Amami Superman Photography

There are different types of skateboarding competitions and this one was basically just street. All the photos I've shown here are photos of different people warming up and just screwing around.

The guy in the above photo is one of my good friends. Most of the people you see in these photos are good friends of mine, but I think I've photographed this guy, Kotaro, more than anyone else. The board he is on was recently purchased the night before I believe. As you can see, this competition was held down at the ports. They have these large curbs that line the edge of the port painted yellow and black. There is just barely enough room for a skateboard to fit through the gaps between these curbs if it went through just perfectly. Unfortunately, Kotaro's board when zipping out from under him before the competition started and took a dive. It was some pretty rotten luck for him.

I couldn't resisted the urge to help the guy out. I looked down into the water and wondered how deep it could be. Since it is the port, I figured it had to be at least 10 meters deep for the big boats to dock there. I decided to run home and grab my snorkeling gear and a lure rod. When I got back, I tied on some sinkers and dropped the fishing line into the water to get an idea of how deep it was. It was low tide and after pulling the line back up, I judged it was 7 or 8 meters deep. I decided it was worth a try and I strapped on my flippers and mask and jumped over the edge. As soon as I jumped over, everyone came to cheer me on. After taking a few deep breaths, I headed down. I got within about 2 meters of the bottom and looked around but couldn't see the board anywhere. There water here in Amami is very clear and just floating on the top, I could see the bottom pretty clearly. I figured it wouldn't be that hard to spot, but after diving down several times and having no luck spotting it, I decided to call it and told Kotaro I was sorry, but I couldn't find it. I gave my camera to my wife to hold and she took a shot of me at one of my attempts to dive down and try to spot the board. Here is the photo she took.

After giving up the search, I then had to swim all the way down and around the port to a boat launch where I could get out. Now before I jumped in, I looked for a place to get out and I felt the boat launch wasn't that far away, but even with flippers, it was much further to swim than I had anticipated. Before jumping in, my daughter Jade was afraid for me. Standing on the pier, you really couldn't see the bottom that clearly and that just kind of freaked her out. My wife was telling me she was about ready to bust out in tears when I jumped off the edge. I got a laugh out of that.

So after my long swim down the port to get out, I was soaking wet and didn't want to handle my camera and these are the only photos I was able to take. It was a fun little experience. I just wish I could have found the board and saved the day. That would have been really cool.

Here is an older post from last year when Jade came to skate with the others here at this port.