A few months ago, a large swell hit the North Shore of Hawaii. The surf report was calling for 10-12+ f00t waves at the surf spot I frequent. I had been out in 8-10 foot surf and been alright, so I didn’t think 10-12+ would be too much of a problem. When I arrived at the beach the waves were huge. Some of the sets were closing out in quarter-mile sections. It honestly scared me a bit. I looked hard to see if anyone else was already out. I caught a glimpse of a few people on the outside of the main break, so I decided to paddle out. The paddle out was surprisingly easy.  After waiting in the line-up for a few minutes I found myself in the perfect position to catch an incoming wave. It was big. I paddled hard but didn’t mentally commit. I felt the wave behind me but before it could pick me up, I pulled off and let it pass by. I was immediately angry at myself. Why did I paddle out if I was going to be intimidated? I spent the next 20 minutes beating myself up. After a while another set rolled in. This time I lined up with a wave and paddled as hard as I could. I felt the wave grab me but I didn’t stop paddling. After a couple of extra strokes I jumped to my feet…the wave rolled by. I went to early! I turned to paddle back outside and found myself under a giant wave that had snuck up on me while my mind was focused on the last wave. I got pummeled. I mean really pummeled. When the wave finally let me go I was almost back on shore. I felt completely defeated. I decided I should call it a day and paddle in. With each stroke towards shore a frustration grew inside of me. There was no way I could paddle in without catch something. So, ignoring the voice of reason, I paddled out again. Before I completely made it outside, a rather large set rolled in. A little spooked by the beating I had received from the last set of waves, I didn’t time my duck dive under the wave correctly. The wave broke right ontop of my head. This time though, instead being pushed to shore, the wave pushed me to the bottom. I came to the surface, took a breath, and got slammed by another wave. Once again, rather than being pushed to shore I was pushed to the bottom. I felt myself slipping into a state of panic. I reminded myself to remain relaxed. After repeating this surface/bottom cycle a few more times, a wave finally picked me up, tossed me around a bit, and let me go near shore. This time I swallowed my pride and paddled to the beach. The ocean is amazing.

Ever since I was a child all I wanted to do was to learn to surf.  Growing up in California, this would seem to most people an easy task to have accomplished.  However, I grew up in in a small town located in North Central California.  It was four hours to a surfable beach and an hour to the nearest surf shop (don’t ask me how that place stayed in business).  As a substitution for surfing I picked up skateboarding.  It quickly became an obsession.  It was all I did and all I thought about.  I spent the vast majority of my free from the ages of fourteen to nineteen skating.  I would wake up early, head downtown and skate.  My friends hated my early morning phone calls telling them it was time to get up and go skate.  We would skate all day and well into the night.  People are suspicious of teenages in general and all the more of those riding skateboards around in the middle of the night.  This in turn meant we had to explain ourselves to the police on more than a couple of occasions.  As much as I loved skateboarding I eventually gave it up when I joined the military.  Since then I had never really found anything to be that passionate about until a year and a half ago when, at the request of a friend visting from the mainland, I went surfing first time.  I was immediately hooked.  It was like I was fourteen again.  But God giveth and God taketh away; I was deployed to an oceanless country for 12 months.  In the end it was a great deployment and one that I will never forget.  Even still it was a long 12 months, made worse by the fact I dreamt about surfing most nights.  But I’m finally back.  I think all in all that time away was good in that it fueled my passion for surfing all the more.  Now my biggest challenge in life is finding a way to never again be more than a short drive from the beach.

I once again find myself missing SPAM musubi.  Okonomiyaki, kimchi jigae, a California burrito, lemon grass chicken, nachos (of any type: plain, supreme, grande, with or without carne asada and/or pollo, etc.), kalua pork, spicy maguro, meat jhun, or even a double western bacon cheeseburger would be pretty good right now as well.  It’s a terrible thing to admit but I think I miss food more than I miss people haha.

Yes, it has been a while since I last wrote a blog. Here’s what I’ve been up to: California, Korea, Maui. In Cali I visited with a bunch of friends who I haven’t seen since high school. It was a great time and collectively we only sustained one broken ankle and one concussion…so all and all a rather tame visit. In Korea I went to the only baseball game I’ve been able to see all season. I have to say I was impressed by the Korean fans’ enthusiasim. Maui was nice, but a little overrated in my humble opinion. Now I’m back but only until Sunday. Then I disappear once again, only this time for a little over a year. Hopefully I’ll come back with some good stories to write about. Until then take care.

Nate

Since I began working nights I’ve become hopelessly addicted to the “Meat and Eggs” breakfast at Zippy’s. Think I’ll head there now.

I just finished a 607 page book entitled The Wind-up Bird Chronicles about 10 minutes ago, and I came to the conclusion that I didn’t understand it. I don’t have much spare time so it took me forever to finish it, and then to realize I didn’t get it is more than depressing. It’s times like these I wish I was less moved by car explosions and cliche dialogue, and more moved by nuances and subtleties. Oh well, guess I’ll just go back to reading ingredients labels.

It’s been a while since I last posted something.

Recently a few friends and I started a clothing company and it’s been a lot of work trying to get things off the ground.

Here’s our first shirt:

front

back

We should have our second shirt out by mid May as well as our first pair of shorts.

On the way home from work the other night I saw some guy on a motorcycle wreck. He took a turn a little too fast and lost control of his bike. Luckily he wasn’t hurt in the crash and his motorcycle seemed okay as well. I think more than anything he was embarrassed by the incident. Surprisingly enough though once he got his bike started again he took off at excessive speeds as if nothing had happened.

Last weekend I volunteered to teach for a few hours at Hawaii Literacy’s ESL Drop-in Center. It felt really strange to be the one teaching a language rather than being the one learning a language. I really enjoyed the experience but I have to say teaching English was exceedingly harder than I expected. I definately have a new found respect for anyone with the patience to effectively teach not just language but anything.

A few years back I read a book called Gates of Fire by Stephen Pressfield about the battle of Thermopolye and thought to myself "Wow how have they not made a movie based on this book yet?"  Then several months ago I went to the theatre and saw previews for the movie 300 for the first time and I was totally amp’ed.  After a little research I found out Frank Miller (writer/director/etc. for 300 and Sin City as well as creator of numerous  comic books)  didn’t base the movie on  Stephen Pressfield’s book  but instead based it on a comic book he wrote which he based on a movie he saw as a kid called 300 Spartans.  Needless to say I was a little disappointed by this fact but I went to see the movie anyway.  Though it was far from similar to Stephen Pressfield’s book it was still a really good flick.