check out this photo out of india. everybody around the world celebrating the start to 2008. 2007 was a good year for some, and a bad year for others. what ever happened, let’s put that year aside and move on to a beautiful and happy 2008. hope everybody has a happy and awesome year to come. aloha….

pulled up to diamond head this morning and light house was the spot again. head high and perfect…. then i went to help my sister’s surf school down in waikiki. waikiki is nuts@! so many people learning how to surf that it’s actually dangerous. dangerous but fun i guess. fun watching people stand up on their first wave. just to see the stoke in their face. i know that feeling…. and get this, i pushed this 47 year old japanese man from ibaraki into a wave. he ended up riding it for over 100 yards and when he kicked out, he put his hands in the air and was super happy. he paddled back out and told me that he will never ever forget that wave and this trip to hawaii. he started surfing at age 44 and was stoked like a teenager. he also told me that surfing changed his life in a good way. that was pretty awesome to experience… surfing brings out a stoke that no other sport can…. that’s for sure…. keep on surfing…..

thanks tobeey for the awesome japan sunrise photo…. see ya in hawaii…

went up the mountain this evening to snap a photo of the last sunset in 2007… did you know that hawaii is one of the last places in the world to have their new years last? wait, did that come out right? well, you know what i mean…

peace from me…. happy new year…..

good morning. just wanted to wish everybody in japan a HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!!! KOTOSHI MOU YOROSHIKU ONEGAISHIMASU….[:?????????:][:?????????:][:?????????:]
**6:30am and the north winds are blowing. 2′ junk conditions on the north shore and knee high clean waves in town.

went for an evening session last night at kewalo’s and get this? nobody out!!! score….. surfed into dark and felt pretty good. i can’t remember the last time i surfed until dark. the lights in honolulu looked awesome reflecting off the wave while i was riding it…. might have to do that more often. anyway, have a nice new years eve in hawaii and a nice new years day for the countries that are celebrating new years before us. gosh, that mochi soup must be tasting good…..

good evening. gosh, the waves today in town were going off….

this was the flag at diamond head light house. when was the last time there were no winds? i can’t even remember….

got a little south swell in town and diamond head was the spot today. there must have been 50 guys out this morning when i first checked it at 7:30am. then when i went back, it looked like this. still 50 guys out with nice lines coming in. what a treat…. i surfed bowls and it was perfect this morning. 6 guys out, which was hard to believe for a sunday. the sun was out, the water was clean, and there were some nice waves coming in. this is the hawaii i know….

and for you lucky tourists, the hilton hawaiian village lagoon is OPEN!!! they finally finished it and it looks awesome. clean water, white sand, and happy kids swimming around. there is a big pump that pumps in clean water from the ocean and pumps out the dirty water into the ala wai boat harbor. it sounds not fair for the ala wai canal but dirty water from the lagoon is still better than the water sitting in that canal. it should clean it up a little… we shall see….

where else in the world can you pull up in a free parking space, walk 15 steps over green grass, sit on a bench on a white sandy beach, and look at a clean lagoon with diamond head in the back? no where….

this is what the lagoon use to look like before… just joking….