Mr. Hiromichi Soeda

Tomohiro's dad, Hiromichi Soeda, owns Soeda Surfboards Japan (SSJ) the company that distributes our surfboards in Japan. He is a legendary Japanese surfer who has been charging big waves in Hawaii and Japan for decades.'

Nathan and I got to meet Mr. Soeda while we were in Japan in October. We hung out at the beach with him during our surfboard demo in Shonan. Tomo told us that he had never seen his dad ride a longboard, and he probably hadn't done so since he was a kid. So, of course getting him to paddle out on a log became an instant goal for the trip.

During the demo, without the slightest prompting from any of us, Mr. Soeda zipped up his wetsuit, snatched Nathan's 9'9 off of the sand and headed toward the water. Needless to say, I was thrilled. I snapped a photo of him carrying Nate's board, then climbed up onto the sea wall to get a photo of him in trim on a log. The whole peanut gallery on the beach was loving it, I'm just glad I was able to snap a photo. Not sure if it was enough to convert him to a part-time logger.