MEET MR. STAN: Stan turned 78 years old in Panama. Stan is a veteran free diver who’s been all around the world. he was living in hawaii at the start of world war II when the japanese bombed pearl harbor. he was telling me the story of where he was when the first bombs were dropping. it was pretty chilling. Stan is a man you must respect. traveling around the world spearing fish on one breath. waking up in panama every morning at 5am, going on the boat all day long till 5:30pm, and still lots of energy left. happy birthday again Stan! keep on diving!

MEET MR. OPIHI: 15 years ago, i use to go to my secret spot picking opihi, or also known as hawaiian abalone. i’d take a big bag and fill it up with about a hundred or so. as the years passed, they started to disappear. my bad. these days, my vision on how i feel about the ocean has changed a lot. i don’t take more than i need. i spear a fish or two and call it a day. yesterday, i pulled up to my secret spot with hundreds of opihi everywhere. i jump in, dive down 5′, take 15 opihi, and go home. now i am much wiser when it comes to the ocean and its resources. and now i know that the opihi will still be there when i go back there. please dive smart!

if you look at the top of this opihi, you can tell that it’s been living for a long time. and if you never tried this before, you don’t know what you’re missing.

MEET MR. WEATHER: heavy rain for the next 5 days! omg, big storm coming this weekend. another south swell coming too so get ready for some storm sessions! i love it!

A great day for business in Japan!
Good morning 5:50am.
South swell continues.
Shoulder to head high at Ala Moana, bigger at Diamond Head.
Super clean and perfect conditions.
No wind and no clouds.
Another really hot summer day.
Perfect surfing sessions!
Surfing all day again!
Have a wonderful surfing day in Hawaii!

ok, how hot was it today? omg, i am totally sunburnt! went surfing early this morning, was in the water by 6am and it was already crowded. the waves were shoulder high and perfect! came in, did some things that had to be done, then went back out for a surf again in the afternoon. wow! the new swell is here! solid head high sets at bowls and not too crowded. scored 2 excellent sessions and i’m finally getting my balance back. not surfing for 2 weeks last month and riding longboards kind of threw my surfing off. a couple more sessions and i should get it all back. i feel like a newborn surfer!

the first day of the big swell i didn’t want to hassle with everybody so i went to check out a spot that breaks only about 2x a year. this day was the first time so probably only one more day this year. it has to have the right direction swell, right tide, right wind, and right everything. on a normal day, this spot doesn’t even exist. nobody knows about it, and nobody surfs it. how do i know about it? i dove out there many of times and wondered why such a shallow reef in the middle of the ocean doesn’t break. come to find out, the swell has to be big! so i paddle out, sit right on top of the reef, wait, wait, wait, and when it comes, i have the waves all to myself. this is the part of surfing i love!

it looks like sunset beach or something! look how big and perfect the back wave is. i rode a 5’10’ Matchi Shape that was working great! thank you to Inaida-san and Yuki-san for the photos! see you again very soon.

i had a few drinks, came back, seen the full moon, grabbed the camera with the heavy 20lbs. 400mm lens, had to hold it still, took a couple of photos, and this is one of them. freaking awesome nature!!! look at the craters in the moon! i wonder if you can surf there? haha.