Recently our good friends Masa and Miko came from Japan to visit for a nice three week long holiday. The two of them were my main contacts and more than gracious hosts in Tokyo when I went to get my solo shred on in Japan back in March, so I was super psyched when they decided to return here to their second home recently for a killer extended vacation. They got here near the end of May and brought a huge posse of
tomodachi with them. The crew was like 15 deep and consisted of Masa and Miko's friends that make up the hardcore punk band No All and also the ska outfit Oi-Skall Mates.
The two bands played a couple of incredible shows at Anna Banana's with local bands like The 86 List and Go Jimmy Go, and several of the members of both bands are skaters. We enjoyed a few sessions with these guys at spots from A'ala Park to Cholo's. Masa and Miko's friends left Hawaii after about a week, but Masa and Miko stayed for another two weeks.
During the duration of their stay in Hawaii Masa got to not only re-acquaint himself with a bunch of old standbys, but also a few new places that he never had the chance to during any of his previous and numerous visits. For instance, my man was beyond stoked to get the chance to roll out to Chuck's warehouse in Kailua three Tuesdays in a row, the first of which was only hours after his initial arrival to Honolulu. Yeah, in between the new and the old, it would be an understatement to say that Masa skated a shitload the whole time he was here.
Among his favorites were the many times he headed over to the Kamiloiki park in Hawaii Kai, and of course Masa made the drive out to Kapolei a few times to shred the bowls with Noodles and the Sunday crew, that goes without saying, but despite the fact that Masa had been here a bunch of times previously and skated a ton of spots on the island, there were still a few places that he had not gotten the chance to lay his wheels down upon.
I narrowed it down to the skateparks that he hadn't visited yet. They were Keolu in Kailua, the Kaneohe park, and the Mililani skatepark. I immediately ruled out the Kaneohe park because that place fucking sucks. Sorry, it's just not a good overall park. If you skate there and have fun there, good for you. I'm super stoked for you. Enjoy. Also, I didn't want him to experience the disappointment that is the Keolu park in Kailua. Such incredible potential, definitely must have looked good on paper but in person a crying fucking shame. No offense, Chuck! I love you brah, I just am not feeling either one of those places at all and didn't want to subject my homie to them.
So that left Mililani. Not that I like that waste of space either, but it was most definitely the lesser of the three evils. Believe me, I am not a fan of that place or it's layout and design, both of which happened to come from the mind of one of my best friends, Chad. Even Chad would tell you that the Mililani park is a piece of shit compared to what it could have been. Anyway, I thought that we could roll out there to give Masa a taste of it, and then hit up the Manana park in Pearl City on the way back.
On Wednesday, June 11th me and my little bodysurfing partner Brian Wyland had a super fun shred session at Point Panic in the morning, and then in the early afternoon we met up with Masa and Miko along with Mako Ozaki for the little road trip out to Mills.
Makiki is Mako's hood. We posted up on the street and waited to meet Makoto-san.
Look! There he is! Makohhhhhhh-tohhhhhhh!
Here he comes!
Sup, brah!
B-Dubbs had to screen his visage from le' soleil.
Mission accomplished, Barney!
Visitors finally rolled up.
Speaking of rolling, Masa definitely knows what's up!
Ready to split? Like your boy Marvo would say, "Let's go..."
Leave town.
Head north.
This is it.
Alternate view.
Brian was totally in the juice pouch section for this frontside tailslide.
I swam over a couple of kids to get in position for this backside ollie.
Even though the bowl section was mushy and doubled up, Masa was happy to jump in.
Dude has the mean frontal snaps on lock.
They were feeling it!
Makoto pulled out the big guns for some snipeage.
This dude rolled up on the parking lot scene like the Count of Monte' Cristo.
Sick manny.
Tight nose wheelie.
Homie struck a pose and then dipped out. So did we.
Can I get some nachos? Yeah nachos!
Portagee pride on the way to Pearl City.
Sup, bully?
Got to P.C. and this dude was already there on some video paparazzi shit.
Noodles has been steady shredding Pearl City since before 95 percent of the Manana locs were even born.
It's hot as balls out there.
Stay hydrated.
Brian was kind of bummed when he paddled over to the hip and realized that there were like 20 guys out already.
So he sat on the outside until the set wave rolled through. Dudes tried to drop in but B-Dubbs gave 'em all one big
"HO!" and they backed right off.
Masa thinks the spine section at Manana is
cho tanoshii.
Little man dropped right in.
Noods presented Masa with this fine
omiyage, courtesy of the neighborhood's only real skate shop.
So let's go there, it's right down the road. Fuck that mall bullshit, this Hawaiian keeps it really real.
Even the locs in the parking lot outside knows what's up.
Shootin' the shit.
Meet the dogs.
Keia boy.
China girl.
Headed back to home base for the night session.
Can't touch this!
Thanks for the heads-up, bro.
Heavy sticker action since way back.
Brian shows Mako just how he tucks into those Point Panic peelers.
Sunset. "
Check out the clouds, fool! Check out the clouds!"
"I might crack a smile but ain't a damn thing funny..."
This dude got rolled up on by the fuzz. Busted! I guess this is what they do when they're not giving skaters tickets for being in the park after 9PM. By the way, FUCK YOU, HPD. What's the matter? A'ala Park doesn't have enough ice dealers, crackheads, transvestite prostitutes, thieves, gamblers, overnight campers, or just plain all-around scumbags for you guys to fill your days and nights with that you have to harass hard-working taxpayers that use the park for what it is actually intended for and give them fucking tickets for being around (not even INSIDE the park) 10 fucking minutes after 9 o'clock at night? Fuck each and every single one of you worthless fucking shitheads, you don't deserve to carry the badge. Integrity, respect, and fairness my ass. Again, go fuck yourselves.
Makoto-san wa owarimashita. That means he's finished.
After a long day like this one, the feeling is mutual. DONE. We're out.
