good evening, mabuhai from the philippines. gosh, it’s like paradise here. woke up this morning and the waves were small. in fact, it’s been small here for the past 10 days. some of the traveling surfers staying here for a while look pretty disappointed, you can just see it in their eyes. wake up, check the waves, it’s flat, go back sleep, pray for tomorrow. but it’s ok for us because we just go here but i know that feeling of waking up to flat waves for 2 weeks straight when i went to tonga. i understand that the waves aren’t epic everyday here so i’ve prepared myself before i got here. i just think like this, “if i score, i’m lucky”. that’s the cool thing about trips because it’s not only about the waves, it’s about the people you meet, and the experiences you have. i’m so fortunate to come to the philippines to shoot the contest for a japanese magazine. now i get to show people images of this beautiful country through my eyes. i can’t post any photos taken off my canon camera. you have to wait until one of the upcoming Surfing World magazine. but i snapped some off my small dig. camera so check these out.

this is the stage for the contest. when the contest is on, there will be thousands of people here. i actually got scared the last time because i thought the stage was going to break. it’s parked like sardines….

yes, this is where tokura-san, hayato, and i stay. see that coconuts? i ate one this afternoon and it was the sweetest coconuts i’ve ever eaten….

ohayo gozaimasu. i took this photo lying down in my queen size bed. cloud 9 is right between the coconut trees. i jumped in for a morning session. it was only knee high but i was out there all by myself so it was so relaxing. got a couple and went in. the water is so warm and crystal clear….

check out this poster. it’s a national beer drinking contest sponsored by san miguel. the winner gets 500,000 pesos or $11,000 usd. shit, i’m going to get my entry in. so now you guys know the real reason i came here. yes, to become the filipino national beer drinking champion. haha[:?????????:][:?????????:][:?????????:]

hello everyone, finally got to cloud 9. it took a while to fit our boards and stuff on that little propeller airplane in cebu. it was a little 15 passenger plane which they had to take out the half the seats to fit our board bags in. when we checked in, they even made so get on the scale so they could figure out where to seat us to keep the airplane balanced. so half the plane had our boards and the other half had us. it was a pretty smooth. a little scary, but smooth. we got this room right in front of cloud 9. while lying down on my bed, i can see right out to the lineup. sick… well, as for internet access, got to walk down the street so don’t know when i can post this. also, the sim card i bought for my cell phone in cebu doesn’t work here. shit, i wasted two dollars. going to try to find another one tomorrow. oh, and how’s our dinner we had tonight? chicken mango curry. it was so healthy and good. anyway, getting ready to sleep but hayato is sleeping right next to me snoring so loud. hayato!!!! haha…

now he’s snoring again…. hayato!!! haha….

looking out the little plane heading to cloud 9. not too many people know this, but the water in the philippines is as clean as it gets… well, that’s if you stay away from the cities…

and this is u-ske and kazuya checking out the suckling pig for lunch. it was so soft and juicy… sorry kalua….

do you know jasmine trias? i don’t know about japan, but in hawaii and in the philippines, everybody knows who jasmine trias is. she’s that little high school girl that made it in the top 5 of american idol a few years back. since then, she’s turned into a beautiful young lady that can sing. the first time i heard her voice, i got chicken skin. jasmine is from hawaii and her nationality is filipino. she’s a huge superstar in the philippines. so when ever i’m in the philippines, people ask me where i’m from, i tell them hawaii. the next question is “do you know jasmine trias?” my answer? yeah, she’s my younger sister. haha. just joking…. but gosh, she’s grown up and has become this successful beautiful singer. check out her website at: http://www.jasminetrias.net/. it’s great to see talent come out of hawaii…..

and do you know who kirby fukunaga is? kirby is this old guy still living in the days of “Ice Castles”. he frequents ice palace in hawaii and has been practicing for the 2008 winter olympics in alaska. you got to see him skate backwards…. haha….. “please, don’t let this feeling end”….. oh, i love that song. makes me want to ice skate. this was last week, the day before i left to japan. this winter, i’m going to call all my japanese and hawaii friends and head to ice palace. that’s going to be classic…. then i’m going to video it and put it on youtube…. haha…