2010 Gene Higa Memorial

Just back from filming at the Gene Higa Memorial Spearfishing Tournament held at Puiki Pavillion in Wailua. Lots of good times and lots of people showed up this year. Clif Cheng aka "Voice" on the left is the man who does all the layouts for HSD Magazine and is a very talented guy. Thanks Clif for all your hard work!

All the bruddah's was out representing their ohana from the Big Island to Kauai to the Westside of Oahu they came. Conditions were rough this year but all the divers managed to return safely.

Calvin Lai and Hanalei Adric took home 1st place with this 19 lb. kahala and 66 lb. Ulua. They both were sick with a cold and managed to win the whole event.

After the dive competition Chef Nico and reigning Iron Chef, Kimi Werner went to town for 1 hour and created 3 dishes each using the secret ingredients of "Omilu, Nenue, and Ta'ape".

After our judges deliberated the score differed in 2 points, with a new Iron Chef, Nico Chaize! Congratulations Nico and to all the divers for their support!

Blessing from Above

Today was one of those magical days. I had a few hours to spare so headed out with my friends for a quick jump in the ocean to catch a couple fish. As soon as we arrived at our spot we jumped in and were blessed with this double rainbow. Was it a sign from above?

James aka "McGuyver" was on board and his eagle eye spotted the fish from above. For those of you who know James, he is Da Man! He put on the mark and within a few minutes we saw fish:)

Dr. Erick Itoman went down deep on a dive to investigate some movement and found this nice Uku cruising below. He came up and I saw his shot was solid and the fish wasn't going anywhere but in the boat. We were targeting pelagics and hoping to see a ono (wahoo) come by and one did. These fish are like ghosts, they appear from nowhere and just show up out of the blue. When I saw it I must have been real happy and smiled as my mask started filling up with water. I angled my head so I could see above the waterline in my mask and dove down and took my best shot.

Luckily it stuck in the mid section as my float took off. I didn't know how good my shot was since my mask was flooding so I resurfaced, went for ride, and gingerly brought the fish in as my dive partner Erick gave him the second shot.

Came home and weighed in at 40 lbs. We were blessed from above!

A day at the bowl

Today was so hot, I had to cool off. Met up with Kirby, Tokura-san, Mahina, and Maeda-san for a dip in the "bowl", Ala Moana bowls that is. It was good to see Tokura-san again. He was on our trip to Indo and he was ripping it up!

Surf was crowded at first with over 30 guys out then for some reason half of them went in. I couldn't believe it! So I caught a few more, a few more, until I couldn't catch any more, then went in. Surf should hold in the small shoulder high range for a few more days so get out there if you can.

Summer time

Good Morning! Small summertime waves on the south shore today. I think it peaked last night at 11:32 pm to be exact and on the way out, so catch it while you can. If you are lucky you can get a shoulder high wave somewhere. Winds will continue to be trades all week with a slight boost on Thursday into the weekend. Lots to do today so off to work I go!

Wet 'n' Wild

Today was my first time to the Hawaii Water Park "Wet n Wild". I was surprised to see how many people are in this park. Lines were forming at 10:30 am. with costs around $42 to get in.

I knew there was no diving so went straight for the make believe beach. Waves were onshore and small and not-rideable so...

Looked for the "Flowrider" ride. I took off my shirt, went up the ramp and the guy in the yellow said you need to pay an additional $12 to ride. What? We are so lucky we can catch waves for free. I watched a few guys in action but this wave wasn't barreling so I decided to go...

play with my friends above on the kiddie rides. Dawn (center), Kai, & Maika were having so much fun in the water that it made my day. They charging the slides and Maika (front right) even went head first down the slide into the water. Watch out for this young diver will be going down deep soon.

Eddie Did Go!

Last night was a big day for our friends, Eddie and Brenda as they celebrated their wedding on the eastside! Eddie finally made the big step and said I do to his lovely bride Brenda.

Lots of ono Hawaiian food, including poke, kona crab, and poi. I ate so much that I need to get some exercise in today.

The group "10 feet" was in the house and "Drez" was rocking the neighborhood on his guitar. Last time in the Mentawais, all the surfers were tripping out on this guys talent.

Of course, Jeff "travolta" Mizuno was cutting up the rug, with beer in one hand practicing his barrel poses. All these guys are gearing up for their upcoming trip to Timor this year.

Fishing Tales

Memorial day is coming up and I remember my first bait ball I saw on that day, it was incredible. Thousands of little fish in a tornado shaped form being forced to the surface by hungry predators.

So I dove in the middle and larger fish began swarming around me. I didn't know which fish to shoot then I woke up from the movie I was watching! Inspired and ready to dive, I checked the weather and today looked like the best day to try and get some dinner for the rest of the week.

Kirby was still jetlagged from our recent trip to Indonesia but always ready to dive. He lined up on a nice amberjack and pow! Right in the kisser...A few onos came by and smiled at us:) Kirby reloaded, lined up but his safety was on:( I hate when that happens...They were not that interested in us but then another amberjack came to investigate...

I could touch him with my spear and my trigger accidently went off and bam! Then a few nice ukus came by as we chummed and got a few for the steamer...can't wait!

By the end of today, my cooler was complete with a mix bag of fish for my friends and family so everyone went home happy with some good fishing tales to share.

Kiribati Here We Come!

Word has it that Air Pacific will begin flying back to Kiribati "Christmas Island" this month so I can't wait to go back and dive there again! We stay at this beach house which has the perfect set up for divers or fisherman. Air-conditioned rooms, maids and cooks, and best of all, right on the beach!

My last trip we saw so many fish it was a divers dream. From all the variety of reef fish to some nice pelagics like wahoo and yellowfin came in range.

This Red Roi is one of the local favorites and striking red color appears when you spear it. Here my friend Sean Masaki showed us how to do it.

These outrigger boats are the way to go! Lot's of leg room for 6 divers with all our gear. Let me know if you would like to join us on our next Red Sea Ocean Adventure to Christmas Island!

Tomodachi's for life

Every trip I go on people always ask how was the surf or diving? It's all good, but the more important question is who did you go with? Lots of times we meet new first time travelers and on this trip I got to meet lots of new people. Kosei joined up by himself, got the pass from his family, never went spearfishing, but loved to surf.

He bought a new 100 cm Omer speargun, extra shafts, and was so stoked to go diving with us. I could feel his energy as he listened intently to our instructions on what to do and what not to do. We taught him how to breath up, relax, hold the gun and on his second drop he speared his first fish! I can guarantee his life will never be the same.

I've heard so much about "Dove" wetsuits also that when I heard Tokura-san was on board, I was humbled to meet him. I was a little embarrassed wearing my worn-down, ripped up wetsuit but maybe some day I will be able to purchase a wetsuit from him. They use the best quality rubber and all the top Japanese surfers use "Dove" wetsuits. He loved his sashimi and we were stoked to be able to celebrate his birthday with him in the Mentawais. Check out www.dovewet.com for more info.

Mentawai Surf Trip

Day 1 arrival in Padang, Indonesia. Weather was hot and humid and I met up with our group of 13 other travelers from Hawaii and Japan. Our game plan was to surf, dive, film, explore for 11 days and everyone was super excited to get on the boat.

We arrived in the Mentawais and for those of you have been there before, it has the most beautiful sunsets with spectacular colors. We surfed 3 spots on the first day to warm up then heard a big swell was coming in 2 days...

So we motored to HT's or Lances Right on day 3 and no boats were there and waves were going off! 6-8 ft with outer reef take offs, doubling up into these sick hollow ledges. We got barreled out of our minds and took thousands of photos and hours of video capturing every good wave that came through. I have surfed this spot on every Mentawai trip and by far is one of the best right handers in the world. If this was backdoor or big rights there would be 100 guys out easy, but it was just us and some surfers from the surf camp.

We also got to dive in between surf sessions and catch some fresh fish for our pupu hours. They had this surgeon type fish similar to the opelu kala but looks like a herepoti (tahitian fish) which I really enjoyed eating so on this dive and got some for the group. More to come on this boat trip later...