
17. Constance Le Prince Maurice, Mauritius
18. Harvey’s Point, Donegal Town, Ireland
19. The Upper House, Hong Kong
20. Haymarket Hotel, London
21. Casa Gangotena, Quito, Ecuador
22. The Langham, Chicago
23. The Oberoi, Mauritius
24. Kayakapi Premium Caves, Cappadocia, Turkey
25. The Royal Savoy Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

if you’re a tourist and go to japan, go buy the JR rail pass. you can see the whole japan in a week. can’t beat that!

Yodobashi Camera in umeda is my favorite store in the whole wide world. every time i walk in there, i want everything. i play with the cameras, check out the new electronics and technology, eat, and sometimes even sleep. haha. yeah, i go to the massage chairs and get the best massages ever. 9 out of 10 times, i walk out empty handed. kind of bummed, but after a few hours pass, i realize that i don’t really need anything. a store where you have to do a lot of holding back. and if you can’t, you shouldn’t be in there.

walking through the stations just people watching. my favorite hobby in the world.

i was super stoked to join the Gentem party in niseko and see Gerry Lopez there. Gerry Lopez is a true hawaiian legend. always my idol and always the coolest most respected surfer guy in the world. Gerry loves to snowboard and has been snowboarding for decades. been all around the world but finally made it to niseko for the first time last year. this year was his second time and as i’m writing this, Gerry’s probably up the mountains right now surfing the niseko snow. i had a great talk with him and when i asked him how he liked niseko, he told me “niseko is like the north shore.” he meant niseko is the best in the world for snowboarding, as the north shore is the best for surfing. as our conversation ended, he said “West Swell, East Winds,” and smiled. for the 99.99% of the population, nobody would understand what that meant. as for me, i represent the 0.01% of the people we call surfers that know that the infamous Pipeline works best with West swells, and East winds. so referring to niseko, Gerry calls it “Pipeline.” that’s a huge statement coming from the Legend Pipeline Master!