good morning 3am. gosh, had a great time eating dinner and having a few drinks with the local surfers we met last night. well, more than a few drinks, more like 4 bottles of great lychee liquor. the style to drink here is take a shot and pass it around. after 15 shots, we thought it would be a good time to go back to our hotel and get some much needed sleep. but yeah, we formed a surfers bond, and today we will surf. well, i just hope everybody can wake up. the only reason i’m up is because a big loud mosquito was harassing me all night long. i have about 20 bites all over my body so i just gave up and left my room. sitting the pitch dark in the front lobby doing this getting bit by more mosquitos. haha. but so glad to have come here. i just crave to learn different cultures and people watching. you just see the most interesting things and yesterday sitting in the car going “wow, OMG, wow, eeh? OMG, wow!” it was just a super amazing drive!

we drove thru a few big cities and a lot of little villages. stopped to see a rare chicken fight on tuesday. entered the arena, my brother placed some bets on 3 fights, he won, and we left. in hawaii, we’d all go to jail for being a part of a chicken fight, but in the philippines, it’s just part of an amazing culture.

these guys take pride in their chickens. the raise it like professional fighters. and it’s a huge sport here.

and like in any other sport, somebody has to lose.

then we jump in the car and start driving again. seen a motorcycle transporting pork. 8 big pigs squashed into that cage all going to the butcher for delicious fried pork. so good!

and last nights dinner local style. we made come cool friends down here already and i can’t wait to go surfing with them.
gotta get going. the security guard just walked in with a gun and asked me what i’m doing in filipino language. i told him, “i don’t speak filipino.” he looked at me, didn’t say anything, put his gun back in his holster, and walked away.
i’m going surfing. have a nice day!

Good morning 5am.
Going to search and explore with new Local Filipino Surf friends!
Boat trip all day!

the day before i left hawaii was the day i decided to come to the philippines. i woke up that morning and sent an email to my older brother “hey, i’m going to the philippines tomorrow. wanna come?” i get the call “i’m in!” that’s how fast it took to plan this whole trip. my brother left the country only once in his lifetime so this was the second. so funny to see the facial expressions of culture shock. the philippines a pretty fascination country and my brother is pretty fascinated. i’m stoked for Mason to finally see the world i love.
it’s october 1st and for the past 2 days i didn’t have wifi so i couldn’t upload photos from my computer. we’re staying at my friend Scott’s house near his dream boat. a super quite place in the country. sleeping with the stars and waking up with the birds chirping. been on the boat for the past 2 days searching for waves. found some nice lineups with no surfers around for hundreds of miles. it’s just us and the empty lineups. picked shells, pulled into a country club for millionaires, watched sunrise and watched sunsets. i just love being out in the ocean!
Scott has been searching then entire coastlines and islands for waves these past 12 years. we have found some together 10 years ago and we found some yesterday. so cool to just take a boat out to unknown areas, look for waves from the back, pull up, paddle out, and catch the first wave ever ridden at that spot. no names, no media, or no locals. just us 3 surfers having the time of our lives.
jumping in a car for a 10 hour ride to another unknown area. don’t know what to expect, don’t know where to stay, and don’t know anything. just going to follow our instinct and if we find good surf, good, if not, good too. the experience is just the pleasure and the waves are the bonus.
have 3 more days then will head back to hawaii and go straight to work from the airport. i really needed this trip to put me back in time. hope to get some wifi soon so i can post some photos of our super fun surf session yesterday at a spot where nobody surfed before and riding the first wave ever ridden. surf your dream!
YEAH! i finally got some internet now. we left in the morning from the west side and arrived to the east side tonight. driving all day exploring deep in the philippines! finally arrived 11 hours later and feel so fresh. waves looked super fun in the dark and looking forward to tomorrow.

heading out yesterday morning on the boat was exciting. what to find and what to surf was all up in the air. we were excited but at the same time, just enjoying our lives!

i jumped in, Scott grabbed my camera and took some shots while he was anchoring the boat. it was such an amazing feeling paddling out to a surf spot that nobody has ever surfed before. i love that feeling.

and yes, the waves were super perfect for us. not too big, not too small, but just right.

super stoked to have my brother along with us. he’s been working super hard his whole life and now it’s time to enjoy it. Mason surfs 1x a year but still knows how to surf!

Scott has been like my sensei for ever since i landed at manila airport. a super intelligent guy with super intelligent dreams. i’m super stoked to be soaking in all this important information.

i gave my brother my camera when he came on the boat to rest and said “just look and press.” i feel that it is very important to capture the moment. and that moment is now!

i brought 2 surfboards all the way from hawaii that cost me $150. never regretted anything and never will. my 5’10 Glenn Minami produced by TSSC working like magic.

i don’t know where you surfed yesterday, but this is what we did. i’m living the philippine dream!
just arrived here on the east coast and met up with some local filipino surfers. we had 4 bottles of philippine arak, sake, or what ever you want to call it. it was sweet, our time was sweet, and we are all planning to jump on a boat and explore the outer islands tomorrow early morning. new friends, new surf, new experiences. today was one of the coolest days in my life and i’m bummed it’s over. good night.