KELLY SLATER VS. ANDY IRONS COMING SOON…. CLICK HERE FOR LIVE QUIKSILVER PRO FINAL DAY….

good morning. 5:45am and the waves should be going off today. i’m out of here. woke up at 4am and was thinking about my day yesterday. i feel like spreading the aloha…. have a nice day and see you in the water….
**woke up yesterday morning and checked my email. gosh, how photos can make your day…

remember i told you about my sick backdoor barrel 2 days ago? well, there wasn’t one photographer on the beach so i knew that nobody got that photo of one of my best waves of the season. but to wake up the next morning and see this, gosh, i was super duper happy. my friend neal miyake shot it with his fisheye. this wave was perfect and now this photo will be in my collection forever….

i got barreled all the way through and when i came out, the spit blew me off the board. dam it felt so good…. neal told me he got pounded after he snapped this shot. i believe. i’ve been there and it ain’t fun. but gosh, being on both sides, surfer/photographer, i’ve learned a lot. i learned as a surfer on how to connect with photographers to get the shot. and i learned as a photographer how hard water photographers jobs are. you have to put yourself in the most critical part of the wave to get the shot. you could get hit by the wave, or the surfers board, or the reef. it’s a dangerous job and i respect water photographers 100 times more than i ever did… thanks guys…

then my next email was from u-ske. u-ske sent me these photos from 2 days ago too. this is me sticking my camera in the barrel to get the shot. it’s amazing i didn’t get sucked over the falls. this wave is pretty freakin hollow and big….

this photo is pretty sick too. look how beautiful and blue it is. i feel like jumping in the ocean right now. and that’s what i’m going to do. thanks neal and u-ske for the awesome photos… and thanks for making my day. i owe you guys….

good evening. today is one of those days i appreciate living in hawaii and appreciate the aloha spirit of hawaii. i was swimming at ala moana park this afternoon. then i seen this guy with an underwater metal finder looking for rings and jewelry. so i swam out to him and asked him where he bought the metal detector. why? because i still miss my olympus camera and haven’t been sleeping well since i lost it in waikiki. i was looking all over for a metal detector rental but couldn’t find one. i told him my story and he told me, “let’s go find it”. what? yeah, he said he’ll go with me to waikiki and let me borrow his metal detector while he waits for me on the beach? what? he told me that he just wanted to do something good today. gosh, i was so happy…. so we jumped in my car and headed to waikiki….

i grabbed my fins, mask, metal detector and headed outside by canoes. i swam for a couple of hours looking my hardest. i was getting frustrated because there were so many waves and so many beginner surfers. it was pretty dangerous but i was trying so hard to find my precious camera. after getting run over about 5 times by longboarders, stand up paddlers, and the canoe, i decided it was time to go in. i didn’t find my camera today but i found something more meaningful. the ALOHA SPIRIT is still alive in hawaii. and it’s all because of hawaiians like this…

this is Trip. trip and i have a lot in common. we both like to watch “soko ga shiritai”, we both like japanese food, we both like japanese people, and we both speak japanese. trip was talking fluent japanese to me and i thought that was pretty cool. the only thing trip and i don’t have in common is that big puka shell necklace. i don’t have one like that. gosh, that’s the biggest and nicest puka shell necklace i’ve ever seen. and it’s not for sale…
although i didn’t find my camera today, i’m pretty much over it. i learned that there are other more important things in life. things like giving, sharing, and helping others. that’s the “ALOHA SPIRIT”. trip let me, a total stranger, borrow his $1200 metal detector. i offered him some money for helping me but he refused to take it. he did it from the heart. there aren’t too many people like that out there these days. there was a reason why i met trip today. i think it’s a sign telling me to be a better person and to help others. something i will do for the rest of my life to keep the “ALOHA SPIRIT ALIVE’…..
i gave trip a go-naminori sticker. so if your reading this trip, mahalo for today. your one good hawaiian. and next time i catch fish, i’ll give you a call….