i was really amazed on Konishi-san’s ability to learn. her goal was to short board in hawaii so that became my goal too.

before i teach someone how to short board, they must be able to long board. if you can’t long board, you can’t short board. long boarding is easier to learn the basics and once you got that, short boarding is very easy.

we went over and over on looking forward and keeping your knees bent. if you don’t do either or both, you will fall. pretty simple to teach, but very hard to follow because it’s a natural habit to look down at your feet. once you overcome that, you will improve very fast.

by that afternoon, it was time to test out Konishi-san on a short board. from her first wave, she did awesome! she just kept on getting better and better after each wave.

then i taught her how to do “ups and downs” and even a cutback. by the end of the day, Konishi-san was surfing super good on a short board.

it feels good to improve. it takes some people years and years to get from a long board to a short board. but Konishi-san did it in 1 day. good girl!

gosh, it’s been a while since i shot photos so much. starting to get back into the groove. super fun and super rewarding to see the results.

a few days ago at haleiwa. super great memory surfing that epic morning. one of my best sessions ever out there. old time pro surfer friends Jason Magallenas and Ross Williams getting ready for the epic waves. actually was on the same team with Ross Williams for the 1990 world championships in japan.

Kimo Gasper also a good old time friend. another 1990 world championships team member. gosh, we had such a great time in japan that year. stoked to see the boys still charging big waves!

Kai Garcia or better known as Kaiborg is probably the most feared local surfer in the world. if you don’t know him, be careful. but if you know him, he’s the coolest guy. super respectful, super kind, super straight up, and super local. Kai’s the very one who told me 20 years ago “if you can catch waves at Backdoor, you can catch waves anywhere in the world.” he was right.

and Kai runs the volcom house right in front of pipeline/backdoor. so him showing up at haleiwa that epic morning made me feel good that i was at the right spot that day. right at haleiwa.

fast forward to yesterday as Kai was surfing backdoor. again, the best spot on the island, and again, i’m glad i was there too. i think we check the same surf reports? i seen Kai get some really sick long barrels!

had a lot of japanese surfers out surfing backdoor and off the wall too. in fact, there were a lot of waves yesterday so everybody caught something pretty good.

and many of drop in’s too. poor Ren behind this guy who just dropped right in on him.

solid 4-6′ barrels all morning. i still can’t believe i surfed in the dark and pulled into barrels like this. i wish somebody took a photo but that’s impossible because i couldn’t even see myself. all i know it felt so good!

Shun at the sandbar left.

Kanoa Igarashi nice spray.

Reo Inaba speedy left tube.

Jamie O’brian and friend getting creative.

and getting pounded!

Mason Ho got the wave of the day. this is epic backdoor!

this young 14 year old kid from shikoku is the next backdoor specialist. cool!

i’m a people watcher and i like to watch people like this. this is called the double wipeout.

Mar Ohno off the lip.

3 people per wave? yes, sometimes it gets crazy like this.

Coco Ho on a gem.

bodyboarding upside down?

Fumihiko Nishizeko going off the wall.

Tatsuya Fukagawa got some good ones at off the wall too.

Rick from the east side on the classic bottom turn.

many more photos coming soon to WWW.GO-NAMINORI.COM.

I’m going to Snow Country! So happy!
Good morning 5:15am.
North shore UP again.
6-8′ solid and super good.
Pipeline/Backdoor best barrels but Haleiwa and Sunset good too. South shore small swell continues.
Shoulder high at Diamond Head and smaller elsewhere.
Perfect conditions everywhere today but onshore winds around 10am. Cloudy morning with lots of haze. Looks like LA.
No wind.
Packing and traveling.
Have a wonderful day!