good morning. first, wanted to congratulate my nephews who surfed the local motion surf into summer contest this past weekend. seth won the menehunes, josh got 3rd, and isaiah got 5th in the juniors!! way to go!!! as for the waves this morning. it’s 5:10 am and it’s pretty windy outside. the waves are small around the island but if you know where to look, you might get a fun wave. bowls only has 2 surfers and one stand up paddler now. looks chest high on the sets. i surfed head high diamond head yesterday afternoon and had a great time. going to look for somewhere different today. see you in the water….

oh my gosh!!! look at this!!! kelia got the roxy jam poster for the second straight year. the roxy jam is a huge event in france and who ever wins the contest will be world champion. kelia’s been practicing hard and if she becomes world champion, that would be so cool!!! the contest is on from july 10-14 so stay tuned because you probably can watch it live!!!

this was last years event. kelia’s poster was all over town, all over the internet, and all over the contest site. i remember my sister telling me the story of all the coverage that one photo got….

this year isn’t any difference. the posters are already going up and internet sites are flooded with the new roxy jam poster. the only difference from last years poster and this years poster is:
last year, uncle jim russi took the photo.
this year, uncle kirby took the photo.
haha… i’m so stoked!!! i shot that photo of kelia at bowls this past winter and when i downloaded it, i already knew this was going to be big. not this big, but big. look on the left side of the photos, that’s my name. this is probably my biggest accomplishment as a photographer and for it to be a photo of my niece, that makes it even better!!! thanks ROXY INTERNATIONAL for using my photo[:?????$B!x(B???:]

padang, indonesia is the epicenter of many big earthquakes. the big ones hit, the buildings crumble down, but they get right back up and rebuild. the indonesian people of padang must be strong inside. just by looking at their smiles and their daily activity, they look much happier than people in places that never get hit by big earthquakes. last time we were there, i seen this banner “AWAKING OF PADANG.” i was glad to see the people happily running around like nothing bad ever happened there….

looks crowded? look again. this is HT’s, one of the best world class right handers in the whole wide world. look closely. 8 of the 8 guys were from our crew. on a normal day, there would be 50 surfers out there. i’ve seen it before. but on this day, there was just us. our crew surfing big barreling right handers that most surfers in the world only dream of. gosh… i want more!!!

and last, isn’t this photo awesome? i was thinking of chartering this boat for our next mentawai trip. wanna go?

good morning. hey, where is everybody? it’s 6 am and i’m looking at bowls now. the waves are shoulder high and perfect!! only 5 guys out? yeah, 5 guys. i guess everybody is burnt out from the long weekend? if you haven’t surfed empty bowls before, you should go down right now! i’m burnt out too so you won’t see me out there today. have a nice day!!!

a long time ago, i remember going out for a dive and grabbing at least one or two big lobsters. we use to steam the tails and dip it into butter/garlic sauce, or cut it up as sashimi and dip it into wasabi/shoyu. then the head? either steam the head and eat the miso with a spoon, or cut it up and make miso soup out of it. we use to have lobster parties all the time with friends and beers.
now days, i hardly even see a single lobster on a dive. in fact, the last time i seen a lobster in hawaii is so long ago that i can’t remember. gosh, i miss the good old days….

the girl in the back row second from the right is eri nishikami. eri-chan is the distributor in japan for Honey Girl swimsuits. she use to live in hawaii, speaks 4 languages fluently, really smart, and is a hard core surfer. it was eri-chan’s second boat trip and now i know her favorite word, which is “YABAI!!!”
eri-chan,
how was that trip? yabai yeah? how was big ht’s? yabai yeah? how was the sashimi? yabai yeah? haha.. it was really fun having you on board with us. the jokes, the “rich man, poor man games,” the bintang evening sessions, and all the laughter. you have a personality of your own and can get along with anybody. i think everybody enjoyed your company and all the excitement. i hope we can travel again more in the future. thanks for helping with the translations, thanks for all the fun, and thanks for letting us see your happy face surfing at “The Hole!” the photos and video are awesome!!! see you soon either in japan or hawaii!!!
mahalo,
kirby
p.s. wake up earlier to go surfing. getting up at 10 am and going to the beach is too late. the winds are onshore and it’s too crowded right? go 5 am dawn patrol and your life will never be the same…. see you out there!

**CLICK HERE FOR ERI-CHAN’S HONEY GIRL BLOG….


eri-chan @ “The Hole” YABAI!! YABAI!! YABAI!!!