good morning. got back late last night from a long day and a long road trip. been all over the place these past 2 weeks. scored good waves, good dives, good food, and good friends. yesterday was probably the longest day. it started out at 3am when k-san, kinsan, and i headed on a 3 hour drive to nanki, wakayama. the drive was through the mountains and i was in the back seat so i started getting car sick. finally arrived at this cool river mouth and the waves were going off. chest high and perfect but i was feeling so sick. watched the waves for a half an hour and decided to paddle out. the waves were super fun and the water felt good. surfed for an hour or so, jumped back in the car and drove down to kushimoto. it took an hour and on the way, we stopped in taiji city. yes, taiji, the city where the dolphin killings occur every year. it was a trip…. seeing the killings on video was one thing, but going to that very same bay yesterday was another. all kind of feelings were running though my head. i’ll get to that later but going there really opened up my eyes. there’s 2 sides to every story and the taiji dolphin killings is no different.
anyway, jumped in the water for a short dive. gosh, there is so much fish in wakayama. felt kind of weird because i seen some cool fish. i even speared a good size “kumu”. i must have seen 20 or so 3-4lbs kumu’s all over the place. that’s how it use to be in hawaii back in the day… anyway, after getting out of the water from the dive at 1:30pm, i jumped on a 3 hour train back to osaka. then transfered to the shinkansen on another 3 hour ride back to yokohama. then an hour back to shonan. so my 3am morning that started off in wakayama, ended at 11pm at night in shonan….. slept like a baby after that….
got some cool photos from this past trip and will get to them later… have a nice day….

this is the girls from “agua”. we always hit this bar when i come to wakayama. cool place to hang out for a few drinks…

this is mae-chan hiroko-san from “agua”….. oh, and that’s jack-san in the front on the far left…. the other two bottles were for “twiilights” in japan…

hard core diving japan style. gosh, i’m so lucky to be able to dive with these guys and learn some new tricks. i can’t wait to go again….

another shot from the cooler box. i wouldn’t mind becoming a japanese pro diver. how can i get my license? can i trade my jpas pro license for it? haha… just joking….

what’s up everyone, for years and years and time after time, not too many people believe me when i tell them that the waves get big in japan. well, if you know where to go, you can get pretty solid hawaiian style surf here. check these photos out thats coming out in the next Surf1st magazine…. oh, kin-san took these….

this wave is somewhere down south. i’ve been there before and i refuse to say where it is. find it for yourself….. and when you do, hold on to your balls….

no, this is not huge tavarua. no, this is not hawaii outer reefs. and no, this is not tow-in. this is shimpei horiguchi paddling in on a moster in japan. i remember i called kinsan from hawaii and he just got out of the water. he told me the waves were 15′. i didn’t believe him then and i still don’t believe him now. this is not 15′, this is more like 20’….. shimpei’s the man. in fact, i’m heading up to nanki this morning to shimpei’s home town. going to check him out and give him a pat on the back. fricken good job. making the japanese big wave surfers look good…..