26th Annual Xcel Pro presented by Honolua

Tomorrow we could see the kick off to Day 1 of the 26th Annual Xcel Pro presented by Honolua. The surf is predicted to be in the 8-10 foot range and building into Sunday! There are 8 heats in the first round (Round of 80) and then 16 heats in the second round (Round of 64). If the event does run tomorrow they will complete the Round of 80 and first 13 heats of the Round of 64, with the event wrapping up on the next day of competition.
Some of the biggest names in surfing will be turning up for this event so you surely don't want to miss out on the live action! The likes of Sunny Garcia, Andy Irons and defending Champion Pancho Sullivan have all entered. Other legends who will be competing are Derek Ho, Larry Rios and Kaipo Jaquias!!! Whew, its gonna be on! Check the heat draw.
http://xcelpro.xcelwetsuits.com/2009/

Billabong Cloud 9 Invitational (Final Day)

Congratulations to Australia's Garrett Parkes for taking down the 2009 Billabong Cloud 9 Invitational! Parkes had to battles against Hawaii's Makua Rothman for the victory and did just enough for the W! Click the banner to watch the highlights!

Billabong Cloud 9 Invitational (Day 2)

Man, the waves are still firing for Day 2 of competition. I'm having trouble sleeping thinking about how shacked these guys are getting. How shacked they'll be getting tomorrow. Heavy... check out this Day 2 action! Perfect 10's are going down!!!

Billabong Cloud 9 Invitational

Bra, the waves are firing in the Philippines right now. I just checked the videos, photos and the updates from the Annual Billabong Cloud 9 Invitational and its mind boggling. I've been traveling to Cloud 9 for t his event for the past 3 years and this years is amazing! Almost an understatement to be honest. Check it for yourself...

3 Deep by Contrast Magazine

Just another friendly reminder about 3 Deep going on tonight by Contrast Magazine! All of your friends will be there, your friends friends. People you haven't seen in a long time. Plus its the launch of Contrast's Issue 02 Downtown! It's also The Jump Offs CD release party...so don't miss it! Chee!

Novus Swell

I want everyone to check out my buddy Kaz Sano's website

Novusswell.com To keep up on the latest happenings of

Hawaii's future surfing stars. Kaz is so in tune with the

groms and is able to connect with them and the webisodes

are priceless! Click the banner to connect!

Novusswell.com has got some great coverage of my favorite

contest of 2009...the Red Bull Rivals. Town vs. Country was

such a unique event. A huge turnout and a great benefit!

The boards that Town won will be auctioned off at a later

date and also donated as prizes for the Haleiwa Menehune

Surfing Championships, Haleiwa International Open, The

Rell Sunn Menehune Surfing Championships and Na Kama

Kai. I want to give a personal shout out and Mahalo to

Red Bull Rob for making the event possible!!!

Thanks to LanciferVisual for the clip!

Click the banner to watch the highlights...

Cheehee!!!

The Malibu presents The Hyuga Pro is over! I watched the event religiously for a good 3 days straight, or at least it felt that way. None the less I was happy to keep up to date on what's happening in Japan and the last WQS event of the 2009 season.

A huge CONGRATS to Kekoa "Kimbo" Uemura who won the LQS! Kekoa is having an incredible year, actually every year has been career for this guy. 4 wins and a 2nd place is amazing! 2 of those 4 wins have been LQS events and the other 2 have been JPSA events. Nonetheless Kekoa finished his 2009 Japan season very well, and look for him to be doing the same on the short board side of things on the 2010 JPSA tour! Aurite!

Dustin killed it in the Hyuga Pro! Dustin flew over to Japan for the 4* WQS event in Chiba to get ready for the upcoming leg of 6* Prime events in Canada and Santa Cruz. D.C. got a chance to sink his teeth into a few in Chiba but was quite satisfied and wanted the taste of more blood, and decided to fly back to Hyuga. Dustin wanted to be sure that was ready for the leg and a 2nd place is as close as he wanted to finish up. Check out his stats from the event below.

Dustin started from the round of 64, then 40, 32, Quarters, Semis the Finals. Dustin heat scores from every round were in the Top 10 of the whole event. Incredible!!!

This shot is classic! Congrats Izuki Tanaka and Dustin Cuizon

This is Team Hawaii in Japan! Congrats to Da Braddah's Minsyuku for taking out the Team Challenge! 3 years in the making and they did it! Chee hee! Check out their huge bottles of Sake that they won! Banzai!!!

Big Aloha to Nickhead for doing a great job commentating the entire event. Nick was joined by the likes of Joezy and Asaka san! Great job to ASP Japan for running another great event! A bigger Mahalo to Yamamoto san for taking such great photos!!!

2009 Malibu presents Hyuga Pro

Today is the final day of the Malibu Hyuga Pro in Japan.

It's Monday there, and Sunday here in Hawaii. Click the

link above to take you right to the live webcast.

My boy Nick Mita is double dipping doing both MCing &

Competing. He's making double pay and still sleeping in

his van to save money...now that's one "chang" buggah.

Nah, j/k no arm bar me....hahaha. Anyway Nick is in Qtr.

2 and coming off a big win over his rival Shiba Jun, haha.

Nick is also sharing the same sleeping space with Kekoa

"Kimbo". This van must have good mana because Kekoa

got 2 perfect 10's in the contest. (Who's judging the JPSA

judges or what...nah joke) No sabo-blog me ah....hahaha.

The third amigo who got conned into sleeping inside of

the car by the other two mentioned buggaz is Dustin boy!

Dustin has been the stand out of the WQS side with 3 heat

wins. Point totals of 17.25, 18.o and 17.45. He's now in the

Quarter Final #1. It's great to see Dustin competing in

Japan and raising the level there!

Keep an eye out for all the Ronin Eyewear team riders

still competing in this event. Good luck boys!

WQS

Quater Final, Heat 1

Yellow-Dustin Cuizon

White-Masahiro Suzuki

Quarter Final, Heat 3

Yellow-Naohisa Ogawa

Pro Jr

Quarter Final, Heat 4

Yellow-Gai Sato

Semi Final, Heat 2

White-Hiroto Arai

Cadet

Semi Final, Heat 1

Red-Hiroto Arai

White-Takumi Yasui

Semi Final, Heat 2

Red-Gai Sato

White-Yugo Kawabata

3 DEEP

To celebrate the release of our third issue, themed “Downtown”, we are presenting an evening of live music, dancejams and art called “3DEEP”. It’s the third Saturday of October (the 17th) and takes place Downtown with three venues: Manifest Cafe, Nextdoor and The Loft. They’re all on Hotel Street, three blocks from Honolulu Harbor (sorry, but I’m going to play out this three shit haaard). I went to elementary with a kid that had a mini third thumb. Never trusted him because of it.
It’s also The Jump Offs debut album release party! $10 cover gets you access to all venues.

Nextdoor (Hotel Street, between Smith and Nu’uanu Makai-side)
Live sets by The Jump Offs and Girlfriends
DJ sets by Kause and Marika
Buy the Jump Offs debut album there!

Loft (corner of Hotel Street and Maunakea street - almost)
Live sets by The Deadbeats and The Throwdowns (Maui)
DJ sets by Loft Resident DJ’s including Ross Jackson

Manifest Cafe (Hotel Street, between Smith and Nu’uanu Mauka-side)
Live Acoustic Set by Kimie Miner
DJ sets by The Super Handsome Sound DJ’s
Art from Dalek, Kristen Lim and photos from the Downtown issue photographers

There will also be a limited amount of new Contrast issues available at the venues. Not too many, we want you to party not read a magazine. Mahalo to Sweet Carolina Sweet Tea Vodka, In4mation, Aloha Army, Prototype, Fitted, and Stussy

Congrats Kekoa!!

A big congrats to Kekoa "Kimbo" Uemura for taking down the All Japan Pro at Taito Beach in Chiba, Japan this past weekend! Kekoa was in the running for the Grand Champion Title with Taiki Mori. It all came down to the math of how who did what, but in the end Kekoa's goal was to win the event and to not worry about anyone else and he did just that!

After a month of traveling and surfing together, Kekoa was more than ready for this event. To be completely honest, I think its all of the shortboard that Kekoa has been doing that is actually making him more dangerous on the longboard side of things. I remember when I was longboarding last year, it made shortboarding more enjoyable. You draw different lines and it forces you to read the wave differently depending on what board you are riding.

Great way to end off the 2009 JPSA season for Kekoa. I know he'd be psyching to accomplish his other goal in the short board and qualify for his professional license in 2010. On behalf of myself and the Ronin Family...Thank You Kekoa for your hard work and dedication to our brand!