Ok-Ok...so you may have read or you may have heard if you lived near by that I already spent about 3hrs typing up a Hawaii story which was lost to a power outage on Australia Day the other week. The good news is at least Australia Day has not been lost to the social justice warrior politically correct leftards that plague our society today, bad news is my story was...till now haha

The journey began packing my 6 foot hypto rip in a dayrunner underneath a 7 foot double bubble wrapped delta into a 7 foot Squid triple coffin and flying Singapore Airlines to Haneda airport. When you go to Japan & I mean you gotta go sometime coz its bloody good value. Make sure you fly into Haneda, not Narita. Narita is like 90 mins on the other side of Tokyo bay and costs extra time/money to get to Tokyo. Then again Chiba over there has waves & you guys are surfers...thats true I guess, however although its totally worth taking a board to Japan between say August & October. Its not gonna be a surf trip & Chiba shouldn't be your destination. Better off tieing in seeing some stuff along the way like Izu Peninsular/Izu Islands, Wakayama prefecture or epic Shikoku. Not to say Chiba is not nice, but it can get crowded.

That all said I arrived in tokyo & paid $16 per day to leave by boards at Haneda airport storage. December to March is very cold in Japan, its winter. But unlike here in Asutralia. Japan get their waves around summer from offshore Typhoons. If you lived there you'd surf in summer & snowboard in winter and it would have been a great time to go snowboarding in Japan when I was there. Unfortunately I was banned...I received a really bad concussion & experienced a couple of seizures from hitting my head on icy snow early April 2017 at Resutso (near Niseko) and my mum in law didn't want me to go, she was worried I'd kook out and not make the family trip to Hawaii. I thought it was sweet, happy to respect it & well all my snowboarding gear was at her house too lol, so yep no snowboaring. Sidenote - I met a pretty cool chick from Perth at Smith's Beach about 4 months ago who was leaving for Rusutso the next week to be a ski instructor. That was her thing & that was hard restraining the froth for a quick quick snowboard mission with a friend in Tokyo who was also saying hey lets go. But haha nahhh the froth for Hawaii was way-way higher.

Thus...Tokyo was...hmmm, lets define it as say a dining experience. Friends & I did 3 Yakinku (Japanese BBQ) & 2 Korean BBQ with a few beers ; D I did one trip to browse Akihabara, played some epic VR games. The day we left for Honolulu we had a clear view of Mt Fujisan & I felt guilty for not getting out & about a bit more. Somtimes your body gets a little more invoved in your decision processes due to how your aclimatize. The contrast from Oz was like 24c to 8c. There are times that contrast less, Christmas time is not one of those times.Better times are like. There are better times. Like Oz to Japan at the end of march with the cherry blossoms flowering, beautiful clear days a little cooler than home making it easy to travel or say Indo in Feb, man I wish I had a trip booked hope someone out there does...but anyway, Hawaii.

We booked our flight to Japan about this time last year & waited till about the middle of 2018 until the rest of the family were locked into specific dates. This trip was to celebrate my wifes parents retiring, essentially shutting down their Ma/Pa supermarket they'd operated the last 40 years with my father in law heading off to the markets for meat/veg at 4am, opening 7am & shutting at 8pm (7 days a week). For 40 years with only a few days off each year. An epic achievment, awesome beautiful people enriched with some kinda super powers. We were like are they gonna do it, they'd talked about it for years & it hadn't happened. We kinda doubted it would happen, but then it did. We could understand that this was a buisiness they had built from scratch & operated for so long. They felt like they were indebted to their clients for all the years & even to this day we're unsure if they will reopen at a diminished amount of stock coz its on the cards...but anyway we booked Hawaiin Airlines, Haneda to Honolulu within the dates of our Singapore flights (Perth/Haneda), don't do it that way its heaps pricier & Hawaiin Airlines charge you $150us for boards (not if from Australia). Great airline, just make sure you check their surfboard charges, I paid $300us extra. Luckily it was per board bag & not per board but it surprised me coz there is no charge from Oz, I farked up not checking from Japan.

Haneda airport is rocks, easy transportation to/from and when we were leaving I was hungry (& thirsty). I had a big plate of combination Sushi for $18 and 2 x pints @ $7 each. Japan has really good airport prices, can say same for Narita, Osaka & Wakayma. Hopped on Hawaiin Airlines at 2030 for a 9hr redeye flight to Honolulu. Interesting fact: from Japan I was arriving the same day I left even though it was the next day, but visaversa on the way back.

Tropical Studios at Marine Surf Waikiki where we were staying the first week were supposed to be picking us up but their car broke down. We caught 2 taxi vans for 1/2 the price. I'd say just catch a taxi when you get there, plenty of taxis. Marine Surf Wikiki are a few mins walk behind the Sheralton, fully self contained unit with kitchen, big fridge & even esky, beach chairs. Not sure on other rooms on level 12, we were woken at 0430 by reversing rubbish trucks each. The beeping reverberates around the concrete Wikiki jungle & we're not used to the noise. A lot cheaper than other options between Christmas/NY's & a great location. Sheralton is uber expensive but we had bro/sis in law plus parents staying there so we spent most of our time at the Sheralton sleeping in the olds room with 3 double beds overlooking Wikiki beach. Really nice view, plenty of restauraunts. If possible though, if your there for surfing during "winter" (lol) get up to the North Shore ASAP. Wikiki can be fun, but thats not what your there for.

We checked out the East coast, trekked up to Diamond Head & had great food/drinks. But it wasn't until we did a run up to Makaha that I got some good waves. Predominately known as a longboard wave, it was a fun wave on the hypto rip sitting out the back waiting for the sets with an ex local bloke that had moved to Cali, I asked what went wrong, he said following the almighty $ as an architect. His olds still live locally so he gets back every year. The other bloke was good to watch, local LB'er. Most waves took off in reverse, smashed it off the top, figure 8 cutback, rince repeat...I was told the swell had dropped heaps & days before it was breaking 2 to 3 times further out. Not bad considering I was getting 50m to 100m rides on my 6 foot hypto rip.

The backdrop of Makaha while sitting out back was beautiful. I said to the bloke that had grown up there it looked like a drawing, it really did to me. Just didn't look real & he said it looked like most Pacific Islands. So probably my inexperience in the region, but wow. You have the super easy point break, epic scenery & although there are a few people out getting waves was pretty easy if you were able to read the lineup & go some middle range waves. Magic place.

The next day or 2 we sight see'd, I got stoked over my 7 year old nieces stoke of catching waves in Wikiki. It was really small & soft. Perfect for kids. Or you would think, she had had enough of her $20 boogie board sold by the Sherlton "Lawsons" and preffered her blow up tube. I'd chilled out since she had switched to it & after one wave she like just slipped through under water. I was watching, but took a couple of seconds to realize she didn't pop back up like before. I grabbed her & she coughed up water. Damn Tokyo girl haha, not used to waves. Scared the hell outa me & I was worried she would be traumatised to swim in the ocean. She was scared to begin with coz she was worried about getting stung by jellyfish. But she came good & had a great time....but this is a probalem these days, people getting educated by leftards in regards to the oceans creatures. We need to be wary of what become the norms................................................................................

Errrrm....transport, we rented a Nissan Quest. Huge car, you could have 4 boards & 4 people no worries comfortably. More with sacrifice. We picked it up in Wikiki & dropped it at Honolulu airport which was no pronlem at all, quick/easy (honolulu).

Did a few drives but you could do without your own car if you stayed in Wikiki area, but I'd highly recommend not doing that.

Kalani Hawaii Private Lodging on the North Shore (Behind Rocky Point Lefts) was our next (best) stop. Close to Bansai Bowls & Rocky point lefts its was awesome. If you could corner Bernie Baker, the owner & former director etc etc etc of surfing related stuff you'd be fully stoked. Awesome guy, helped us heaps with advice and an esky hahaha. I had no idea what a legend this guy was until I got home and researched the guy. He knew way too much. But thats the way things are with surfing, people have no idea of the skill involved....true...

So anywayz...Kelly Slater was surfing a break next door to me with his mate Kalani Rob & I will post the vid. I saw Kalani Rob at Pipeline. Took some nice pics of Nathan Florence, Johns bro.....plenty of name dropping opportunitues on the North Shore haha. Loved it wanna do it again ASAP...Wil provide more BS with Pics upload cheers : )

Epic write up and transit info, cheers mick, eagerly awaiting photos and details.
I love food one of the best bits of travel is food ,,, even if I don't enjoy alll the food it sort of makes it better and than all of a sudden you find the killer noodles or the best burger ,, or Nasi goreng with chicken/Singapore noodle bar anyway I digress.

i haven't been to japan would love to do a week snowboarding and also see the fish markets

Jeez apologies for that monstrosity above, I should just stick to beer when I write. Seems vodka is not the go, I barely talked about surfing lol but I did run out of time.

Thanks Razz, yeah one of the best things about living in West Oz is food & drinks are so much cheaper everywhere else in the world. Drinks especially, even Zermatt Switzerland is 1/2 the price for a pint compared to what you pay here.

I think it'll be easier time wise if I just summerise surfing after Makaha, coz uploading pics is gonna take a long time. They all have to be resized from about 5mb to about 1.5mb for seabreeze to accept them.

....After family flew back to Japan we bailed Wikiki to the North Shore. There was heaps of swell when we arrived. I was blown away driving past all the breaks around Chuns & then coming round the corner into Waimea bay with huge waves beaking. It was about mid day & there were probably only 5 guys out. It looked really fun, but I'd say looks were probably deceptive haha...beautiful but I bet you'd still have to be careful.

I parked where we were staying & walked down to Rocky point lefts. There was heaps of water moving around & I surfed really conservatively. The waves had heaps of power & felt heaps bigger than what I later saw in pics/video. I pulled back on too many & only caught about 1/2 as many waves than I should have.

Surfed Haleiwa point the next day. I didn't really look & thought waves round the corner from what I could see might be bigger. Taking my 7 footer when the 6 was the go, but it was still a lot of fun. Meanwhile Kelly Slater & Kalani Rob were surfing Haleiwa beachie I heard from our host Bernie. Surfed Rocky Point again that arvo.

Next day we walked into Waimea waterfall which was nice & I surfed Alligators (mini sunset) after that. There were guys out the back on big guns & I surfed about 1/2 way in on an inside reef. Surfed rocky point again in the arvo.

We went for a walk the next morning down behind Sunset. I got talking to a bloke who was admiring a Tesla electric car saying he'd like one of them. We parted ways after talking for a bit & then met him again when we were walking down in front of backyards Sunset beach. He told us this was his house before diving into the ocean. Lucky bugger, anyone with a house backing onto the North Shore especially looking out at one of the famous breaks is living a good life.

The walk was pretty much a surf check. I thought backyards would be the go but it was a bit junky. We went back, hopped in the car & I discovered Velzyland. Absolute magic spot which turned out to be my favourite place. The outlook from the surf was epic & the waves really fun peaky lefts/rights with the occasional quick easy barrel. I wish I'd discovered it earlier coz it would of been smoking the whole time I was there. I surfed Rocky point again that arvo & it was the last surf I had coz the swell dropped & we had to head off to the airport.

What surprised me about the North Shore was how many waves I got. I was expecting it to be crowded everywhere, but it wasn't & people were really nice. I expected more localism. It may have been different if I surfed somewhere like Pipe, but I preferred to sit on the beach & have a beer at Pipe. It was so crowded, big & sucky there was no way I was going out there.

The water & temp was perfect, Jamie Obrien & Koa Rothman have both made vids lately saying the North Shore gets cold lol I think they'd be wearing 4/3 steamers in summer if they came here

May as well finish up on food haha we loved the Bansai Bowl & shared one of those everyday. The Taco truck at Sharks cove is awesome, we shared 2 surfin Taco's & a Sunset Salad pretty much everyday & for dinner I'd just grab some fried chicken & coleslaw from Foodland. All the supermarkets in Hawaii seem to have this membership thing. You just give them your Ph number & they have some pretty big discounts. My favourite beer was Maui Bikini Blonde which was $10us per 6 pack. Very nice beer, I even grabbed a tshirt from their restauraunt in Wikiki

I'll try to get some pics up tomorrow, cheers

Hawaii Pics
Camera - Panasonic G7 with lenses 12-60mm for the wide shots and 45-175mm for most of the surf pics.

Japan food/drinks

J BBQ (Yakiniku)

Korean BBQ

Ramen

Gouza

Supermarket Price Alc, take off last 2 digits & add 20%. So 1000yen would be about $12au

They're 4L bottles of whisky


View of Wikiki beach from olds Sheralton room, great spot for a beer and watching the smash'm up derby chaos below
Surf got to about head high a couple of days, but super fat and crowded. I gave it a miss, had heaps of family stuff to do.



Wikiki view from Diamond Head

Makapu'u beach about 10knts straight onshore

This bloke rode this wave all the way to the beach pulling a big 360 floater on the sucky shorebreak. Should of taken vid instead of pics

Pipe was a great place to be at Beer O'clock

As soon as someone takes off the crowd disappears behind the wave. Let there be no mistake getting a wave for most is not easy


Amazing waves come through that photos just don't do it justice & there is also plenty of energy felt on the beach. Epic vibes

I believe this is Nathan Florence








Broken boards round the NS is a common event when the swells up. I surfed conservatively this day. I only had 2 boards 6 & 7 footers. Next time I'll go something like 6'2, 6'8 & 7. A board in between my board sizes would have been handy. I'll buy a 6'6 or 6'8 this year.

Also not uncommon around the NS. Chickens, they're everywhere & they're like crows or seagulls getting into the rubbish bins.

Looking to the left

Looking to the right

Out the back!!!!

A good way to start the day

Small one at Sunset

Big one at Sunset (same time)

View from backyards Sunset to Sunset channel

I think this is Alligators

Chicken's everywhere!

A good way to end the day, my favourite beer over there

These were nice too


About $60 worth of vodka from J supermarketo, we get so ripped off here...

Even my missus could appreciate how awesome this 6.5 inch longboard fin is ($69us)

WW2 Pillbox View towards Pipe

Sunset & Velzyland

Early morning popin to Pipe

WTF to WTF (Epic takeoff to Epic barrel exit)

Waiamea looking fun. Should of taken a picture of the bay from the Western hillside, its on the todo list.

Speedbumps everywhere!

Whack!

Thats about it for the pics, just got some video to edit now. Try to do it tomorrow

A bitta rainbow over sunset

Backyards Sunset

Shaka/cheers

Awesome Mick you smashed it thanks for the write up / photos, food looked great.

Did the in laws enjoy their time there?

PS its been torture here swell wise

F@#king awesome mate. If that doesn't make you want to go surfing you may as well give up on life now

Best post ever on Seabreeze

Cheers Boys, yep I havn't had many waves since I got back 3 weeks ago & I'm frothing for a decent wave too.

Glen it was an awesome trip for the whole family mate. The last time we all hung out together was my bro/sis inlaws wedding in 2008. The olds have been tied down with the shop. Hopefully we'll be able to do it again somewhere much sooner next time.

Cheers Tim, dunno though mate. I'm still pretty fond of Mocha's Lombok pics, well one in particular at least

Finished editing the video, mostly some average kook in a blue rashy. Some very good surfers showing how its done at Rockypoint. The chubby fella there I'm pretty sure is Hamburger, Mason Ho's m8. I posted a video of him getting a sick baz at Desert Point last year & there's also video of him ripping around the Bukit I think I might have posted also....Music's a very personal thing, I just grabbed a few creative commons tracks off soundcloud to cover a lot of windnoise. I should have plugged in a mic, I'll know for next time. The panasonic G7 is still very new to us, the FZ200 we've upgraded from seems to have better video denoise than the G7. But that'll be sorted with the Rode mic we already have. You won't miss any commentary if you choose to play your own music over this video.

Its kinda long for the predominately average surfing...kudo's if you make it to the end...cheers

Thanks for the right up and video. Brings back great memories, maybe not the paddling though..

Best advice i ignored was for boards go a bit longer to allow for the paddle and pace..

Nice work!! Thanks for the pics and video.

No prob, I really enjoy doing these blog type posts. Gives me a chance to reflect

Yeah JB definately want a little more length than most people would usually ride. I would have liked to have a board about 6'6 or 6'8, old school width about 18.5, narrow tail, low rail, medium rocker, some meat under the chest. About 6'8 x 18 1/2 x 2 1/2 would be handy.

Great vid Mick know it takes time an effort thanks for sharing the froth we can never get enough (big shout out to Fumi worlds best videoing wife )

Pretty special when family come together and it works out and to score waves as well............ life's good.

Cheers m8...yep wish we could do it more often. The Japanese work ethic & holidays don't gel well. Lucky to have a wife who doesn't mind filming. Just bare in mind though that for every hr = about 3hrs wandering around shops

Awesome post Mick.

I just seen the video man good work,bit of shredding, nice variety of waves too which is appealing,
epic set of photos to come home with too.
I have never done the pilgrimage to Hawaii and it's epic for you to share/ give the food transit tips so big hats off