Riiko is off to Japan today for a couple of weeks, then back to Hawaii for more study.

I took a break from the blog but I'm back to work now and will start posting regularly again.

A couple of largemouth bass I caught in the San Diego river today. Seems like nothing is in there but some fish are there. This is my camera phone so... Back to surf stuff tomorrow.

Christmas gift's from Skip and Donna. T shirt, bag and a Christmas card hand made by Donna. I really like when people take the time to make something themselves. It means much more to me. Merry Christmas!!

Shape off honoring Dick Brewer at Sacred Craft. Dick Checking the results.

2x World Long boarding champion Jen Smith stopped by for a visit.

My old boss Chris Christenson stopped by to see what's happening. It was good to see Chris. I don't get to see him as much now a days since he is in San Marcos now.

Chris checking the results of the shape off. He was one of the judges chosen to to decide the winner. Chris shaped under Brewer for a while so he knows the boards well.

Toru's always in a good mood.

Maricio Avila. Maricio has been a friend of mine for a long time. We used to work together at Joe's for a while. He now owns and operates Avila surfboards out of Oceanside, CA.

Bob Mitsven is such a nice guy. He always makes me feel comfortable in these crowded situations. Bob and Rick are some of the most humble guys in the business.

South Coast shaper Robin Prodonovich. David is the air brusher for South Coast as well as Mitsven surfboards. I think South Coast had the best airbrush boards of the show.

Naomi and Yukie came to San Diego together to pick up Naomi's new board. We had a dinner party on thursday night and on Friday me and Naomi went to surf San Onofre with Skip, Masa and friends. It was fun to have them here for a visit but now they are back home and back to work. Hope to see them again. Check Naomi's blog and Yuichi's for more.

Skip with his personal 10' Fish Simmons. He is always testing new things so he's always getting new boards. Every board has a story to go with it just ask him.

lamination, fin, sand gloss and polish -->Michael

sanding

Larry Mabile and Skip deigned this blank for Surf Blanks America. Skip gave me a 6'8MF(Mabile/Frye) to try out. I shaped this 6'6" egg out of it and gave it to Mina to practice glassing. I liked the way the blank shaped. It was a little thick for hand shaping, but a very versatile blank. More foam lets you have more choices for the final outcome.

shape, fin work, sand , gloss and polish by Michael, lamination by Mina and Michael.

I shaped this 6'4" quad fish over the weekend.

I lost my memory card for my camera from the first part of my trip. So I don't have any pictures of the Fish Fry. These photos are from the MAR surfboards photo album. This is his surfboard blog. If you read this Ishii-san maybe you can put a link for the album. Thank you Ishii-san. Also thanks for trying to find my memory card. It was a fun time and I have no photos but I still have the memories.

Naomi

Maira

Yakiniku the last night

After the Fish Fry my friend Kohei needed to leave for China for a job. So I was looking for another place to stay for the rest of the trip. I was thinking to go to Kansai area but it didn't work out. Some friends tried to help me with a place to stay if I needed it around Zushi area.

So i went back to Zushi with Kohei. By chance I checked my email at Kohei's house.(normally I don't check email on vacation) I received an email from Naomi saying if I need someone to show me around or a place to stay let me know. She lives in the Shonan area in Yuigahama. It's so close to Kohei's house. I told her my situation and she said I could stay with her, no problem.

Naomi helped me with the rest of my trip. She took good care of me and made it easy for me. She took me to surf Yoshizaki which was more fun than Shizunami wave and less crowded. I got to ride bikes to get around a little this time. That was fun because usually I'm taking the train or bus or taxi. I got lost on the train by myself a couple of times this trip though. That was a little tough but everyone was really nice to me and helped me a lot. So many stories, I can't say it all here. Thanks for helping me get through --> Kohei, Kohei's parents, Naomi, Juri and her husband, Masayo, Koga-san, Murikami and his wife, Koichi, Daisuke, and Maira. It was fun.

I just returned from Japan. It was a lot of fun this time. I stayed in Zushi for the first few days at my friend Kohei's house with his parents. It was fun because they don't speak much english and it was fun to practice Japanese with them. We went to the fish fry in Shizunami together and I got to meet a lot of new people. I was surprised how many people already knew me either from my blog or Yuichi's. The waves in Shizunani were fun but really crowded because of the event. Everyone seemed to be having a good time though. I met the shaper/glasser from MAR surfboards at the Fish Fry. He had some good glassing, good lap cuts. I really like that he does all of his own work too. So many people just want to be a famous shaper. This is nice to see. I met some other shapers too that do the same but I'm sorry I did not have your card to write your name here. Gomen nasai. I saw some california people there too. Rich Pavel, Mike Hynson, Sean Mattison and Ian Zamora. I had good conversations with Sean Mattison and Rich Pavel. Rich and I had the same flight home and had lunch together in San Francisco. Thanks to Cho and Jack's for putting up my boards at their tent.

Thanks to Tsutomu for taking one of my boards that dinged on the airline and thanks to everyone for being so nice.

I got into a little trouble of where I was going to stay after the Fish Fry, but everyone tried to help me so...

I'll continue the rest of the story after the Fish Fry next post.

(I lost my memory card for my camera so I don't have any picture's of the Fish Fry to put here. most of the pictures from my trip are on that memory card. Sucks! The picture in this post is at Shibuya on the last day of my trip.)

Resin pin lines. Like everything else, they're easy once you learn how to do them. 

Yusuke and Maki stopped by the factory today for a visit. They are so excited about boards and surfing. Very nice and fun guys. Their vacation is almost over and they will have to go back to work soon, but they said they had a good time here and good waves. See you next time.

I spent the weekend shaping. Thanks for everyones orders!

Clean cuts are just as important as the lamination. Anyone can laminate a board, but not everyone has a good cut. It's what you are paying for... Craftsmanship is most important to me.

Get what you are paying for.   {+}