Ronin Eyewear Team ripping Haleiwa

Check out the boys who are representing Ronin Eyewear in Hawaii. Haleiwa was pumping the other day and these guys was killing it! The waves were in the 4-6 foot range with 8 foot sets coming in. To find out more about Ronineyewear.com click in to see the shades and to keep up with the latest in Japan.


I'd like to introduce to you Kapono Nahina. Kapono is one of the coolest Hawaiians that I know. He's got great fluid style and he can turn his Longboard like a Shortboard!

On any given day you can see Pono pushing the progression level of Longboarding with big vertical snaps, gouging slashes, 360's and airs! Yes that's right AIRS! He can boost, for real!!!


If you have been following my blog then you know this guy. If not, he's Kekoa Uemura. He's been mixing it up on the JPSA Tour doing both Longboard and Shortboard disciplines. Another interseting fact is that Kekoa also shapes his own boards. How classic is the design on Koa's board!!! hahaha
Check out kekoauemurasurfboard.blogspot.com

This day Kekoa decided to throw some huge open face carves instead of hanging 10. Check the style! Showing that he can truely do it on both.


World Tour Rookie Kekoa Bacalso just got home from a long run of events. BAM was super stoked to be surfing Haleiwa with the boys. BAM is currently ranked #18 in the World and has one more event coming up The Billabong Pipeline Masters, December 8-20.

Here is a look at BAM's magic weapon. Vesso International 6'0 and the rest of the specs are a secret. Put it this way its gotta handle the power of Kekoa's mad hacks.

Speaking of hacks, here is what I was talking about! Just a little sample of what's coming up next week for the Reef Hawaiian Pro, November 12-23 at Haleiwa for the first event of the Triple Crown of Surfing.

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

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!

Kekoa & Nick

Here is a classic shot of my 2 travel buddies, Kekoa Uemura and Nick Mita. The 3 of us have been slugging it out here in Japan almost a decade! Japan has been so good to us and in return all we want to do is spread the Aloha Spirit! Everywhere we go people are so kind! Just take a look at these guys that they will make you smile! We have great friends, tell them you enjoy their company, their support and their friendship! We all need great friends! Koa and Nick you guys are the shit!