wow, what an awesome day! went for a morning session with Mr. and Mrs. Taniguchi from shonan. had a fun 2 hour session at bowls, then jumped in the car and headed for the north shore.

Taniguchi-san has been surfing in shonan for 30 years so he knows a lot of people i know. that being said, wanted to say hello to our friends Tokura-san, Chobo-san, Nick-san, Nishi-san, and everybody else. gosh, i didn’t realize what a tiny world we live in.

it’s their first time in hawaii so passing by waimea bay must have been nuts for them to see. right as we took the turn, a freak 15′ set broke and we saw the whole thing. driving while taking a photo is pretty dam dangerous do please don’t try it. haha.

then we went to the infamous banzai pipeline. the waves were so junk for the past month that i didn’t even recognize the place. is this really pipe? then what the heck happened last month? pipeline finally woke up and the bodyboarders in the contest couldn’t have been any luckier.

then we checked haleiwa and it was super fun. 2-3′ with 6-8′ sets. yeah, the obake sets will catch you off guard and if it does, that might be your last breath in your life. haleiwa might be the spot tomorrow.

i love taking around families in hawaii. from the surf session in the morning, to lunch in china town, to passing the big hitachi tree, to passing the pineapple fields, to watching the big waves, to shopping in haleiwa, to eating waiola shave ice, to watching the waves and whales at diamond head, and then back to waikiki. i loved it all! thank you to the Taniguchi-san family for a wonderful day! hope you enjoy the rest of your hawaiian trip!

Now!

gosh, after a few weeks of rain and super strong winds, yesterday returned to paradise. i had a photo shoot on the beach and was loving the hot sunny day. got some great shots but can’t show them. instead, check out these i shot with my iphone.

tall coconut trees are cool.

makes you just want to jump in the water yeah? look at the beautiful colors.

yeah, a beach not too many people know about.

then my friend sent me this link with some incredible photos. omg! i want to free dive!!!!

isn’t the ocean so beautiful? of course, this is not in hawaii. to see something like this in hawaii is pretty rare.

this is called a fish ball. if i had my spear, i’d have dinner for a whole week.

where’s the fish in hawaii? it’s a long story and i’ll get into that another time. but for now, just imagine how hawaii use to be. now, forget it.