Traditional Tofu in Okinawa and Kalihi

Growing up in Okinawa, tofu was a major part of my diet—and it also exposed me to some interesting experiences! I remember visiting some relatives on a small island called Henza that is connected to Okinawa by a land bridge. I stayed there for a few months, and remember that you had to park your car in a neighborhood parking lot, and then walk into the village because the roads were really small the houses were really close. It sort of felt like a National Geographic scene, and it was an interesting place to stay with my relatives!

Every morning, the local grandmother would have me run down to the Mom and PoP market to pick up a few cubes of tofu at the tofu place. They would have a bunch of tofu floating in cold water, and I would take a bucket and fill it up with two tofus, and run home so we could have tofu for breakfast. Thinking back that it really stuck out in my memory growing up in Okinawa.

The other day I was chatting to someone about that memory, and it made me think about a small tofu place here on Oahu. The store is called Mrs. Cheng’s, it’s located at the end of Kalihi Street. If you leave our store and head towards Ewa, right after you pass Home Depot you will come to Kalihi Street.

After turning left, you will see it on the left side across the street from Ethel’s Grill. Mrs. Cheng’s makes all sorts of tofu. I hadn’t been there in five or six years, so I decided to pay the store a visit, and ended up buying some soft tofu. They call it tofu pudding, and it comes in sort of an ice cream quart jar. I tried the soymilk too, but I’ve never really been into soymilk. I prefer tofu more. When you get the tofu, you also get some honey ginger to go with it, but we typically just eat it with shoyu and grated ginger on top. You also get okara, which is a byproduct of the tofu production process. For $1 you get a bag full of okara, which we use for all sorts of things, like making okara hamburgers and okara cookies. The tofu will typically last around five days, and it’s best if you change out the water each day, and keep it refrigerated. The Okara my wive used it within a week. Not sure how long that will keep.

What I find interesting is that most of us are used to getting our tofu in packages from big grocery stores, but we don’t really have any idea how it is made or where it comes from. But reminiscing about my time in Okinawa helped me to once again appreciate the art of making tofu, and the ritual of heading down to the tofu store to get some homemade tofu for the kitchen. If you’ve never had this experience, I encourage you to head to Mrs. Cheng’s and see what they have to offer!

Yoga Poses That Will
Help you Surf Better

During challenging times, sometimes the best thing to do is to look for the silver lining. The months of March and April were hard for a lot of people, due to illness, lost jobs, financial difficulties, and the global pandemic/economic shutdown as a whole. To make matters worse, in many places around the world, surfers were restricted from paddling out and enjoying the natural healing that the ocean provides to our bodies, minds, and souls. But during times like this, when our daily routines are upset and we are unable to do the things we love to do the most, we have an opportunity to branch out and broaden our lives by learning and embracing new, healthy practices. Over the past couple of months,more surfers than ever turned to yoga as a physical practice that they could do while sheltering at home—and that kept them fit and flexible for when the surf was once again accessible.

Why Yoga Is Important for Surfers?

Yoga is not just a physical activity itself, but also an important complement to the other types of exercise that we do. Overstretching muscles and requiring them to perform a range of motion where they cannot recruit power can cause injuries, so it is important to prepare for activity by performing postures that both make muscles stronger and improve range of motion.

Other factors that can cause injury include repetitive motion and overuse and these are both problems that are very common in surfers. To mitigate these issues, it is important to perform poses that counteract this overuse—stretching what has been flexed and strengthening muscles that are neglected during your repetitive motion. Yoga is a great way to do all of this, keeping you stronger, more flexible, and healthier in both the short and long run.

Different Poses for Different Muscles
Before a surf session, it is a good idea to stretch your body and warm it up for the movements you will soon be doing. You want to prepare your body for actions such as paddling and riding waves. And the same holds true after a session when your body is recovering. The muscles you use while surfing will likely be
pretty tight, so you will want to stretch them out to help them recover.

Paddling Muscles
Paddling uses muscles such as biceps, triceps, deltoids, latissimus dorsi, obliques, and rectus abdominus. Make sure you integrate stretches for the chest, side body, and anterior shoulders. Yoga poses that help with this include:

Uttanasana (forward fold), with arm variation of fingers interlaced behind back: From a standing position, hinge at the hips into a forward fold. If your low back is extra tight, it may help to maintain a bend in the knees. Then interlace your fingers behind your back and reach your fists away from your back and
overhead.

Prone chest opener: Lay prone on your stomach with your legs extended long. Reach your left arm out to the side, and rest it on the ground roughly at a 10 o’clock position. Place your right hand next to your right shoulder, with the palm on the ground. Pressing the palm into the ground will help with the next step.
Bend your right knee and slowly roll toward your left hip, until your right foot touches the ground behind you. Only go as far as you can comfortably feel a stretch across the front of your left shoulder. Once you hit that point, stop and rest your left ear on the ground, or alternatively a pillow/towel/block. Gently press your left palm into the ground. This action helps to cultivate strength while your muscles are in a greater range of motion. Allow five breaths. Be gentle when you ease-out, and repeat on the second side.

Lower Back Muscles
When we lie on our boards, we often arch our backs and raise our chests, which helps us paddle faster and maintain balance while paddling. Unfortunately, this also stresses the back and shoulder muscles, such as the paraspinal muscles and trapezius. Use these two poses to stretch the posterior shoulders and back:
When we lie on our boards, we often arch our backs and raise our chests, which helps us paddle faster and maintain balance while paddling. Unfortunately, this also stresses the back and shoulder muscles, such as the paraspinal muscles and trapezius. Use these two poses to stretch the posterior shoulders and back:

Garudasana (eagle) arms: Cross your right arm/elbow under your left, and pull the backs of your hands toward one another. If you have the range of motion, you can even hook your palms together. Lift your fingers up toward the sky and press your elbows forward to create a stretch in between your shoulder blades. Allow five breaths, and repeat on the second side.

Thread the needle: Start in a tabletop position, on your hands and knees. Thread your left arm behind the right wrist until your left ear and shoulder come to rest on the ground. Your left palm will be facing up toward the sky. This position yields a generous twist for the spine, especially if you press your right palm into the ground and encourage the twist. Simultaneously, press the back of your left arm down into the ground. This action helps to cultivate strength while your muscles are in a greater range of motion. Allow five breaths. Be gentle when you come out and back up to both hands, and repeat on the second side.

Core and Lower Body
Riding waves and pumping down the line requires a lot of effort from your core and lower body. The act of surfing often requires you to twist your upper body and put a lot of weight on the back leg, which can tighten up the glutes, abs, quads, and hip flexors. Stretch these muscles out by using this yoga pose:

Lizard pose: From a standing position, fold forward and lunge your right foot back. Lower the back (right) knee down to the ground. Bring both hands to the inside of your front (left) foot. Stay up on your hands, or even fingertips. Allow a subtle tuck of the tailbone, and create the action of dragging the back knee toward the front foot. Although no part of your body will actually move from its position, the action will engage the quadriceps and hip flexors while they are in an elongated position. Allow five breaths. Repeat on the second side. 

WSL World Tour Starts at Pipeline on January 29

Photo By @adventures_ofjess

After an abbreviated 2021 season and a three-month hiatus, the world’s best surfers are dusting off their jerseys this month and getting ready to battle it out for the 2022 world title.

While the world tour historically ended in Hawaii, the WSL adopted a new schedule last year that sees the tour start here on Oahu instead.

The first event of the season kicks off at Pipeline with a waiting period from January 29 through February 10, and the world’s best are already in town warming up. After an epic showing at Da Hui Backdoor Shootout last week, both world tour competitors and local wildcards alike are fired up to compete at the heaviest wave on the planet, and with the epic run of surf and pristine conditions we have had all month, there’s a good chance the waves will be firing for the event.

After Pipe, the second event of the season will be contested at Sunset Beach, which means that the rankings will be well-established by the time the tour leaves Hawaii. Based on his performances over the past few months (winning both the Haleiwa Pro and the HIC Pipe Pro), local phenom and two-time world champ John John Florence is the obvious favorite going into the first leg of the tour, and could be out to an early lead by the time the WSL leaves Hawaii and heads to Portugal.

After event number three at Supertubos in Peniche, there will be two events in Australia (Bells Beach and Margaret River), then the tour will return to G-Land in Indonesia for the first time in decades. Then a new event has been announced in El Salvador, which will see competitors contesting heats in waves that many of them have never surfed before.

The final leg includes events in Brazil, J-Bay (South Africa) and Teahupoo (Tahiti), followed by the WSL Finals at Trestles in San Clemente, California.

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