good evening. oh my gosh!!! pipe was going off today. big huge barrels… when i left my house at 5:45am, i could see only a little white wash and the waves looked like 5′ or so. passed by lani’s and it looked 5′ out there too. i was thinking “yeah, 4-6′ backdoor”. i walked down the path by off the wall to check the waves. and there it was, a second reef 12′ set breaking that nobody wanted any part of. it was big, sunny, crowded, and freaking nuts. people were getting hurt and the sound of the ambulance gave me the chills…. i swam out for 4 hours to shoot some photos and after all these years from surfing pipeline, i’ve learned more in just one day. what did i learn? pipeline is nuts, crazy, and freaking shallow. i could touch the reef with my fins when i was shooting. i learned where the good waves break. which ones to go on, and which ones to back off on. i learned that you have to commit 100%. a split second of hesitation can cost your life. it happened before, and it will happen again. pipe is no joke and today was a wake up call for me. i’m going out there next time and be a smarter surfer… anyway, check out some of the action from today. can’t shot the best shots but can show some….

first, the crowd. there were about a hundred hungry surfers and bodyboarders. i counted 33 surfers in this photo, and there were many more. much more….

when your in the impact zone shooting photos, you see everything. who charges, who pulls back, who drops in, and who gets the best wave of the day. today was this guys day… i got the 8 shot sequence and it’s freaking nuts….

i’m super stoked on this kid. it was about 10 years ago i went on a trip to micronesia with flynn novak. he was a grom back then and always told me he wanted to surf pipe. back then he didn’t, but now he does. and does very well. it makes me happy to see kids dreams come true…. one day, flynn will win a contest out there for sure….

naohisa ogawa was the first japanese surfer out there this morning. a lot of guys get him mixed up with wakita because they are both japanese and they both wear helmets. when he took off on this wave, one surfer paddling out said “go wakita”. i looked at him and said “no, that’s nao”. that’s nao going freaking big….
**took 200 photos and got about 100 sick ones. stay tuned….
***oh yeah, kung hie fat choi. happy chinese new year…..

good morning. 5am and i couldn’t sleep well because i was thinking about the waves. swells on the way up today and i can’t wait. still too dark to see the waves but i’m going surfing anyway. hope to get barreled today…. have a safe day and see you in the water….

this is aki ogura. aki is a pro bodyboarder from chiba and one of the coolest chicks. i met her for the first time down in wakayama about 4 years ago during a typhoon. before that day, i’ve been there a few times and didn’t even surf because the waves were small. that day, it was aki’s first time there and the waves were going off. lucky girl…. then it was 2 years ago we would meet again. we all went on a boat trip together in the maldives for 2 weeks for a couple magazine articles. that was one of the funnest trips i’ve ever went on. and the rest of the group would probably agree. so it was really good seeing aki last night. what a small world….

this was the international crew. we had south africa, singapore, japan, hawaii, maldives, and jacksan from tennessee… gosh, i can’t wait for another trip like that…
**check out aki ogura’s interview on go-naminori…. CLICK HERE….
**and last, want to check out something amazing? a couple of days ago, there was a huge shark the size of a bus spotted in the waters of molokai. you must see it. it’s nuts!!!!!

good sunny evening. gosh, how good did it feel today when the sun came out? really good. went surfing this morning at sunset point. from the beach, it looked crowded and not that good. paddled out and it was actually pretty fun. head high, clean, and all beginners out. surfed for only 30 minutes but caught some really good waves. supposed to be 8′ by tomorrow afternoon so looking forward to that….

had a freaking nuts crazy fun barbecue at nick nozaki’s house last night. it was good to seeing everybody having a good time. it was raining, muddy, and windy but nobody cared. i don’t remember too much but all i know is that my feet is still dirty…. oh, and i came home with somebody else’s slippers. sorry. wanted to thank nick for letting us invade his house and wanted to thank tokura-san for buying all the food and stuff… arigato gozaimasu….

i passed by the kitchen a couple of times on the way to the bathroom and ended up staying here for most of the night. warm room with warm people….

i was so happy to see yumie. yumie is such a sweet girl. chiaki took like 3 photos of us because yumie kept on closing her eyes. then chiaki said, “good enough, yumie’s eyes in this photo are more open then naoka’s in any of his photos” haha. that was pretty funny….

on the way back from the north shore today, i passed by backdoor and seen my nephew’s and friends hitchhiking for a ride up to rocky point. boys will be boys….

and last, wanted to say thanks so much to tokura-san for everything in hawaii. have a safe return to japan. this is yesterday at a secret beach we surf at least once every year. a place to relax, ride good waves, and enjoy with nobody around for miles and miles…. it’s only us and the turtles….