oh sh!t, my old neighborhood is on FIRE!!

wow, my old neighborhood is on fire! i wasn't keeping up with this whole california fire 'cuz i thought there was only one north of LA but i guess there are multiple fires now. my friend from Fullerton called me and she was telling me how her house is filling up with smoke last night.

so i did a little search on google and what do you know, my old neighborhood is on fire.

i went to Cal Poly Pomona (cal state sysytem university) so i lived in Diamond Bar for a year or so in a nice house with bunch of friends. (red star with 1 in it on the map) (click on the map to enlarge) the red zone is on fire and blue zone is mandatory evacuation zone.

see the red star with 2? that's where snoop dogg lives in a nice gated community. you know that one song of him saying "living on the house over looking chino..." he wrote that right after he moved to this location. ha ha

so it looks like lot of places we used to hangout or drive thru are gone!! i'm really sad about this one biker bar in the canyon we used to hangout at. we used to go see bands play there and had many drunken nights hanging out with my friends.

i remember one time this huge biker guy was about to beat the shit out of a punk guy. i jumped in and tried to stop the whole thing. i grabbed the biker guys arm as he was ready to swing. his arm was huge! as wide as my waist! the guy was punching the punk guy while i was danggling on the biker's arm... ha ha

someone had to spray some mase all over that place to stop that one. since i was on the guys arm, i got sprayed pretty good.

aaahhh.... some good old memories! i'm assuming that place is gone now 'cuz it right in the middle of the red fire zone...

i hope everyone's ok over there.

HSA contest at Rennicks

today was a HSA (hawaii surfing association) contest at rennicks. it was overcast, kona wind, and the waves were small... i guess it's good practice for kids if they are thinking about doing the QS in the future. ha ha

i was thinking not many kids will be there since there are fun waves up in north shore but pretty much everyone was there.

because of the small waves, not too many people were paying attention to the contest, including myself... i never even went in the water to shoot. yes, i'm a lazy guy. ha ha

i just ended up taking some lifestyle shots instead. seth (moniz) won his division! here's tony (moniz) helping seth getting ready fot the final.

after a while kids started playing a game of kickball.

here's fisher.

kaulana (apo)

even kaulana's little sister nahe got in the game.

you know kids are having fun when the grown ups jump in to play too. i think tony was having more fun than any of the kids! ha ha

we were so into the game i didn't even noticed sister (kelia moniz) and tammy (moniz) was gone. when they came back, they came back with 4 brand new bikes! i guess fisher and the moniz family are staying in north shore for the rest of the season so they got the bikes to make their lives easier while they are up there.

josh (moniz) on his new bike.

here's sister giving nahe a ride on the new bike.

we all ended up stying there well after the contest just hanging out. it was a nice relaxing day.

we'll be all sh!tting sand tomorrow

north shore wasn't good enough for me to drive up and town was really crappy today but i got a call from buddy (wiggins) telling me makapu'u should be decent. since surfing is not allowed at makapu'u until 5pm, i took care of stuff during the day, picked up kuakini brothers and buddy and met up with moniz kids there.

checking out the surf.

waves weren't the best but looked fun enough so we got ready and off we go!

ha'a (aikau) just got there too. i guess this place was the place to be today!

i knew it was going to get dark quick so flash session today!

the waves were super tricky and mostly shore breaks but the kids were going for them tho!

here's seth realizing he wasn't gonna make the drop and jumping off of his board into about 6 inches of water. ouch!

kids were having a blast! like i said, it was about 6 inches of water were the waves were breaking! i guess they just love getting pounded... ha ha

micah (moniz)!

sister (kelia moniz) wasn't about to let the boys have fun by themselves.

the waves were just pounding on the shore and not many barrels today but brandon (kuakini) some how found a clean one.

ha'a (aikau) doing his thing!

buddy (wiggins) was popping some airs today like these waves weren't breaking on the shore.

i'm super surprised there were no broken boards today. we all got pounded so many times today i think we'll be all sh!tting sand tomorrow... ha ha. but i have to say, it was a really fun session!

i think it's full moon tonight. the moon was shining so bright but not bright enough to keep surfing...

it was getting dark, so time to go!
talk to you all later!

4th annual Da Hui / Wolfpak North Shore Beach Clean Up

today was the 4th annual Da Hui / Wolfpak North Shore Beach Clean Up at V-land in north shore. this thing gets bigger and bigger every year! really cool thing about this event is that everyone meets at V-land but there are trucks and vans take people to pretty much every beach in north shore.

look how crowded it was to sign in, get a free shirt and get trash bags and gloves.

girls from bowls were there early in the morning helping out with everything. makana and kahea.

elite element academy was out in full force! elite element academy is an online private school catered to athlelte kids who have contests all the time and have to travel during regular school year. it's perfect for these super busy kids to get great education while chasing their dreams!

speaking of busy people, bunch of pro surfers took their busy time off to help out with the cleanup too.

dustin barca, dan from elite element academy, and sunny garcia.

time to go clean up!

people were everywhere picking up trash today. this is pretty much how it looked on every beach in north shore today!
when i say everyone, i mean everyone! even little kids were helping out. whatever trash they found look like were way bigger than the girls!! ha ha

another cool thing about this event is they have a huge beach bbq party after the cleanup. they had good food, bands, bouncing castle, etc.

this thing was by far the kids' favorite!

the chefs! these guys had to prepare food for something like 300 people!!
on top of all this fun, they had TONS of stuff to give away. i'm talking boxes and boxes of cool stuff. kids were going nuts over them!

kala alexander making kids happy!

thanks Da Hui and Wolfpak for putting an awesome event! now the beaches are clean and there are tons of happy kids with new stuff!!

happy birthday kapu!

i went to kapu's (ping) birthday dinner tonight at bucca di beppo.

i kept telling kapu to sit in the middle but i guess he was more comfortable in the corner... ha ha

so what happens when this many guys get together and have some down time waiting for food?

we got some pepperoncini juice in a bowl and had zeke (lau) drink the whole thing for $10.

$$$


chug! chug!! chug!!!

$$$'s yours zeke!
man, his asshole's gonna hurt tomorrow when he goes to the bathroom! ha ha

i love how bucca serve everything family style. this way i get to try everything, instead of being stuck with what i order for myself!

got to have a cake for a birthday!

after dinner we all went up to Dave & Buster's. kapu's parents got all of us pre-charged game cards on top of paying for an awesome dinner! thanks brian and michelle!!

ready... set... go... gotta play the car racing game against your buddies if you go to D&B!

stop posing and race, kapu! ha ha

they got a surf game there too and of course these surfer kids were on that thing. i must say, they should all stick to real surfing 'cuz they sucked at this game. ha ha

here's an odd game... jump roping! who came up with this game?? everyone was really into this game tho. ha ha

happy birthday kapu! don't do anything stupid, you get to go to grown ups' jail now! ha ha

if you were there tonight and want the photos email (kazsano@gmail.com) me and i'll send you the photos.

Final day at Xcel Pro Sunset!

man, i had a looooooong day! it was the final day for Xcel Pro so i was at sunset beach early in the morning and the waves were going off!!

the weather was perfect, the waves were perfect and the surfers were ripping! every heat today was like watching a final. packed heats with all the familiar names.

i was a spotter most of the day so i really had no time to take any pictures.

in case you are thinking "what the f@ck's a spotter?", spotter basically spots the surfers paddling and let the judges know.

sounds simple but when a surfer paddle into a wave with another surfer already on the wave before him judges might miss the 2nd guy (well, sometimes 3rd and 4th guys too.). so yep i was there making sure the judges don't miss even a second of anyone's waves.

so i was going "yellow paddling off the point... yellow up and riding." "red padding in the back... red up and riding." etc. all day... so i really had no time to walk around or swim out to take any shots.

so here are some shots i managed to get today.

the judges making sure they are giving fair scores.

It's time to announce the winner!! the beach was crowded all day today.

and the winner is... PANCHO SULLIVAN!!

here's the result!
1st, Pancho Sullivan
2nd, Kamalei Alexander
3rd, Danny Fuller
4th Makua Rothman

Panco was surfing unreal all day and there was no doubt he was the winner after the final heat.

here's another angle. i thought not many people get to see from this angle so i ran up the tower to snap this one really quick!

i thought these photos show how Pancho is as a person and not just as a surfer. he's a dad and a real family guy.

i don't know if the kids knew exactly what was going on but they were super happy for their dad.

i'd be happy too if my dad handed me a over sized check for $10,000! ha ha

i had to help clean up and take down tents and tuff so i didn't get home til 830pm... super tired. i'm thinking of going up to north shore tomorrow but i have a feeling i'm not gonna wake up til late morning... so i guess i'll be up there in the afternoon. ha ha