good morning. gosh, what a blast i had in chiba this past weekend. it’s been a while since i went to a contest in japan and i was pretty amazed on high the level of surfing is these days. gosh, the kids are ripping!!! here are the finalists of the contest….

ok, nao omura is the real deal. i haven’t seen her surf since the last time she was staying with me in hawaii. but i just seen her go from level 2 to 10. yeah, i said 10. and in her semifinal heat, her top two scores were both perfect 10’s. yeah, kelly slater and bruce irons couldn’t even do that at uluwatu, but nao did it here in onshore waist high waves. that’s pretty dam amazing and probably the first time it’s ever been done here in japan. this is her right after the historic semifinal heat. how happy can you be? congratulations nao….

now for the finalist. yeah, that’s nao on the far left. wonder what she got? yeah, 1st place. now she gets to be on tv here in japan….

this is the under 12 division finalists. the kid holding the board won it. i don’t know his name but i’m sure i’ll hear more about him in the future. all the kids were ripping in the final…

the under 16 division was pretty nuts but kashia from shikoku stood out from the rest and won it pretty easy. he just had too much power compared to the rest of the boys…

this was the 20 and under finalists. wanted to congratulate each and every competitor who gave it their all this past weekend. by watching all of them, i realized two things. one, the level of surfing in japan is at an all time high. and two, i’m getting old.. haha….
**it was good to see old time friends and to make new friends. wanted to thank everybody in chiba for being so kind. hope to make it back there again soon…

good evening. went to claude maki’s event last night. it was freaking awesome. then had some oxtail soup. then headed to the biggest party in chiba. another awesome night. came back home to sleep and woke up freezing. yeah, it went from hot to cold. and all day was cold here in chiba. what a trip. what’s happening to our earth? scary… well, got millions of things to do and being on my computer isn’t one of them. i’m out of here…. have a great night….
**gosh, i’ve been thinking about something when i was downloading my photos and video from my 2 cameras just now. i’ll let hayato, zuccho, and kairi do my blog for the next few days. haha… i was checking out their blogs and they got some pretty cool photos. so want to know what we are doing here in chiba? CHECK OUT….

CLICK HERE FOR HATATO BLOG…

CLICK HERE FOR ZUCCHO BLOG..

CLICK HERE FOR KAIRI BLOG….
**and last, wanted to wish a happy birthday to vertra suncare president, bobby higa. can somebody please buy him a shot of “4 horsemen” for me? and tell him it’s from jacksan. kampai!!!

the past few days, this is what i’ve been waking up to. fresh air!!! gosh, jasmine has the million dollar 360 degree view…. oh, and you should see the sunsets…

this is shidashita beach in chiba. right now, this is the only sandbar working in chiba so everybody’s here. it’s been only chest high but super clean. the kids are ripping….

this asp pro junior contest is pretty big and attracts people from around the world. check out these groms that came all the way over from california. the kid in the middles name is kainoa. i was calling him john john. he couldn’t stop laughing…. he’s 10 years old, surfs good, does airs, fluent japanese and english. great future ahead for this kid….

this is maoh toda. maoh is the coolest guy. always smiling and always looks happy. he came over to the studio at the dove factory the other day for a photos shoot. it’s always good to see maoh….