The Best Medicine

i woke up this morning still feeling sick... shiiiiit.

i stopped by at bowls for macy's e-series contest to see how things are going there.

the waves came up but the side wind was super strong. guys were ripping out there. i didn't go out in the water today but i'll be in shooting tomorrow. i was there to just show face and shoot some lifestyle shots of the competitors.


here's kekoa (koa) cazimero and his little brother booboo right before koa's heat. koa just came back from a bali trip. i've heard they scored some sick waves. can't wait to see them in mags!


after my stop at bowls i went to tropical blends to hangout and talk before i headed over to kewalos.

waves were 3ft and super fun looking when i got there. so i got my camera ready for a flash session. as soon as i got in the water the wind switched to onshore... just my luck. guys were still ripping tho.

matty (costa) and ezekiel (lau) were out, derek came out little after and geoff and dana joined us little after that.

matty was out there with no leash but he was still surfing all out. if i was out there with no leash today i'd be just going straight make sure i don't lose my board...
too bad it was his back side... this shot would've been so cool frontside, instead i got an ass shot. ha ha

zeke was ripping as usual.
he was wearing a new pair of short trunks and wanted to show off his legs. don't look too close, you might find his nuts hanging out. ha ha jk

derek and i shoot together often so we connect all the time. too bad you can't see his face on this shot tho. oh yeah and yes, he did land this one.

we do connect but the waves were little weird today so we were little off. he landed on me twice today. my leg's still hurting from hitting his side.

derek landed on me right after this shot too. i went under as deep and fast as i could but i guess i wasn't deep and fast enough... nothing serious tho. we were laughing right after.

geoff amazes me, he can short and longboard really well. i don't know how he does it. today he came out with his shortboard. super stoked 'cuz i didn't have any shots of him shortboarding.
is it me or his left arm's bent all weird... ha ha

i love shooting dana 'cuz she's always smiling and having so much fun! watching her surf makes me want to ditch my camera and go surf.


still feeing like shit but i'm so glad i went out and shot today. ocean water took care of my sore throat and sinus pretty well. it's the nature's best medicine!

A Photo Session with Kylen Yamakawa

i'm sick... i woke up this morning with a massive headache , sore throat, running nose and super sore body. i knew i was getting sick so i was taking air borne for the past few days but that shit didn't work...

i was going to shoot in the morning but i decided to rest.

after a nice long rest i met up with kylen (yamakawa) in the afternoon to go shoot. he's been surfing really good. he even won the hasa states in june.

when i got to the beach he was all ready to go waiting for me.
weird weather today. it's all stormy looking on one side and sunny on the other.

when we first got out there, the waves were JUNK!! had some nice size sets but breaking all weird. we decided to just shoot some underwater shots for a while.

good thing we stayed out! after an hour or so the waves cleaned up and the sun came out! it was time to work.

here are a few shots from the session.

do you think his sponsors' gonna be happy with this shot?? ha ha

he does one of the sickest cutbacks among the kids.

i love the late afternoon lighting. it lights up the board super nice!

i'm glad we went out even tho it was super junk and i was sick. you never know what you gonna get. over all it was a great session. thanks kylen!

T&C Grom Contest and My New Hero!

Today was a contest at queens in waikiki, T&C Grom Contest!

it's a super cool contest because you cannot be ranked in your division. meaning if you do other contests like HASA and if you are ranked in it, you cannot surf that division.

this rule invites so many kids who don't usually do contests and make this a relaxed fun contest for all.

beautiful weather and the waves were perfect sizes for these kids. well, to some kids some waves were double overhead since kids were all so tiny. ha ha

here's a girl ripping. can you imagine how she's gonna be surfing in 10 years? i better make sure i'm nice to all the kids so they'll give me a wave or 2 when they grow up.

here's seth (moniz) on a nice size wave. because of the rule he was surfing in a longboard division. seth can surf!! he's beating older and bigger kids all the time on his shortboard.

seth is the youngest of the moniz family of 5 kids. they are all great surfers.

the parents (tony and tammy) owns a surf school, faith surf school, in waikiki. if you want to learn from the best, give them a call.

the kids (Micha, Kelia, Isaiah, Josh and Seth) are all rippers. check out their family blog and kelia has her own blog too.

now, i've saved the best for last. my new hero Miss Nahe Apo!! she's the younger sister of kaulana. kaulana's been surfing for a while and doing really well in contests. Apo family's another super nice family i've met.

ok, back to my hero nahe. it was nahe's first contest! she's always at the beach hanging out with us so it was super cool to see her in a contest.

a pre heat talk with her coach dad.

check out the sticker on her board. "WHAT!" classic! ha ha
here's the first wave in her first contest of her life! look at the size of the wave, it's gotta be 3 times her hight!!
she came in 6th and went home with a trophy and a goodie bag full of prizes. i'm super proud of her. good job nahe! remember, when you get older make sure you give me a wave or 2 if you see me out there. ha ha

Mr. and Mrs. Ron Peterson!

today was ron and leila's wedding day! ron and leila are the owners of BayVI (pronounced basics). they are working super hard all the time i don't know how they had any time to plan their wedding... the wedding was awesome!

i was running late this morning and guess what? TRAFFIC!! why is it whenever i NEED to be somewhere there's traffic? shiiiiiit. i got to the wedding just in time tho.
my buddy alex and i had to get the newly weds some yager bombs! leila didn't want to take the shot but she downed that thing like a champ! i think she wanted another one after... ha ha


we all wanted leila to smear the cake all over ron's face but she never did... she's too nice. ha ha

what a great wedding! had a great time and they looked super happy together. congratulation mr. and mrs. ron peterson!!

Quiksilver Shop Challenge At Bowls

Sorry, i was soooo tired i passed out early last night. so here's my blog for yesterday, 7-11-08.

it was quiksilver shop challenge at bowls! this contest is super cool. 7 shops from hawaii compete against each other. each team got 2 shop workers and 2 shop sponsored surfers. quiksilver holds this contest all over the states and the winners from each contest get to compete against each other in california later this year!

here's CJ Kanuha from team Pacific Vibrations. he took this right and just killed it!

Dustin Cuizon from team T&C. dustin just rips! i think he's average score for the whole day was mid 9s how's that!

the cool part of the contest was my buddy geoff was competing for team t&c too! since he works at t&c he was there as a shop worker. it's awesome cuz he rips too! he got 2nd in shop worker individual portion of the contest too. siiiiiick!!

and the winner is... team T&C!!

not a bad day at the beach for geoff! you should've seen all the stuff he got. i'd say they were worth around $400! oh yeah and he got a $75 gas card for he's individual part of the contest.

dana was there to support geoff and check out her shirt. people at Eco Systems made her the shirt. classic!



i love contests at bowls 'cuz i can be super lazy and catch rides from the water patrol on a jetski! here's rocky giving me and dana a ride back. thanks rocky!! (photo: bernie baker)

Shop tour!!

Good thing i called to check if the contest was on this morning cuz it was canceled again! i didn't have to drive down there to find out like i did yesterday.

so i took care of some computer stuff and a negotiation with alex from local motion about prices of my photos. after all that i went to a tour of shops where my friends are working.

1st stop, Tropical Blends.
it's located on queen street ewa of ward ave. this place is a real surf shop! tons of boards and equipments and not many other junk like shirts and stuff. the owner jim is the man! super cool guy and he sponsor bunch of kids and is always willing to help whenever i need help. you gotta check out this place for sure!

derek's been working here for a while now. when i got there derek was cleaning like a mad man! dusting and wiping everything. noticed the simple green cleaner? i told you, a real surf shop! care about the environment too.
talked to them for a while and i was off to my 2nd stop, Eco Systems in ward warehouse where Dana works.
i guess dana didn't want to be photographed... ha ha

if you want some cool shirts, this is the place to go. they carry tons of different suf company's stuff and they got some cool stuff of their own. here's one of their designs, a peeing boy. i love it!
i made dana stand next to a good looking mystery man with a cool shirt. you better watch out geoff! ha ha

3rd stop, T&C in ward warehouse few doors down from Eco Systems where Geoff's a manager. i guess i don't have to tell you about t&c, everyone knows t&c. if you need anything surf related, this is the place to go!
here's geoff looking important! ha ha
he had a crazy day. he worked at UH (university of hawaii) in the morning, and t&c right after that. i think total of 14 hours of working today! he's nuts...

after my tour of the shops i met up with derek, who just got off from work, to get some Acai cups from jamba juice. i had a coupon for buy 1 get 1 free. what a deal!
derek and i went surfing at kewalos for the rest of the day. another nice day!

quiksilver shop challenge at bowls tomorrow! this one, i know they are going to have it so early morning tomorrow!

I'm Gonna Call First Tomorrow

my original plan for the day was to go to the Macy's E-series (ASP WQS 1 star event) and shoot some lifestyle shots.

i picked up Alyssa and we were off to Bowls to the contest. when we got there we see the judges tower but it was empty... i should've called and checked before we went there 'cuz they canceled the contest today because of the small waves... good thing it was in town. i didn't have to waste that much gas, specially with the gas price around $4.39 per gallon these day!

so we left bowls and off to kewalos to surf.

alyssa drove my car to kewalos. she got her permit a while ago and is ready to take her driving exam.
she's driving way better now than she did when she first got her permit. now i can actually relax in the passenger seat. she hasn't hit anything in a while! ha ha

we got to kewalos and ran into kirby. he's a pro surfer in japan, an avid diver, and a photog. oh yeah and he owns a site Go-Naminori! (naminori means surfing in japanese) talk about a guy who does everything and does everything well. check out his site! alyssa and sister (kelia) got their blogs on his site too.
kirby was there to shoot some photos of japanese pro surfers who are here for macy's e-series.

the waves were small again but another fun day of surfing!

i just checked the macy's e-series hotline and it says the contest's on tomorrow. i'm gonna call first tomorrow before i drive over there. ha ha