i passed by diamond head this morning and the waves looked weird. there were head high sets but looked a little bumpy. i headed over to bowls and it was much better. the water was super warm and so was the weather. summer has arrived!

came back and checked my email. so happy to get an email from my brother. and so happy to see Kalyan working hard cleaning up the tub. i really miss her!

on the way to our resort, we stopped by for some lunch at this local restaurant on the side of the road.

do you understand spanish? i don’t. but i ended up eating the fried chicken and it was pretty good. $3.50 was a deal!

it wasn’t crowded until we got there.

Balboa and Panama beer were my favorites. super lite and super good! oh, and super cheap!

if you don’t leave hawaii, you will never be able to appreciate hawaii. i am so happy to be back home and i’m taking in the fresh air, warm water, and blue sky. now i know why hawaii is the number 1 travel destination in the world!

Feel so free!
Going to dinner!

i came home yesterday, checked the web cams, and saw this!!! omg, pipeline and backdoor super good this mid-morning. i thought i was dreaming!!! look at guys getting barreled left and right. isn’t it may already? and you know what? this whole week is going to be like this!

i was so happy to see my mexican friend Palma in panama. i met him last year diving in mexico and we had a great time. this time was great too. just constantly laughing at this super funny mexican, probably the funniest guy i’ve ever met. i know and i hope i’ll see Palma again.

i meet the coolest people on trips. Demetrius is from maui and was in our group. 1 week ago, he was a stranger. now, he’s a friend. an awesome diver, very smart, very technical with his equipment, funny, and overall a cool guy. Demetrius reminded me of my friend Mike Woo. they even looked alike. so of course, we got along very well and i’m sure i’ll be in touch with him for future dives. and hanging out with him really made me miss Mike a lot.

right around the corner of our resort has a super good river mouth right. i was kind of bummed i couldn’t go surfing in panama this time, but i will for sure next.

we had ahi “maguro” steaks every night. it was really good in the beginning but after 5 nights straight, i was ready for a something else. i never thought i would be tired of eating fresh tuna. so healthy and so tender all week long. so last night, i cooked up a huge juicy rib eye steak and ate it all. now i’m craving for tuna steak again. haha.

took some ponzu to panama.

on the last day, i seen a perfect size fish to sashimi on my last dive so i thought to myself “sashimi for the ride home?” bam! then Keaka came back with a lot of reef fish. i cut up some filets and put it on ice.

this type of fish tastes much better when you keep it in the refrigerator for a few days. the meat firms up a bit making the texture perfect. for us, it was our last day so we ate it right out of the ocean. not the best, but still pretty good.

the last day was crazy! lightning hitting the ocean around us. i will never forget the flashes i seen underwater. kind of scary, but kind of exciting. it was raining so hard that the rain was stinging your face.
somebody asked me yesterday about the diving in panama. i told him “the fish was there, but the water was dirty. you can see the big tunas jumping out of the water right in front of you, but as soon as you look underwater, you can’t see a thing. it was actually funny! but overall, the whole experience was awesome.”