good evening. it was pitch dark at pipeline this morning as i was sitting on the beach next to a hawaiian sea monk. i was so excited to paddle out and get the first barrel of the day. i jumped in and as i got closer to the lineup, i saw 2 shadows. oh my gosh!! yumie-chan and yumi-chan beat me out. eeeh??? i was bummed… haha.. it was only the 3 of us surfing in the dark. for the past 2 days, i got barreled on my first wave before the sun came up. what a great way to start off the day!!!
then as i was driving home, i passed by waimea bay and couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. so i grabbed my camera and took some shots…

another picture perfect day in hawaii!!! wish you were here!!!
**here are some photos from yesterday….

satoshi kubota got some good waves yesterday at backdoor too. here’s one barrel that he snuck out of…

keito was the banzai surfer yesterday at off the wall. he kept pulling into monster close outs. i’m sure he’ll get a cover shot or something from his efforts….

yumie interview coming up on go-naminori.com. it’s going to be a good one!! thanks oomori-san and yumie for the positive vibrations….

and last, of all the photos i took in my lifetime, this one just became my top 1. i was just snapping away the other day not looking through the view finder. so when i seen this photo after i downloaded it, i was so happy!!! to me, a surfing photo is memorable. but nothing is more memorable than getting thrown in the air from your daddy’s hands. i’m going to enter this one in a national photo contest….

North Shore Today.
10:58:17 AM February 8, 2010

good morning. wow, i’m totally sunburned and feel like i’m on fire. my skin is black, my eyes are red, and my body is tired. before i went to sleep last night, i was thinking about all the things i’ve been doing these past few weeks. maybe too much for a normal person. am i overworking myself? but after i got up, i’m feeling energetic and pretty dam happy. my batteries are charged and i’m going to keep going, going, and going….
as for the waves? it’s 5 am and buoy 1 is 5 feet 12 seconds. no wind and clear skies. today will be 2-4′ and an epic day of surfing on the north shore. see you out there….

we had a fun dinner at kinsan’s house the other night. good food, good people, and good vibe!!

take out chinese, atsuko-san’s special dish, hayato’s tako sashimi, and much much more!!!
**finally i got a chance to download all the photos i took in the past 2 days. all 689 of them. i haven’t had a chance to go through them all but here’s a sneak preview.

i paddled out yesterday early morning with wade tokoro. an hour later, my friend chris won paddled out and said “When Wade is surfing out here early in the morning, you know it’s going to be a good day.” and it was a good day indeed….

maoh and i were getting barreled at backdoor before the sun came up. then around 9am, i seen him get 2 sick back to back barrels. this was one of them. both he made!! then he paddled in. i told him “Maoh, go home already. You got barreled all morning. Go home and relax all day.” Maoh did a great job and i truly feel that once you get good barrels, come in. don’t stay out and get greedy because that’s when you get hurt or break your board. like how i did yesterday. haha.. but maoh was the man yesterday at backdoor and i wanted to congratulate him!!! it just shows that hard work pays off!!!

guess who’s here? yup, kairi noro!! the funniest kid you’ll ever meet…

one kid that’s really impressing me is ma-kun. it’s ma-kun’s first season here on the north shore and he’s turning heads. he surfs good, he charges big waves, he’s quiet, and he’s super photogenic. meaning, easy to shoot. i shot vland yesterday afternoon and got so many good photos of him. this one is a throw away. i got way better ones….
**and last. i was surfing pipeline the other day and one of the pipe locals paddled out and told me. “hey, who’s that kid surfing the inside left’s with the orange surfboard? oh my gosh, he’s ripping!!” i looked in to see who it was. it was shun murakami….
much more photos coming soon….