good evening. what a nightmare day. ouch, ouch, and ouch. gosh, i would never want to go through this again. i was kind of freaked out and still am. i thought it was kind of a minor surgery but when they asked me if i had a living will, and when the sister nun came out and touched my head and said a prayer to me, i thought, wow, this is the real deal? what? people die getting eye surgery? that’s when i started getting scared. that’s when i started thinking “gosh, i should have caught more waves in indo over the shallow reef, or gosh, i should have tried to dive 200′ last week”. i didn’t want to end my life in the hospital… so many crazy things were running through my mind….

it was the first time i had an IV in me. they even hooked me up to all the machines too. i had wires hooked up all over my body. it was nuts….

i wasn’t supposed to keep my phone with me but i hid it on the side of my bed. i had to document this. especially my shaka sign…

so there i am lying down when the nurse comes in. she put this gel in my eye and said ‘it’s going to sting”. i yelled “itai” so loud that another nurse came by. it didn’t sting, it freakin felt like somebody poured poison in my eye. it was unbearable… then she told me “see, i told you it was going to sting”. honestly, i was a little pissed off…. by the way, the nurse asked me “which eye” 3 times. i told her “it’s the left, it’s the left, it’s the left”. then she took out a pen and wrote “YES” on the top of my left eye. what does “YES” mean? and she wrote it in permanent ink so it’s still there. it’s kind of funny… well, they rolled me into the surgery room and that’s where i met Dr. CAMARA. that’s when i felt like i was in good hands. all i told him before the surgery was “hi doctor, please take care of my eye”. he looked at me and said, “don’t worry kirby, your going to be all right”. then he told a nurse that was walking by, “hey, you got to go check out kirby’s blog, he got some nice photos on there”. i was pretty stoked to hear that. thanks so much Dr. CAMARA….

1:30pm, i woke up and wanted to get the heck out of there. the nurse asked me if i need a wheelchair and i said no. she insisted so i said ok. then when she went to get it, i snuck out the back door. then i almost tripped down the stairs. gosh, it’s so hard seeing with only one eye. i’m freakin dizzy typing this blog now so better shut down. i can’t drive, can’t surf, can’t do computer work, and can’t even watch some of the 30 DVD’s i bought in bali. it’s going to be a long 3 weeks. i might get grouchy at times so be careful… haha… just joking. i’m totally ok…. have a great evening and if you got eyes, appreciate them. both of them….
**by the way, wanted to thank everybody who sent such kind emails. honto ni arigato gozaimasu….

good morning on this sunny monday morning in hawaii. 7am and the waves on the north shore pumping. laniakea looking solid 6′ plus right now. kind of windy but looks fun. town? forget it. tiny. get out there and enjoy this beautiful day. have a nice day….

hey, did you see the sunset yesterday evening? it was pretty awesome from aina hina….

the kids scored yesterday at haleiwa. the upcoming swell was pretty dam good until they had to cancel the contest because the waves got too big. heard solid 6′ sets came in with bigger ones up at sunset beach. first swell of the year and everybody’s loving it….
ok, so today’s the day. the scariest day of my life. i didn’t have too good of a sleep last night. kept on thinking and worrying about my eye. i’ve never had surgery in my life so this will be my first time. my arm, my leg, it’s ok. but my eye? scary. i tried to close one eye last night to imagine how it would be only with one eye. after 30 seconds, i got dizzy…

so it all started a year and a half ago. i surfed backdoor for 4 hours and shot it for 3 hours right after. on my way home from the north shore, i seen what looked to be a piece of rice in my eye. turned out to be Pteregium. it got worst and worst and finally hit my pupil. now my left eye is blurred… was going to wait till next spring to fix it, but by then, it would probably cover most of my eye so i pushed it up and today is the day. found out that a lot of surfers have Pteregium and keep it untreated. i’m going to fix mine before i can’t see out of my left eye. i’ll be down at the hospital for 4 hours and hopefully everything goes well. today is the official start of my 3 week vacation. no surfing or no diving. what the heck am i going to do????

good evening. had a pretty fun day today. started off checking out the hawaii fishing and seafood festival. gosh, the place was packed. i went there only an hour after it opened and the parking lot was full. luckily the parking lot aunty let me in…

there were so many booths set up. every company that has to do with fishing in hawaii was there. they even let people go on the coast guard boats, and the tuna boats. it was pretty cool…

of course i had to stop by the hawaii skin diver booth. and it was the most happening booth of the whole festival. why?

because merlinda garma was there. haha… yes, i got her autograph and her phone number.. haha. just joking….

then they let people in the auction to check out the fish. gosh, it was cold in there… [:???:][:???:]

then i headed to the north shore to watch my nephews surf their heat. seth and josh in the same heat and same division. oh man, i’m glad i got to see their heat. the waves were solid 4′ and super good. josh got 1st, and seth got 2nd, both advancing. i was really impressed with josh’s surfing today. he was surfing with so much power that it made the other kids look like babies… i took a lot of photos that will be posted soon…. have a great evening…