{"id":90858,"date":"2018-05-27T15:31:24","date_gmt":"2018-05-27T06:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/?p=90858"},"modified":"2018-05-27T15:31:24","modified_gmt":"2018-05-27T06:31:24","slug":"a-star-was-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/?p=90858","title":{"rendered":"A Star was Born&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/IMG_0225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-90860\" \/><\/p>\n<p>i&#8217;ve been following this kid with my camera lens since he was a little kid.  i took thousands and thousands of photos because i knew he was going to be a star someday.  it all started off in Waikiki for Seth Moniz.  the cutest kid out there&#8230;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/IMG_0218.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-90859\" \/><\/p>\n<p>while all the other kids didn&#8217;t want to leave their comfort zone at Queens, Seth was the only one that jumped in my car to surf shark infested, heavy localized, sharp reef Kewalo&#8217;s.  this was actually his first session so shot it.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/IMG_4965.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-90861\" \/><\/p>\n<p>fast forward 15 years and now we&#8217;re at the biggest WQS 6000 event in Japan.  the whole world&#8217;s watching this one as Seth Moniz was the talk of the event.  did the biggest air, only one with a 10 point ride, and the underdog that took down giants on his way to a 2nd place finish.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/IMG_4971.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"481\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-90865\" \/><\/p>\n<p>i just sit back, watch, laugh, and get more nervous than him.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/IMG_4999.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-90863\" \/><\/p>\n<p>i took this photo when Seth came in from the Final.  he was so disappointed in himself because he knew he could have won.  i almost cried when i gave him a hug.  through the good and bad, Seth knows i&#8217;m always with him.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/IMG_5004.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-90864\" \/><\/p>\n<p>i know Seth was thinking things through in his mind.  and he will take that experience with him into the next contest in South Africa.  go boy!<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/IMG_0240.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-90862\" \/><\/p>\n<p>to me, Seth is still my little nephew.  he&#8217;s just gotten bigger, but his heart is still as gold.  all this confidence will take him higher and higher.  i just feel sorry for the competitors that get in his way.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-27-at-8.08.52-AM-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"355\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-90866\" \/><\/p>\n<p>as for Uncle Kirby, i came here to watch the contest, but i also came here to foil.  i want to ride waves in Japan like i&#8217;ve never ridden them before.  i&#8217;ll be here for a week so please let me know if there&#8217;s a wave in your neighborhood.  but my first foil session in Chiba was totally amazing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>i&#8217;ve been following this kid with my camera lens since he was a little kid. i took thousands and thousands of photos because i knew he was going to be a star someday. it all started off in Waikiki for Seth Moniz. the cutest kid out there&#8230; while all the other kids didn&#8217;t want to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-90858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-kirby-blogs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/go-naminori.com\/kirbyfukunaga\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}