Frozen.
Good morning 6:15am.
North shore 2-3′ and perfect. Rocky Point best.
South shore 1-2′ and perfect. Diamond Head best.
No wind so perfect conditions everywhere.
Super sunny and warm.
Surfing all day.
Have a wonderful day!

had another awesome day. started down at the beach for the 2nd annual Ocean’s Love in Hawaii by Angela Maki Vernon. stoked to see some of the kids from last year, and also some new kids this year. all eager to surf, and all eager to learn.

hundreds of volunteers help out each year in japan and hawaii. i’m super happy to be a part of something so special. the kids caught so many good waves and i can’t wait to do it again on wednesday.

found my favorite food from miyazaki on my doorstep. thank you Satoshi Kubota for the smoked chicken. i love it!

if you have the eye, you have the eye. if you don’t have the eye, a little practice will make you see things from a photographers prospective. i gave a 13 year old girl my camera one evening to see what she can do with it. here’s what she captured. freaking amazing!

and the dolphins coming in close to shore. right off waikiki!

in photography, timing is everything. this photo was timed perfectly.

this one is my favorite. this kids got the eye! good job Mia.

last night i taught my grand nephew something new. i taught him who Kikaida was. he sits with me while i’m working on my computer and always points to my Kikaida doll. so last night, i said “Kikaida!” then he said “kukiaieada!” close enough. haha.
had a super awesome afternoon session at my super secret secret spot with Hikaru. good waves, clean water, and the best nature surf spot on the whole south shore. she asked me the name of the surf spot and my answer was “i can’t tell you.” that was that.

el salvador was supposed to be a vacation for me. a time to relax, a time to take it easy, and a time to take it slow. but i don’t know how to take it easy and slow. once i got there, i was on an adrenaline buzz and wanted to see everything, do everything, and feel everything. so that’s what happened every day. fill up our rent a car and head to the beach before sunrise.

i still can’t believe this 17 year old boy was our guide. he drove so slow and carefully. sometimes dangerous but i guess he still has a lot of learning to do. but i trusted my life in his hands and thank goodness we didn’t crash. Charlie reminded me of Toda-san for some reason. a big boy with a big heart.

gas in el salvador cost more than hawaii. $3.95/gallon to be exact. and we rented this car from a local guy near our hotel for $35/day.

it’s such a cool feeling to experience the beginning of a new day in another country. different colors and different feelings.

luckily Charlie didn’t hit the cows, pigs, dogs, goats, and all the other animals that walk in the middle of the street.

there is a very long stretch of beach that has beach break after beach break. barreling a-frames everywhere.

we found ours and had it to ourselves all morning long.

there would be hundreds of surfers on this wave if it was in hawaii and japan. unbelievable.

we paid $2 for car security while we surfed. well worth it.

and we got to see daily fisherman lifestyle.

after our surf, we went to eat ceviches. in fact, we ate ceviches everyday. it was excellent!

i couldn’t read the menu because it was in spanish. so i just pointed to something i thought was fish. it ended up being a mixed plate of shrimp. the bummer thing is i get a sore stomach if i eat too much shrimp. big mistake.

then we went walking around in the fish market. very interesting.

i wish you could smell what i smelt. very very fishy stinky.

i really missed japanese food. so getting this fresh bag of rice from Saito-san made me really happy. good with my raw egg and natto breakfast.

and got another treat. didn’t know what this was until i opened it.

thank you Nishi-kun for my favorite mochi with kinako. i love it!
got about a thousand more photos on my desktop. expect lots more to come. have a wonderful day.