photo: toda
the reason i came to japan this trip was for this event. i know how important it is to get the fukushima kids back into the ocean that too so much away from them. i didn’t want to miss it and i’m glad i didn’t. yumie-chan and kiri-san did a great job in putting this school together. good job girls!
after the event, i was planning to stay in japan for a few days and hopefully surf a typhoon swell. no, i don’t have any control of typhoons. they come when they want to and go any direction they please. my friends in hawaii tell me they want to come to japan for a week and surf a typhoon. i tell them, no way. you have to put your time here and be super lucky. well, this time nobody could have been luckier than i. the typhoons sent perfect swells in both directions straight to the spots i wanted to be. the waves, the wind, and the weather was perfect. and now that i’m leaving today, guess what? the swells are all but gone. i come back here at the end of this month and if i score good waves, great. if not, great too. i just love being here and hanging out with my friends. but for now, my fun time is over. heading back to hawaii tonight and i’m looking forward to my own bed and my broken car. haha.

photo: matsukawa
guess how long this barrel was? 53 photos long. yeah, matsu took a 53 photo sequence of this barrel and i’m super lucky to be able to relive it. even if won a million dollar lottery, i wouldn’t be this happy. it was my moment i came out of an amazing tube. a moment that i will never forget.

photo: matsukawa
whenever i’m in wakayama, i always asked renosuke if he wanted to go surfing with me. he would say “no.” but this time when i asked him, he didn’t say anything. to me, that means “yes.” so we grab a board and head to the beach. now i have a new isounora beach partner. a new surfer is born! go-renosuke!
**click here for YAMARI BLOG for the rest of the photos!

Kanpai!

it’s always nice to stop by TSSC in shikoku and see the happy faces. i’ve been riding for them for over 17 years and it’s all the magic boards i’ve been getting from TSSC that’s putting me in the best barrel at the best time! thank you Yassan and all the TSSC family.

if you surf in shikoku, you won’t be alone. everybody knows where to go on what swell, what wind, and what typhoon. this day, this river mouth was the best! i’m glad i was there!

good to see young kids going out and challenging themselves. Go-Naminori Blogger Kairi Noro is only 13 years old but surfing man size waves. Go-Kairi!

jun jo, mikala jones, and photographer zak noyle showed up from hawaii on one of the hottest days of the year. if it wasn’t for this bathroom giving us shade, we’d all die of a heat stroke. it was so hot and humid! now i appreciate the cool tradewinds in hawaii a lot more.

want to know how expensive my job is? this is the 8th camera i drowned. it’s like flushing $300 or 25,000 yen in the toilet 8 times. i hope canon or nikon can sponsor me someday. i guess 8,000,000 views on youtube isn’t enough for big companies like that. that sucks.

i guess i wasn’t the only one scoring waves this typhoon. the okinawa boys were scoring good sunabe. check out THE BEACH BLOG for some photos. see you guys next month!!!