wow, woke up early morning at 5am, drank my kombucha, did my exercise, ate cereal, felt so good, then went surfing.

had a wonderful morning with Hosokawa-san. he is from Yamagata and to tell you the truth, i didn’t know where Yamagata even was. found out it is above niigata and below akita. lots of snow and freezing cold. Hosokawa-san and his wonderful family are here for only 3 days. they came yesterday, and are already going home tomorrow. a very short trip but very long waves. i was so stoked to see Hosokawa-san riding so many long waves in the perfect weather and perfect swells. shoulder high sets, uncrowded, and perfect conditions.

i meet the coolest families all the time. just to see the wife and kids enjoying hawaii makes me really happy. Yuka-san, Hinari-chan, and Sakuya-kun. fun in the sun on the beach, then we ate some hot pho after for lunch.

then took the kids for the best shave ice in the world.

such cuties! rainbow shave ice with ice cream in the bottom. you should have seen their eyes when they reached the ice cream. so cute and so funny!

and i can’t wait to eat this wonderful mochi from Yamagata prefecture. eat a few with kinako, and eat a few wrapped with nori and dipped in shoyu. thank you to the Hosokawa-san family! have a safe flight back to japan tomorrow!

OMG, it was so good!
Thank you Iwasaki-san!

i had a super fun session with Shuudo-san and Chihiro-san from tokyo.

father and daughter on the same wave? i think that’s the coolest thing in the world!

and the side view. Chihiro-san and Shuudo-san surfing into diamond head.

nice smiles, nice surfing, and nice memory.

Chihiro-san’s last wave was huge! head high and charging. good job girl!

2 days ago, it was the coldest morning in 100 years. i woke up at 4:30am and thought i was in tohoku. big snow storm on the big island, frosty windows on cars, lots of jackets, and very cold feet. it’s times like this i appreciate my heated seats in the truck. i hope we don’t break anymore cold records.

a few months ago, policemen in new york took down this big man and choked him to death. yeah, he died. the policeman didn’t go to jail. the public was outraged. demonstrations all around america crying for justice. then a man pulled up to 2 policemen in new york and shot and killed them. he claimed revenge. you probably heard about this in the news. some think police officers abuse their authority. and yes, some do. but most don’t. i can feel for both sides. but in the end, nobody wins, everybody loses. and in this case, 4 people lost and i hope nobody else does. let’s have peace guys.