Heavywater July issue

i took care of Heavywater magazine stuff in the morning today, again... this thing's starting to feel like a real job with deadlines and hours infront of my computer.

i posted the July issue on their site so check it out! www.heavywatermag.com
i got plenty shots in this issue but i gotta say 2 page spread of Derek as the opening pages for the gallery section's pretty sweet!

After taking care of all that i picked up Alyssa and went to Kewalos.
another small day but had fun surfing with the kids. i like surfing with them 'cuz all i have to do is tell them i won't take their pictures unless they give me waves. they pretty much give me any waves i want. ha ha

McDonald's on Fire!!

What a day i had... i worked on the computer doing heavywater magazine stuff in the morning and went to the beach. the waves were 0-1 ft... kindda weird to see south shore not breaking cuz we had waves for a month straight.

too small to shoot, so it was time to surf! i surfed the tiny waves for a couple of hours.

after i surfed i was on my way to a McDonald's to meet up with derek when i got a call from bernie (heavywater editor) telling me there were some more stuff need to get done. my plan was to get food at McDonald's and head back home to my computer.

i ordered my food and was hanging out with derek waiting for my food when the workers there started telling us we all have to go outside. we thought they were kidding at first but we saw smoke coming out of the kitchen!

we go to the outside and i had to bust out my camera phone to take some photos.
fire fighters got there fast and they were on it!
the whole time all i could think was "where's my food?!?! i paid already! Do i get my money back?!?"

so i was stuck there for a long time with no food in my hand and less money in my wallet. i finally got my car out and had to come home since i had some work to do...

what a day... it was kindda funny but i want my food or money!!

i took a little video clip with my phone. check it out!



i love my phone, thanks MOBI! it got everything i need to document my life in this tiny device. ha ha

Camping at Kualoa Beach

i went camping with some buddies at Kualoa beach over the weekend. i got there kind of late because i had to do the MOBI thing. so by the time i got there the tents were pitched and drinks were flowing!

i knew i was going to be wasted so i didn't bring my camera. i took some photos using my camera phone.

we decided to play some old fashioned drunken wiffle ball. we were having a great time until some kids from other camp came over and took over our game. it was all good fun tho!
we were just drinking and eating the whole night. this is the aftermath of close to 150 beers. unidentified passed out... ha ha

good thing we don't camp often, if we did i'll be dead in a month... ha ha

had a great time. thanks tomo for organizing the whole thing and happy birthday nainoa!

i'll post some more photos as soon as i get them from other people who were there with their cameras.

MOBI Kapahulu Store Grand Opening

July 5th was Mobi's Kpahulu store grand opening with the team. they had 98.5 fm there entertaining us on the mic , free hotdogs, shave ice, a surfboard giveaway, and the team autographing.


here's the team! (l) Derek Wong, (c) Matty Costa Jr., and (r) Alisha Gonsalves
here's the surf team and the mobi retail team together.


Darren Tatsuno surfboard giveaway! the board looked like a super fun board. too bad i couldn't win it... Darren's a sick shaper. not only he shapes boards, he's professional surfer in Japan. here's Alisa Oshini from Mobi who we deal with and Darren.it was a nice chill day. my friend Holly stopped by with TONS of Cold Stone ice cream for all of us cuz she's in charge at Kapahulu Cold Stone! thanks Holly!!

i went camping at Kualoa after the event. i'll post another blog from that later!!

Happy 4th of July!!

Happy 4th of July everyone! what a great day i had. i slept in today and drove myself down to Bowls parking lot. man, the place was packed!! i was thinking maybe i have to go home and get my moped since there were no parking. luckily one of my friends was leaving after surfing so he gave me his spot!

the surf was still going off. i think it's been 2 weeks straight of great surf here in town.

it was time to surf. it was soooo much fun! the best part was since there were no parking, it was empty. i surfed with only 4 other guys for hours!

i came in and everyone was BBQing getting ready for the fireworks at Magic Island.

here's bowls crew! these guys know this spot better than anyone out there. it's amazing to watch these guys surf bowls.

Here's Clyde BBQing. this was just the beginning of it, you should've seen all the food they had!
i got my skateboard out and cruzed around to say hi to everyone. all the regulars were hanging out and BBQing.

here's Makana, Kahea and He'e Nalu enjoying a day at the beach!
surf, eat, surf and eat again! what a day!

here's Duke and Kevin. duke can surf on anything. i've seen him out with a bodyboard, shortboard, longboard, SUP, and even on a canoe! the craziest part is, he rips on everything. Kevin was going nuts cooking up some food. i had so much food today i think i can go with out eating for a week!

it was time for the fireworks. the brave few adventured out to the ocean. i changed into my trunks and followed them out with my camera. if you thought you had the best seat, think again. these kids had THE BEST seat!

it was awesome! i can feel the explosions in the water cuz we were so close to them.

thanks for a great day everyone! happy 4th of july!!

i hope it's like this all season!!

I had such a great day yesterday i decided to repeat the sessions!

first, off to Big Rights! when i got there Nick and Joel were waiting for me already. so we paddle out and we started working.

here's nick doing his thing! joel was spraying buckets and sliding his tail around all session!

Jason Shibata came out after picking up a couple of guys from Japan at the airport.
after taking a lunch break and a nice talk with Jim at Tropical Blends (a sick local surf shop, check it out!) i went over to Kewalos for an evening session with Derek.

it so much harder to shoot with flash cuz i only get one shot per wave.

i like this shot cuz of the crazy lighting. the sun was about to set but had enough light to give the white water a nice glow. too bad there are too much spray on derek's face...

i was tripping out on this one huge cloud cuz it almost look fake just like if someone photoshopped it in!

time to go in cuz it was getting dark fast but it's so hard to leave when derek keeps throwing his fins out like this.
we are having a great south shore season so far in hawaii. i hope it's like this all season!!

Morning and Evening Session Today!

Had some great waves in town today! woke up early and went shooting with Nick Mita and Joel Centeio at Big Rights. when we got there it was over cast and not the ideal background to shoot, but the sky cleared out as we were getting ready!

after less than an hour in the water my lens (70 - 200mm) stopped focusing... with my equipment in the housing i had to come in while the guys were ripping.

i got a few good shots tho.

here's joel doing a powerful cut back.

here's nick's crazy fins out air turn! (ha ha, i have no idea any of these crazy turns are called.)

i went home to figure out what was wrong with the lens but i couldn't figure it out. i just gave up and didn't mess with it for about 30 minutes but i tried it again it worked!! i hope it doesn't happen again.

in the evening time i took my wide angle lens to go some flash photography at kewalos. waves were still good and the wind switched to nice light offshore.

Derek (Wong) and Alyssa (Wooten) are back from cali so i got to shoot them tonight.

here's derek ripping as always. i shoot with him a lot so we connect all the time! i just pointed at the lip right above me and derek hit the perfect spot for me to get this shot. i got a sick shot of him in the july issue of heavywater magazine so make sure pick one up when it comes out!

here's alyssa with a sick sunset. it's nice to see her back in hawaii. she had a super busy month. HASA states contest here in hawaii, japan trip for RLM guys and cali for NSSA championship. shiiiiit, when i was 17 i was never that busy...

i think all the kids are back from cali now so i'm gonna be busy again shooting them all the time.

i had another great day! i bet tomorrow's gonna be a great day too!