last month when i was in Taiji, we pulled up on the last weekend of the summer. cool, calm, relaxed, and just such a beautiful place. there was a pilot whale swimming with the kids. they let it out in the bay and it was swimming in and out of everybody. then they put him back in the cage and that was it. one week later, they started the dolphin/whale hunting. once again, a very touchy subject that i don’t want to get into right now.

i pulled down the net to try to get closer to the pilot whale. as it was swimming towards me, the staff looked at me and pulled up the net. sorry dude!

the other day i jumped off my board and almost ran over this girl. i didn’t even see where she came from? i said sorry, she said sorry, and that was it. in the ocean, nobody’s at fault because you’re pretty much on your own. no traffic lights and no policeman. keep peace!

how small is this world?? omg, i saw a video of Masa-san 4 years ago and was totally inspired. Masa-san is in a wheelchair but still surfs! i watched in that video him going to the beach and having so much fun. it was 4 years ago when i wrote that it would be so cool to meet him someday. i come out of the water, walk to my car, and there he was! Masa-san just got out of the water and was parked right next to me in the parking lot. OMG! a magical surfer moment for sure! so stoked! nice to finally meet you Masa-san!

Great surf and lunch with Hasegawa-san and Sakurada-san!
Good waves and good pastrami sandwich!

most surfers that come to surf in hawaii want to get better. wait, i take that back. every surfer in the world wants to get better, including world champions like kelly slater. surfing is addicting and when you surf better, you feel better. so when people ask me for their advice, i give it to them. and even when people don’t ask me for their advise, i give it to them. it’s just my job as a surfer to push everybody past their limits.

i’m going to use Kanda-san as an example. Kanda-san asked me “i want to get better in surfing!” great! i ask him to show me how he surfs on land before we paddle out. i see him leaning forward and putting too much weight on his front foot. i tell him to settle back more, put about 60% pressure on your back foot, and 40% on your front. he gets it right on the beach. then i tell him “once you jump in the ocean, you will forget everything i just taught you.” sure enough like 100% of the surfers i teach, they forget. i see Kanda-san leaning the front of the board too much so i start yelling “BACK FOOT, BACK FOOT, 60/40!!!”

next wave, much better! better, but still a little too much weight on the front foot. so i start yelling again “60/40, 60/40!!!”

next wave, PERFECTION!!! this is a perfect example of 60/40. this is the correct way to ride a surfboard. if you ride it like this all the time, the surfboard will go faster, and you will have a much easier time turning and controlling it. pretty simple to explain, but pretty hard to fix if nobody is yelling at you on every wave you ride. haha.

good surfing equals good smile. great job Kanda-san! please don’t forget what you learned in hawaii. ganbatte ne!