good evening. gosh, what a beautiful day it was today. got some things done and finally getting back to my emails. sorry for the late response but i’m trying to get to them all. trying to get back to my normal life. been living out of my suitcase for the past 3 months and feel like throwing it off the mountain. with everything in it. maybe i’ll just keep it closed until next march when i do it all again. took a spin by my sisters house to visit the kids and kalua….

kalua seems to be fine. getting much bigger, but fine. he was lying on one of my slippers when i was trying to leave and it took a lot of pushing to get him off it. worlds biggest pig? i think so. makes seth next to him look like a toy GI joe doll….

this was our last day in bali. we went down to changu sandbar and the waves were really fun. had some solid 4′ sets and some waves were barreling. a great way to end a great trip….

these are my two bro’s…. garut in the middle and bol on the right. garut is on fire!! plans to do the WQS events in japan and australia next year. watch out world cause this kid can surf….. bol on the right, just came off a win last weekend at the pro contest at changu. every year i go to bali, these guys are ripping harder and harder. i’m super proud of them….. and the guy on the left of the photo is kelly slater. haha….

anyway, look what i just ate for dinner at my mom’s. some laulau, poke, opihi, lomi salmon, and poi. lights out. goodnight….

good morning. 7am here in this beautiful island called hawaii. gosh, it feels so good to be home. blue sky, warm weather, and waves all over the island. north shore is still overhead and looks fun. town is waist high with 8 surfers and one standup paddleboarder. trades blowing 10-20mph. going to unpack my stuff, get my north shore boards ready, and take a nap. haha. what a life…. have a nice day….

“you can take my camera equiptment but don’t take my shirasu”…. that was the line yesterday at honolulu airport. we had this big box that we all put our fresh shirasu in and checked it in at japan. your not supposed to bring food so everybody was kind of worried. we were more worried about our shirasu than the rest of our baggage. anyway, there were 2 dogs going around sniffing and looking for food. so once the box came out, kyle grabbed it and walked with it to the opposite side of the dogs. then kathy took over and guarded it and kept it away from the dogs until we were ready to go through customs. this shirasu is so good so everybody would have been bummed if it was taken away. anyway, it made it through and once we got outside, you could see everybody’s sigh of relief. i grabbed my share, jumped in my car, came home, and ate half the box. i ate it for lunch and dinner yesterday. and i know everybody else probably did too… thanks again to the kimura family….

this was dinner the other night in wakayama. it was a happy night with many happy people….
**LIFE’S SHORT, TRAVEL…..

good evening. gosh, i slept pretty much all day. probably get jetlag but i don’t care. i’m just glad to be back in hawaii. i heard the north shore was 6′ and going off but surfing was the last thing i wanted to do today. sleep was the first… anyway, we had such a great day in japan yesterday on our transit back to hawaii. we had a 13 hour stop over so plenty of time. what was just a transit seemed like days…. check out some photos….

we left bali at 1am in the morning. i had a good sleep in the plane and when i opened the window shutter to see outside, this is what i saw. the sickest sunrise as we were getting to land in japan. it’s the first time i seen a sunrise from up above…..

this is the kimura-san family: keichi-san and atsuko-san. they own the famous YAMARI shirasu factory in wakayama. they invited our group over to wakayama and showed us around. they are some of the nicest people on earth and i was glad to see them on my last day in japan….

we went to isanora beach to watch the sunset. while everybody was taking photos of the sunset, i looked back and seen the moon on the other side. i thought that was pretty cool. so cool that i forgot to take a sunset photo. i blew it. so can somebody please email me that killer orange sun setting into the ocean. please….

we pulled up at the boat harbor in the evening and was checking out what the local fisherman were catching. this grandpa pulled up with a cooler full of fresh snapper or “Omedetai”. the kind of snapper they serve at weddings, birthdays, and other celebrations. it’s really expensive but the local fisherman gave us all the fish. gosh, we were so lucky…. then keichi-san sent it over to the sushi restaurant and had them prepare it for us. we pulled up at 7pm and this is what was waiting. oh my gosh.. wish you were there…..

we ate, drank, ate, drank and had such a great time. i want to thank the kimura’s for taking care of us and for the awesome dinner. a dinner that will never be forgotten. the gang from hawaii were all stoked and i’m glad i was there to share that experience with them. now they understand why i love japan and the people of japan. and why i’ve been doing this for the past 15 years and will do for the rest of my life…. much mahalo….
**by the way, we almost missed our flight. we got the the airport at 9:10 and our flight was leaving at 9:40pm. the whole JAL staff were waiting for us so we got a free escort to our airplane. i felt so special… haha…