hello from chiba. been here for a couple of days and loving it. the weather is perfect, the water is cool, and i can actually surf. went for 2 rounds yesterday and even though i couldn’t do a turn, i had a blast. i came here yesterday morning at 1am, had a few beers with jasmine and hide-san till 3am. woke up at 6am and surfed till lunch. came back for an afternoon nap. jasmine lives on the top of the mountain so even though it’s 100 degrees outside, it’s pretty cool here. so i lay down for my nap on the cool wood floor. i ask naoka to turn up the ceiling fans up a little higher because the breeze was feeling good. naoka didn’t know what buttons he was pushing but i trusted him because everything was in japanese. so i lay down peacefully and fall asleep. 20 minutes later, i woke up in a pool of sweat and i was feeling weird. it was so frickin hot!! the wind was cool but i was feeling so dam hot. i just couldn’t figure it out. i couldn’t go back to sleep and what made it worst was naoka was snoring on the sofa next to me. come to find out, naoka turned off the fans, and turned the floor heater to HIGH. oh my gosh.!!!! i was sleeping on a heated floor in this burning humid weather. what a nightmare… i was pissed but all i can do is laugh about it now….
**chiba is like the surfing capital of japan. the waves are consistent, they hold most contests here, and the level of surfing is probably the highest throughout japan. went to shidashita yesterday and gosh, the kids were ripping. the oakley junior pro starts today and runs into the weekend. seems like all of japan’s talent is in chiba right now. it was pretty cool to see…

yesterday in the evening was perfect. the lighting was good, the surfers were ripping, so i went to grab my camera….

had a bunch of JPSA pro’s out but the groms stole the show…. check out how small this kid is. this is okinawa’s kazubo-san’s 9 year old son from okinawa. it’s so funny because it’s the first time he’s surfing out of okinawa. okinawa doesn’t have beach breaks so this kid must be loving it. he looked so stoked…

gosh, i forgot this kid’s name… he’s a little dove rider and was catching the most waves out there yesterday. he was like a wave magnet. just by watching him, you could tell that he had some kind of connection with the ocean. plus he rips!!!

kairi has so much energy. he surfed 3 session and skateboarded in the hot sun too. along with making trouble to me all day. this kid’s classic….

this is reika and friend. japan surfer girls…
**FULL GALLERY COMING UP TODAY ON GO-NAMINORI.COM….

**and wanted to thank jasmine, hide-san, zuccho, kenji, naoka, and jacksan for the great time last night. the sunset was awesome, the mexican food was awesome, and the vibe was awesome. an awesome night with awesome people… mahalo…

**it was our second to the last day before shun and i had to come to japan. so we planned a dawn patrol and seth slept over my house. i woke them up before 5am and we were on it. it felt good pushing those two kids. i felt like an ass for waking them up but they will thank me someday later. we had a blast and i felt younger than the boys that day. that’s how excited i was to see them both ripping and pushing each other. i wish there was some urusai uncle like me pushing this hard wheni was a kid. then i would have probably been kirby slater. haha. this video goes in my top 3 youtube videos. if you haven’t dawn patrolled before, now you will sort of get the feeling. what better way could you start off your day???

**wanted to say sorry to seth for missing his sick grab rail barrel on a nice double up set. i didn’t even shoot it because he was so deep and i thought he wouldn’t make it. then here he came flying out with the spit. i should have had more confidence in you. my bad…

was looking through my photo library and found this photo. i don’t know how i got it or who took it. but this is my friend matchi doing a pretty sick ass layback snap at either backdoor or off the wall. i think this was a few years ago. sick photo….
**since i started doing youtube. been getting some comments here and there. then sometimes, i’ll get an email too. 99.5% of them good emails but once in a while, i get some wise ass. yeah, somebody who thinks they know everything. well, more than me. haha… just joking. so a week ago, this spear fisher guy from florida wrote me saying that there are only small fish in japan. and the water is too dirty to dive. and that i should go to florida. and on and on. he was pretty much writing to me like i was lying about diving or something. i just let that mail slide and erased it. until i was going through my iphoto and came across this photo i forgot i had.

so here’s to that smart ass mr. know it all in florida. this is japan. japan has big fish, japan has clean water, and no, i’m not going to florida to dive. if i go to florida, the only place i’m going to florida disneyland. and one more thing, before you start saying things about other countries, get a passport…. and sorry for being a smart ass myself. sometimes i just have to let it out. we call that in english: VENTING….
**i took that photo of air force soldier rob with a huge tuna in a place known for small fish and dirty water, JAPAN….
**anyway, going to close my laptop and head to chiba. i gotta surf. and there is a big oakley grom contest this weekend so i’m going to cheer on all the kids. shun, kairi, nao, kent, and everybody else…. ganbatte!!!
**and last, i haven’t had time to go through all my emails recently. i only have limited internet access so that’s when i do this blog thing. if you have an emergency, call me. if not, please be patient before i get back to your mail. i’m not going to chiba to sit in front of my computer responding to emails. i’m going to chiba to SURF!! yeah, GO-NAMINORI….