Interviews
How he began surfing
My dad was a fire...worked for the fire department, and mom was housewife, and used to take me to the beach all the time. And we still have 8mm movies of me running around on the beach when I was one and a half years old with diapers--and no hotels or anything. So, I got acclimated to the water, just because my dad used to take me out every day off. Fire department, you have three days off, and family’d go camping, you know, Waimanalo, and just swim around and stuff. And then you start with the little, these wooden paipo boards that’s just a piece of wood, no fin or anything, and start with that. Then start, watch these guys ride around in these old coot boxes, the hollow, big twelve, fifteen feet things with no fins, and, but it was kind of different. So I got to play around on one once. And it just started from there.
Date: July 29, 1999
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Brian Niiya
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.