good morning. 7am here in hawaii. small waves and dirty water. 2 million gallon sewage spill in town, sewage spill in kailua, and dirty water on the north shore. all kinds of chemicals, dodo, and germs in the ocean all around the island. stay out of the water. i’m not taking any chances with a fresh cut on my foot. have a nice day on land….
**oh, congratulations to the new WCT world champion, mick fanning….. he’s surfing in the finals right NOW…. CLICK HERE TO WATCH….

**i finally got my iphoto library up and running. i was looking at some photos i took last winter at backdoor. check these out…

this is maoh toda pulling in at backdoor….

gosh, i forgot this kids name again. he got so barrelled on this wave….

this is keito. this kid rips and expect him to get bigger and better barrels this year…
**and last, check out this cool band called “Begin” from okinawa. kimura-san gave me this cd and i love it…. makes me want to go back to okinawa already. surf good waves, have fun with good friends, and catch me a 73lbs. dog tooth tuna….
if BEGIN ever comes to hawaii again. please, please let me know…. i’m going front row. and i’m going to drink awamori…. and i’m going to probably pass out….

good evening. i checked everywhere in town today but the waves looked onshore and junky so i went to work out at the 24 hour fitness in waikiki. figure, can check the waves while working out. right when i walked in, i seen the inside of queen’s going off. there were long double up rights with not too many people out. i figure i’d surf after i train. so between weight sets, i was calling everybody telling them queens looked good. after 30min of working out, i almost tweaked my neck because i was watching the waves out the window while lifting. then i thought to myself that 24 means 24 hours. yeah, the gym is open 24 hours a day so i can always work out later. i grabbed my board from my car and surfed queen’s. gosh, the waves were sooooo gooood…. perfect double ups in the inside with only a few guys out. it was like a wave machine. 100 waves per hour. surfed 2 hours but felt like 4. so much paddling, so much surfing, and so much fun… that was the spot today for sure…. great workout in the water. no need gym…. dirty water everywhere else. save gas, surf town…. haha…..
**and get this, snow in hawaii. moana kea and moana loa. get your snowboards ready….

so many divers go around the world in search for the sunfish or “mola mola”. these huge fish average 1000kg and are the heaviest bone fish in the world. they are usually found it depths of 360m but sometimes come to the shallows. i was one lucky ass to be able to see one of these amazing fish in bali last month. it was my first dive off the boat in nusa penedia. i jumped in and it was right there lying on the bottom around 30′ deep. it was freaking huge!!! i almost speared the dam thing. good thing i came up and asked the boat man if i could spear it. he told me no and said we were lucky to even see one. i see the moonfish or “opah” in fishmarkets in hawaii and it looks so good to eat. so when you dive in other countries, watch what you spear because it might be a rare fish like the “mola mola”. and get this one, i was diving in north sumatra a while ago with a local indonesian when we saw a turtle. i was swimming around with it and the guy told me to spear it. there was no way… and if he speared it, i would have freaked out. see, indonesians love to eat turtles. you can find them on sticks being barbecued on the streets of indo. and it taste pretty dam good. oh, i shouldn’t have said that. sorry. well, just wanted to share a couple indo diving stories….

it’s autumn in japan. this is chuzenji lake in okunikko prefecture, japan. how beautiful is this? sick…. i found a website on msnbc that has the pictures of the week. gosh, this is a picture of the year. really makes me want to go there….

and who the heck said that laybacks are out? don’t tell this to carlos burle. this is tahiti a few days ago. really makes me not want to go there….
and check out this video my friend derek sent me. he’s been racing around the streets of honolulu with his baby blue VW dune buggy. it’s the sixth dune buggy pulling the wheelie…. Whooooopp… i like sample….

good morning. once again, false alarm. no big swell on the south shore. it looks head high and junky. bad wind and weak swell. what happened? don’t know…. north shore came down too. 4′ out there with clean conditions. too small for the last day of the x-cel pro. try again mid-week when the next swell supposed to hit. anyway, the weather is clearing up. have a nice day….
**on my last day in the philippines, i woke up early and was walking the beach looking for shells. then this kid i met 4 years ago asked me what i was doing. i told him i was looking for shells. he disappeared and i just continued looking. as i was eating breakfast later that day, he came to the restaurant and took this huge perfect shell out of a plastic bag. he said “here kirby, this is for you”. traveling through different asian countries, i understand that nothing is for free. so i asked him “how much do you want”. his answer was “nothing, it’s a present for you”. then he walked away. gosh, i felt so stupid asking him how much he wanted for it. i wanted to tell him sorry but he left right after. i felt pretty shitty but at the same time, so happy that he gave me something so valuable from his heart. later that day, i saw him at a restaurant near my room, i asked him to come over because i wanted to get a photo with him. i will never forget this kid…..

this kids name is “mitchbergh”. i met him 4 years ago at cloud 9 and he remembered me the first day i got there. these are the kind of experiences that make traveling worth it. so mitchbergh, if your reading my blog, thanks so much buddy. i’m glad i met you and i will keep this shell in my house for the rest of my life. salamat…

then get this. on my way out of cebu airport, they scanned my suitcase and the customs guy saw the shell. he told me to open my suitcase and told me that the shell was illegal to take out of the philippines. he told me to give it to him. i looked him in the eye and said “no”. and i meant it. i explained to him that this isn’t no ordinary shell, this shell was given to me from a friend and there was no way i was giving it up. we had a stare down for 20 seconds or so and i wasn’t going to give in. then the custom agent looked at me and said “ok, close your suitcase”. i told him thank you and was on my way. now the shell is in japan at matsuo’s house. i was too scared to bring it back to hawaii this time because i didn’t want to take the chance. i’ll bring it back next time for sure. i have a shelf of shells in my house from around the world and there is a space for this special shell. a shell that reminds me how lucky i am to have met such a special person on the other side of the world….
***WARNING: 2 million gallon sewage spill in pearl harbor…. STAY AWAY!!!