i’ve been watching the isa world championships early in the mornings for the past 8 days. cheering for japan, hawaii, and my 2 nephews Josh and Seth. yesterday was heartbreaking for me. i was yelling in front of my computer cheering Seth on, then watched as he made a huge mistake. a mistake i’ve made about 100 times in my competition days.

Seth was leading the heat with time running out. then he got super aggressive and did a paddle battle with the italian surfer and got an interference. that put him into 4th place in a snap. i saw it happen and knew the judges were going to call an interference on him. i was super bummed, but at the same time, thought it was fair. Japan’s Takumi Nakamura ended up winning the heat so i was very happy for that.

this was a right so the surfer with the inside position has priority. Seth is in white and should have pulled back. they made contact so they had to call the interference on him.

going from 1st to 4th in the last minutes of the heat hurts. Seth showed his emotions on his last wave. his dream of becoming ISA World Champion was gone. bummer.

this loss will make Seth stronger and smarter. when he comes back to hawaii, all i’m going to tell him is “good job boy!” i know he is hurting inside and doesn’t want to hear yet another person telling him “what the hell where you thinking???” but what really impressed me was right after his heat, he was back on the beach cheering on for Noah Mizuno that was competing in the next heat. it was great sportsmanship which i think is the key to becoming a great champion.

and after that, they had the team challenge which Hawaii won! so congratulations to the Hawaiian Team for winning the GOLD!

2014 ISA Aloha Cup Gold Medalists: Team Hawaii!
Good morning 6:30am.
North shore still alive! 4-6′ and windy!
South shore sleeping. Waist high and very windy.
Strong trade winds at 20-30mph.
Clouds, showers, sun, and lots of huge rainbows!
Going surfing.
Have a wonderful day!

so happy to pick up my new Matchi Shape from TSSC board. now i’m going to wax it up and give it a try this week. can’t wait!

after over 30 years of getting new boards, i’m still excited! i remember sleeping with my first few boards, hugging it all night long. sounds so stupid but that’s how happy i was, and still am.

i’m new to using a big tuna speargun so after making mistake after mistake, i took it into Maui Sporting Goods to have Wendell Ko take a look at it. Wendell is the hawaiian spear fisherman who just speared the 500lbs. world record marlin so he knows what he’s doing. good to get advise from everybody. i’m going to take a long flight to a very far place to spear the biggest fish in my life so i better be prepared.

this is called a slip tip. just for this piece of metal, it cost $100. so when i lost my slip tip yesterday in the ocean, it was like watching $100 sink into the deep blue. i bought another one today and hopefully it will produce me some sashimi.

and this is a double barb setup. $30 for this and everybody tells me that this won’t work if i want to catch a big tuna. that makes me want to try it. we shall see.
anyway, big free dive trip coming up soon so i’ve been busy getting my gear and confidence ready. and after spending so much money on gear recently, i’m not sure how my confidence will hold up. i still have 2 days open to practice shooting a gun i’m unfamiliar with. i’m actually getting nervous as time is running out.
by the way, the waves were small today but super fun. it’s not the wave you’re surfing, it’s who you’re surfing with. if i could laugh out loud, i’m having a great session! tomorrow double surf session so better get to sleep. goodnight.